Just went to the seminar with Ianto Evans promoting his book "The Hand Sculpted House" and it was excellent. He showed pics of what a stick frame built house looks like after mother nature takes over and what a cob structure looks like (very organic, mud back to mud). I started reading some of the book when I got home because his talk was so engaging. A very humane way to build!! I am hoping to go to one of the workshops in the future.
http://www.deatech.com/cobcottage/ http://www.deatech.com/cobcottage/handsculpt.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1890132349/002-7931199-6777645 http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1890132349.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg I heard it noted recently that Californians spend almost 80% of their time indoors. Interesting since the climate out here is one of the best in the US. James Slayden On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, Kim & Garth Travis wrote: > I have found statistics that say for every three new houses built, one > goes in the landfill, labor being more expensive than materials. This > being true, many of us have figured out how to build with the landfill > materials. There is a list dedicated to this topic, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > One man has started a movement to use landfill rescue to build homes for > low income working families using minimum wage help. His crew are > usually young men that were at risk and after a year or two with him, > they get hired by the big contractors. His web site is > phoenixcommotion.com > > Congratulations on trying to reduce the waste and build sensibly, not an > easy task with building codes, banks and insurance companies involved. > > Bright Blessings, > Kim > > robert luis rabello wrote: > > > Hello Everyone! > > > > It's been five months since I've been able to post here. My wife > > and I have built a new house, and not only have I learned a lot about > > the building process, I've been astonished at how much waste and > > inefficiency goes into putting up a home. > > > > 1. Builders love concrete. We used WAY more concrete than I > > believed we would when we first considered this project. I'm not > > certain we could have done much better than we did because our property > > slopes considerably, but concrete manufacturing is VERY energy > intensive > > and next time we'll have to be more careful about property selection. > > Any ideas about alternatives out there? > > > > 2. The amount of waste generated by a building is simply > > astonishing! I own a Ford Ranger with a short wheelbase and a small > > box. I filled the thing 4 times with dimensional lumber cut too short > > for use, and hauled all of it out to my father in law so that he could > > mix it with his firewood this winter. (Generally speaking, dimensional > > lumber is so dry that it burns too quickly for a clean fire and > > therefore produces excessive smoke.) Surely gasification or clean > > pyrolysis would be much better alternatives than the landfill, where > all > > of our oriented strand board, drywall, carpet scraps and other waste > > ended up. What's worse, is that our tradesmen kept saying that we > > actually had very little waste. . . Some of the houses going up around > > here have huge dumpsters that get filled more than once during the > > building! (I had asked the architect who drew our plans to minimize > > waste by making room sizes as close to standard dimensions as possible. > > We ended up with a bigger house for less money that way. Strange, > isn't > > it?) > > > > 3. There's a certain "momentum" in doing things the "conventional" > > way. The lender at our credit union looked at me as if I was crazy > when > > I said I wanted solar hot water. The builders simply didn't understand > > why I was so particular about southern orientation, minimizing north > > facing window sizes (our view is to the north, so I lost on that one. . > > ..), and people scratched their heads when I specified a relatively > small > > electrical panel ("just" 100 amps of service!) and high efficiency > > lighting. We argued about extra insulation in the ceiling, heat in the > > floor and the "tiny" size of our natural gas boiler. > > > > There's a lot of ignorance about energy issues out there. I > suppose > > people in forums like this one have a LOT of educating to do. . . > > > > robert luis rabello > > > > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > > > Biofuels list archives: > > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service > > <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>. > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > ------------------------ Yahoo! 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