Build An Eco-Friendly House!
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This great article is about a genuine family home in Wales. It was built by it’s residents, with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting they moved in! Estimate construction time of 1000-1500 man hours and around $6000 are all it cost to this point! Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly $120/sq m excluding labor).
The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives them a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.
Some key points of the design and construction:
* Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
* Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
* Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
* Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthetically fantastic and very easy to do
* Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
* Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
* Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
* Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
* Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring…)
* Wood burner for heating – renewable and locally plentiful
* Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
* Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
* Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
* Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
* Water by gravity from nearby spring
* Compost toilet
* Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.
Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way The homeowners are not builders or carpenters either! This kind of building is accessible to anyone. Their main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a friend or two to give a lift now and again.
Would you like to learn more about this sort of building and gain practical experience?
For more information click HERE
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