Green Home Building and Sustainable Architecture

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2010-04-09T17:03:00.001-06:00

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Earthbag Structures for Disaster-Prone Areas

2010-04-02T08:56:00.001-06:00

Ever since the earthquake in Haiti we have been inundated with requests for information about using earthbags for reconstruction efforts. Owen Geiger and I have joined with Patti Stouter to assemble a coherent response to this need that is based on our understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of earthbag building, coupled with some knowledge of the cultural factors involved.

What has evolved is a body of information that is readily available to anyone with internet access, and can be found at www.earthbagstructures.com…a new website created just for this purpose. What you will find there are basic tutorials for building, details about how to go about choosing appropriate plans, a discussion of the cultural factors that should influence your decisions (especially for Haiti), some basic plans for emergency shelters and for more permanent housing (and some that can transition from one to the other), structural details, profiles of actual projects with pictures, a discussion of the costs involved, a listing of resources available and where training might be found, plus some technical data about testing that has been done with earthbags.

In addition to this we have created a private discussion forum for those who are directly involved and want to network with others, and there is information about how to join this.

Each page has a Translate Button at the top where you can choose from dozens of languages with which to read the page, including Haitian Creole.

We feel that this will be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to assist people in need of shelter around the world, especially in disaster-prone regions. We expect that this website will be expanding considerably over time, as we develop more plans, construction details, and can profile more projects.

Haitian Wisdom

2010-03-17T16:06:00.002-06:00

With all of the recent interest in helping to rebuild the fallen built environment in Haiti, I would like to recommend an excellent resource for understanding how the Haitian culture has been reflected in their architecture over the years. Haitian Wisdom is a 29-page PDF document written by Patti Stouter that is very well researched and presented with many illustrations.

Anyone planning to offering shelter, either temporary or permanent, would be well-advised to review this informative document. Well meaning aid groups often falter when they produce solutions for shelter that do not take into account the sort of cultural factors that are clearly defined here. Inappropriate shelter is often simply abandoned or never occupied because it doesn't fit the culture.

"Traditional communities are combinations of buildings that have developed slowly from the values and knowledge of the local people. The signals and symbols of social status or other meaning may seem subtle to outsiders, but they are obvious to residents. Existing vernacular areas may seem random to designers from Anglo or European cultures. But they often display a brilliant use of appropriate space and sheltering for transitions from the private space of the stoop, to informal neighborhood gathering spaces like public water supplies, to the more public market places."

"What Haitians call ‘home’ is the yard or compound. This includes both buildings and a carefully maintained and swept inhabited area. No dwelling is complete without some form of useful and sheltering yard, and yards represent many layers of symbolic meaning. In cities most household chores are done outside, including washing and drying clothes. In the country the yard also
includes space for flowering bushes, herbs, and a few vegetables. Animals are penned and cared for. Food is dried and stored in a roofed silo that is raised above the ground. These uses are basic and must be provided appropriate space that is large enough and comfortable enough for work."

This little booklet is an enjoyable read, even if you are not involved in relief work in Haiti, just from a cultural point of view, to understand how culture and architecture blend.

A Guide to States with No Building Codes

2010-03-09T11:50:00.003-07:00

No Building Codes: A Guide to States with No Building Codes is an e-book by Terry Herb, 2010. Owner-builders across the United States are frustrated with the vast array of building codes adopted by so many states. Thankfully, there are still states left where you can build the kind of home you want without dealing with inspections and fees. You just have to do it in the right location--where building codes don't exist. Why pay thousands of dollars to architects for engineered plans because the building code officials tell you they need them; but you don't need them? There is a simple solution for the pioneers and out-of-the-box thinkers of today who want to swing a hammer without the hot breath of a code inspector on their necks. This downloadable e-book contains: An outline map of each of the 50 states with counties outlined as well; current code information for every state; for states with no building code, insightful commentary and information is provided to steer you in the right direction to determine if a state is right for you; researched and validated information; web links to help you learn more about the states that may interest you.

A Green Infrastructure Unlocks Several Successful Environmental Initiatives

2010-03-08T13:53:00.002-07:00

Guest blogger, Dan Grifen, has written the following:

The world is in a constant state of flux and the environment is no different. Lately, it seems as though flash flooding, earthquakes, and hurricanes are occurring all too often. The severity of them is seemingly unprecedented. Additionally, cities like Washington, D.C. - normally accustomed to mild winters - are experiencing record snow fall while those that expect heavy precipitation, like Syracuse, NY, are setting records for not having any of it. While this may or may not have anything to do with global warming, it certainly is a reminder that the environment is capable of a lot of unexpected changes and we should be doing what we can to balance our use of natural resources and minimize our carbon footprint. Otherwise, the odd, eyebrow-raising nature of weather patterns we’re currently experiencing may end up being catastrophic events down the road.

Yet, what can be done that isn’t currently being done? Cutting down on carbon emissions and recycling have been at the forefronts of the go green movement. However, some initiatives that target a completely new, green infrastructure have gone unnoticed but are essential to competitiveness, long term sustainability, job growth, energy independence and national security.

According to the Department of Energy, heating and cooling account for 50 to 70% of the energy used in the average American home. A large proportion of energy is lost through cracks in walls and ceilings. In terms of energy conservation, individuals can make immediate improvements to their energy profile simply by adding insulation to their home. Arguably, the best insulation for any green home is Cellulose which, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, requires less energy to make and is made of 75% recycled material. This is great for air quality in the home and also for the environment. There’s also renewable Cotton, abundant Fiberglass, and even Soy based foam insulation, which has the highest percentage of renewable resource ingredients in the industry with 60%. By doing this, any homeowner can add value to their home while conserving energy and reducing their utility bill. Long term savings outweigh upfront costs. The implementation of Smart Meters can help them find other areas of their home where energy can be used more efficiently. In some locations, local governments are providing residents with them for free. This seems to be the best strategy for getting residents the tools necessary to cut energy costs. The theory suggests that consumers will make necessary changes to their energy consumption if they can actually see exactly where it is being used inefficiently.

Aside from individual efforts, there are a lot of groups and organizations that people can get involved with that tackle larger projects. The University-National Park Energy Partnership Program (UNPEPP) is a great example. UNPEPP is a public private partnership (PPP) that puts federal grant money in the hands of young, impressionable university students eager to change the United States landscape one national park at a time. Universities all across America use the federal grant money to create internship opportunities for students to travel to a national park in their area and work with energy and environmental professors, experts and park personnel to perform energy audits, recommend energy conservation measures and implement renewable energy technology (RET) that ultimately save the parks thousands in energy costs and significantly reduce their carbon footprint. The UNPEPP 10 year Report is posted on the website. This type of partnership is a rewarding experience for everyone involved and similar PPPs should be on the forefront of the green energy movement.

A third component of building the green energy infrastructure involves business owners. While individual efforts generally result in relatively smaller improvements and PPPs sometimes get delayed by energy policies hung up by the legislative process, private businesses march to the beat of their own drum. They are in a position to tackle large scale projects that can create a large impact without delay. A lot of businesses see the potential for going green. Many of them have come on board. There is actually a scoring system that was devised in 1998, called LEED Certification to help gauge just how far a company has gone to incorporate green initiatives into their designs. Specifically, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System provides a benchmark for the environmentally sustainable creation and use of buildings and neighborhoods. According to USGBC, 72% of electricity consumption and 39% of energy use come from buildings in the United States alone. LEED certified buildings use efficient resources to improve performance with energy conservation, CO2 emissions reduction, and water efficiency all while enhancing the ecosystems they are a part of - rather than diminishing them.

One major company, Globetrotters Engineering Corporation (GEC), an architectural company founded by engineer and CEO, Niranjan Shah, is an example of a company that adheres to LEED certification. GEC is responsible for the management of many facets of modernization and expansion of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago (the first privately managed terminal in the United States). Niranjan Shah proved that implementation of green design can be successful, helpful to society and profitable all at the same time. An example of another company that earned LEED Certification is the Washington D.C. based mortgage company, Fannie Mae, which was responsible for the first-ever LEED data center. There are countless other companies that are earning LEED certification. Government incentives given to companies that earn LEED certification is a way to boost the number of participants and achieve the environmental sustainability results that environmentally friendly federal energy policies target but can’t necessarily get passed through legislation.

On a much larger scale, organizations like the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), founded by Bill Clinton and counselor Doug Band, are doing their part to bring the strongest political leaders together to tackle world problems. However, small projects at home, public private partnerships and LEED certification are methods that combine to allow everyone a chance to get involved to curtail inefficient energy use. The necessity to highlight them cannot be understated. The planet is home to all of us and the best way to ensure sustainability is to live and work as environmentally friendly as possible.

Magnesium Based Cement

2010-03-05T15:30:00.005-07:00

There is a whole class of cement that was very popular in the days before the invention and manufacture of Portland cement quickly replaced its use. Generally classified as magnesium-based cement, this material was used in historic times in Europe, India, and China, among other countries. The Great Wall of China and many of the stupas in India, still standing today, were all made with magnesium-based cements. It is unfortunate that Portland cement has replaced the use of these magnesium products because there are many ways in which they are superior.

Primary among these is the fact that they require much less energy to produce and do not off-gas as much CO2 as Portland cement in their manufacture. The phosphates typically used to combine with the magnesium can even be sourced from animal wastes or fermented plants. Add to this fact that these cements develop considerably greater compressive and tension strengths compared to Portland cement, and you wonder why they are not more commonly used these days. The promotion and proliferation of Portland cement occurred when energy was cheap and health concerns of the public were simply not an issue.

Another advantage of Magnesium-based cements are that they have a natural affinity for cellulose materials, such as plant fibers or wood chips; Portland cement repels cellulose. So you can actually use wood chips as an aggregate to achieve lighter weight and more insulative products. Magnesium oxide when combined with clay and cellulose creates cements that breathe water vapor; they never rot because they always expel moisture. MgO cements do not conduct electricity, nor heat and cold, and have been used for flooring for radar stations and hospital operating rooms.

While a bag of Magnesium cement might cost 2 to 3 times the same weight of Portland cement, that doesn't mean that it is more costly to use. This is because with the attributes of the MgO cement, you can create very strong thin-shelled structures using a variety of lightweight and inexpensive fibers; something that ordinary Portland could never do.

An example of this is what Michael Collins, an artist/visionary/eco-builder, has been creating with magnesium cements. Since these cements completely cure within hours of application, amazing sculptural forms can be created almost spontaneously and become usable within a day. Michael points out that a team of workers could build a small house in one day, and people could be living in it the next. This opens up a huge opportunity for emergency shelters around the world to be constructed almost immediately. There is no off-gassing nor toxic residue to deal with; in fact the material seems to have health-giving benefits for the human body because of its electrical properties.

I asked Michael how much dry MgO/Phosphate cement would be needed to make a small two-room house, and he thought that it could be done with three 50 lb. bags, totaling perhaps $150 in materials. He has described one simple method of building this way which is posted on his questions and answers column. If you have any questions about the possibilities of building with this amazing material, Michael is happy to answer them for you. Just go to the Ask the Experts page. And I have posted a longer article about Magnesium based cements at www.greenhomebuilding.com, that links to several companies that manufacture products based on it.

An interesting example of how this technology is being used can be seen at www.arzbuilders.com where they sell what they call "Concrete Canvas," consisting of "a 3-dimensional fibre matrix containing a specially formulated dry concrete mix. A PVC backing on one surface of the cloth ensures the material is completely waterproof; while hydrophilic fibres on the opposite surface aid hydration by drawing the water into the cement. After hydration, Concrete Canvas hardens to a strong, durable, water proof and fire proof concrete surface."

This same company also sells an inflatable shelter, made with similar materials, that is large enough to serve as a hospital room in emergency situations. "The 25sqm variant can be deployed by 2 people without any training in under an hour and is ready to use in only 24 hours. The key to this Concrete Canvas Shelter is the use of inflation to create a surface that is optimized for compressive loading. This allows thin walled concrete structures to be formed which are both robust and lightweight." I understand that these inflatable kits cost around $25,000 each, making what Michael Collins suggest extremely affordable in comparison.

Green Electrical Contracting

2010-02-11T12:35:00.004-07:00

According to a 2009 Booz Allen Hamilton study, green construction will skyrocket over the next five years. The report projects green construction to generate $554 billion dollars in GDP, provide $396 billion in labor earnings and support or create over 7.9 million jobs from 2009 to 2013. These figures are way up from the previous 8-year period. From 2000-2008, GDP from green construction was just $173 billion, labor earnings was $123 billion and number of jobs created was 2.4 million.

Much of this activity will be related to electrical work. In the next ten to twenty years, “electrical contractor” will no longer be a suitable job title for electricians. They will transition into “energy contractors” to support the fast-growing green construction market as home owners and corporations adopt alternative methods (e.g. solar, wind, etc) to power buildings. What’s driving this? Federal incentives, lower material costs and savings from reduced energy spending, as well as desire to adopt more sustainable levels of energy use.

To read more about this new wave of electrical contracting, see Houston Neal's article about it.

Responding to Catastrophe

2010-01-21T15:06:00.004-07:00

The internet has been reverberating along with Haiti since their big earthquake with lots of discussion about how the rest of the world might respond. I have gotten a number of emails related to this, and here is one that I thought was particularly thoughtful:

“I would like for you and your colleagues together to present our president (probably through USAID) with a proposal for rebuilding Haiti with earthbag and other environmentally sustainable technologies. Such a project would serve the dual purpose of providing affordable, earthquake/hurricane resistant housing for Haitians as well as to advance the global shift toward a more sustainable green paradigm by example. Due to this humanitarian catastrophe, both the monies and the political will for such a project are at their peak. No better opportunity exists for the Haitian people to receive durable, affordable housing in the wake of this disaster and no better opportunity may be seen in our life times to demonstrate the utility and affordability of earthbag construction to the world and our posterity.”

In response I wrote:

The plight of Haitians in the wake of the earthquake is heart-wrenching in the extreme. These long-suffering people must now endure even greater hardship. It doesn’t seem fair, but life rarely does. How can those of us who are more fortunate in other parts of the world assist them?

I have been following the blog of Father Marc Boisvert (pwojeespwa.blogspot.com) who runs an orphanage outside of Port-au-Prince, where their facility was undamaged, but they must deal with lack of fuel, electricity, adequate food, and the suffering of friends and family members. They are expecting over a hundred new orphans to arrive from the city. Of course they can use all the money that might be sent to them (and I encourage you to visit their website www.freethekids.org and make a donation). Marc often ends his blog posts with “Keep us in your prayers.”

I first found out about this orphanage because they had built an earthbag house and were promoting this ecological way of building. You can see a description of this at earthbagbuilding.com. There are many reasons to recommend earthbag building in this impoverished country, and resistance to seismic events is among them. Just how resistant earthbag housing might be to earthquakes is not known for sure. Very little testing has been done to prove this one way or another. This initial seismic tests done at CalEarth and other places are encouraging, but not conclusive (see earthbagbuilding.com/testing). Some members of Engineers Without Borders are currently gearing up to do some more testing, so we will hopefully know more in awhile. This technology is still in its infancy, so there is much more to learn about its potential.

Earthbag housing can be used for emergency shelter, and we have posted a number of possible options at earthbagbuilding.com/emergency, including one proposal that Dr. Owen Geiger and Patti Stouter assembled to present to the UN. This sort of emergency housing has the advantage over tents and other immediate structures that it can often be used and improved over time to become more permanent.

Another kind of housing that can withstand practically any sort of catastrophe are shipping containers that are converted to dwelling places. These steel shells have become surplus items at many ports around the world because of trade imbalances. There have been some very innovative designs for incorporating these modular units into quite livable spaces (see an article I wrote at www.greenhomebuilding.com). I participated in assembling a proposal to the UN for arranging this concept to be employed in Haiti. Here is another proposal in the same direction: www.clemson.edu . Such structures do need to be insulated to make them livable in most climates, but this is possible and can be done with earthbags filled with a variety of materials.

I agree with you that in some ways the devastation in Haiti does present an opportunity to rebuild with green sustainable principles, and I hope that this can be manifested. We each can do our part.

Global Warming Denial is Alive and Kicking

2009-12-11T12:10:00.003-07:00

Every year I look for new books that have been recently published in order to keep www.greenhomebuilding.com as up-to-date as possible. I had been under the impression that the controversy over whether global warming is really happening as a result of human activity was finally dying down, and that even the nay-sayers were beginning to accept the overwhelming science that proves this is the case. I was shocked to see how prevalent and vociferous the global warming deniers still are.

Out of 24 books I reviewed that were published in 2009 and relate to climate change and global warming, 9 of them (more than one third) were clearly denying the consensus of scientific opinion. With titles like "Global Warming False Alarm," "Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know," "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed," "Global Warming: Manmade or Man Made-Up?" it is clear that there is a significant emotional charge behind this writing.

So who is publishing this denial literature? Two of the publishers appear to general trade publishers, two are highly conservative publishers, two are religiously oriented, two were self-published, and one was came out of the Cato Institute, self-proclaimed as "libertarian."

Fortunately, there are also many well-researched and thoughtful books that are intended to be more constructive, evaluating the options available for mitigating global warming. I counted 7 in this category, along with 3 more that delve deeply into the science confirming global warming as human-caused. One book, "When the Planet Rages: Natural Disasters, Global Warming and the Future of the Earth," takes a long-range historical perspective.

Another hot topic seems to be the controversy itself, with books like "Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming" and "Lies, Damned Lies, and Science: How to Sort through the Noise around Global Warming..."

And then there are some books that point out how businesses are taking advantage of the frenzy over global warming for economic gain. These include "Global Warming Is Good for Business: How Savvy Entrepreneurs, Large Corporations, and Others are Making Money While Saving the Planet" and "The Plot to Save the Planet: How Visionary Entrepreneurs and Corporate Titans Are Creating Real Solutions to Global Warming."

Climate change and how we should, or should not, deal with it is clearly one of the major issues of the day, and probably of this century. I encourage everyone to become fully informed and make choices from a position of sober analysis rather than from emotional reaction.

Small Cob Buildings without Permits!

2009-11-23T15:51:00.002-07:00

I would like to introduce you to a new member of the team of architects and designers at www.DreamGreenHomes.com: John Fordice. He is presenting a series of small (under 120 sq. ft.) cob homes or studios that can be built in most localities without the need for a building permit, because they fall below the minimum square footage that is set by the standard International Residential Code.

I met John at the 2008 Natural Building Colloquium in Santa Barbara, California, and instantly recognized his gentle soul and passion for designing and building small cob structures. I invited him right away to join the DreamGreenHomes team, and am very pleased that he has climbed on board. John combines his architectural expertise with his sculptural experience in presenting unique plans that will satisfy on many levels.

John says, "Ever since I can remember, I've always loved making things. I've been around building in one form or another for most of my life. I first studied building technology, followed by architecture, then finally fine arts and sculpture. My working life has been in construction, architectural drafting, hand crafts design and production, and for the past almost 30 years professional architecture. About 10 years ago I discovered cob and absolutely fell in love with the mud. Cob is an amazing material which allows an unparalleled simplicity and freedom of design. So here I am offering cob building designs to you. Cob has so much to offer."

The first plan in this small cob series is his Solar Oval One. This plan is a compact passive solar design with a loft. It has many valuable and green/sustainable features:

A South facing wall of windows and french door for passive solar heating
An earthen floor for solar mass and economy of construction
An interior cob bench for built-in seating and rocket mass heater
A built-in desk or kitchenette area with side storage niches
A north wall closet for storage space and insulation
Small East and West end side windows for views & area lighting
A sleeping loft accessible by a built-in ladder
Roof framing which needs only minimal small dimension lumber
A corrugated sheet metal roof
The structure is designed to include seismic stability components
A pleasing curved design
Low cost if you build it yourself

Building with cob allows the use of local sustainable materials. In many areas the earth at your site can be used and only water, sand and straw will need to be brought to your site to make your cob. The cob is mixed right where you are building and stacked up on an impervious foundation. There are no forms needed to make a cob building. Curving sculptural walls are easily created. Your imagination is set free when you build with cob.

The cost of creating a small cob building can vary greatly. If you have an experienced cob builder provide both the labor and materials to construct it for you, the cost should be about the same as a simple stick framed building of similar size. Another possibility is to have a builder do the foundation and roof construction, while you build the cob walls. Cob is easy to build, but foundations and roof framing are more technical work which will benefit from expertise. Building your cob structure yourself is by far the most economical. If you can provide the labor to build, and are resourceful in your acquisition of materials, it may be possible to create your cob building for one tenth of what it would cost to have a builder do the construction. It's a big project, but cob is forgiving, and can be done slowly.

You can find out more about this specific plan and the advantages of small cob buildings at www.dreamgreenhomes.com.

LEED Credit Tracking Software

2009-11-19T11:17:00.002-07:00

Software Advice has released the first in a series of "state of the industry" reports to share their observations on construction software trends over the last year. One of the major trends they reported was the increased demand for software to track LEED credits.

Just as LEED certification has grown in popularity; so too has the need to track the detailed documentation requirements related to earning LEED credits. At their core, projects seeking LEED certification need document control and efficient communication. This is the key functionality that project management software (e.g. EADOC, Procore, e-Builder) offers. Consequently, Software Advice has noticed an increase in adoption of software for LEED projects. Additionally, a number of software companies are now building specific LEED credit tracking modules right into their systems.

Living Walls

2009-10-21T12:36:00.003-06:00

We have all heard about green roofs and know about their environmental advantages, but there is a new concept that is taking root, especially in urban environments: green walls or living walls. Better than the old ivy-covered buildings, which can be adversely affected by the vines, these walls are designed to feature a variety of different plants in a vertical environment, and provide all of their needs for moisture and support right on the wall.

These walls can be either exterior of interior, and they provide advantages in both situations. On the outside they will shade the wall from the intensity of the sun, and thus moderate the temperature considerably, as well as provide lovely textural contrast and beauty. Plant surfaces, as a result of transpiration, do not rise more than 4–5 °C above the ambient and are sometimes even cooler. On the inside they will filter and oxygenate the air, providing a healthier indoor environment, while also creating the calming effect that natural plants tends to have on most people.

Vertical gardens can be grown on just about any type of wall, with or without the use of soil. Many living wall kits come with modular forms that are assembled and applied to a frame that then is affixed to the wall. The most common frame for sale today is a panel that is self-supporting and can be set up independently or attached to a real wall. It is then filled with soil or a soil-less medium and planted. Once the initial panels are in place living walls require little maintenance. They are designed so that their upkeep is about the same as a landscaped garden.

When you combine the obvious environmental benefits of living walls with their sheer beauty I anticipate that we will be seeing many more examples of this wonderful art form. For more details and photos see greenhomebuilding.com.

Super-Insulated Houses

2009-10-17T09:02:00.003-06:00

I am pleased to introduce a new "expert" panelist at www.greenhomebuilding.com. Robert Riversong has created his own form of the Larsen Truss building system, and specializes in super-insulated houses. He teaches these techniques, and many other subjects, at the Yestermorrow School in Vermont.

In an article about his work, Robert states, "I've been using and modifying the Larsen Truss super-insulated wall system for 20 years and can build a 12" thick wall (R-40+) with no more lumber than a conventional 2x6 house, in part because I eliminate exterior wall sheathing and use t-braces and full 3/4" drop siding over housewrap. And, with the air-tight drywall system instead of vapor barrier and dense-pack cellulose, there's almost no thermal bridging and a 3 bedroom house can be heated with less than a cord of wood per year here in New England.

"I also use native, rough-sawn green full-dimension lumber, rough-sawn subfloor and roof deck, and rough-sawn exterior trim. The load-bearing wall is 2x4 24" oc and the exterior chord of the parallel chord wall truss is a 2x3, extending from sill to rafter tail and attached to studs with rough-sawn 1x4 gussets 24" oc."

"The open wall cavities makes the installation of mechanicals simple, since there is little drilling necessary. The three air barriers (drywall, dense pack, housewrap) make the walls virtually impermeable to infiltration. The dense pack cellulose makes the walls highly fire resistant and extremely quiet. Insects and rodents don't like the boric acid used as fire retardant in the cellulose, so these two universal problems are minimized or eliminated. The cellulose is more hygroscopic than wood, so it not only can absorb and release any diffused moisture that might get into the wall cavities but also draws any potential moisture away from the wooden frame, thus protecting it (foam insulations will do the opposite)."

"The only plywood in the house is for door and window boxes, as this makes a better air-tight seal than boards, and for a couple of interior shear walls. Let-in metal t-bracing in exterior and interior load-bearing walls and wooden under-rafter diagonal bracing sufficiently stiffens the structure, particularly once the sealed drywall is installed."

"I find that going from conventional construction to superinsulation adds no more than 5% to the cost of a house and the payback is enormous, both in energy savings and comfort. Some banks are offering higher debt-to-income ratios to mortgagees who buy or build highly efficient homes, since they need so much less income to operate it."

If you have any questions about the Larsen Truss building system or super-insulated homes in general, Robert is happy to answer them. Go to greenhomebuilding.com/ask_the_experts to send your question.

An Alternative Home Tour

2009-09-16T09:59:00.004-06:00

This year’s Twentieth Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair held in Crestone, Colorado featured three different concurrent homes tours on a Sunday afternoon. It was hard to decide which tour to take, since they all were intriguing. Ultimately the impulse toward simplicity and sustainability won out and I chose to join the walking tour in Crestone to avoid driving and to get some more exercise.

We met our tour leader, Jeremiah, at Crestone’s Town Park and hiked the few blocks to visit Carmin’s passive solar strawbale home. I remember going over her evolving plans several times with her as she approached the actual building phase. I’m sure that this planning has paid off for her, since there is very little that she would change about the house.

The passive solar aspect has been most rewarding, in that the average floor temperature during the winter has remained at 65 degrees F. This means that she only really needs supplemental heat during periods of gray days. In fact, she says that the upper clerestory windows provide too much direct sun in the winter, so she has added scrim cloth to soften the glare from these windows. One other thing she would do differently is to shed the roof towards the south instead of the north, so that the snow wouldn’t pile up so much, but would melt off instead.

A short hike through the woods brought us our next stop: Annie’s new strawbale yoga studio and home. Annie announced that the most sustainable aspect of her place is the location; she and her students can easily walk into town, which eliminates much driving.

First we inspected the yoga studio, a lovely, invitingly open space with floating bamboo floors and vaulted ceiling. There is a mechanical room that houses all of the equipment associated with her photovoltaic electrical system and the active solar water and space heating system, which serve both the home and the studio. Solar heated water is pumped through hydronic tubes embedded in the floors, and these heat the areas above them. The solar water heating panels on the roof of the studio have a drain-back arrangement to avoid freezing problems. Annie’s residence does have some passive solar heat gain, which is augmented by the adobe floors that act as thermal mass.
The PV panels are mounted on a pedestal south of the studio, and the rack can be manually repositioned seasonally to optimize their orientation. She has a net-metering arrangement with SLV Rural Electric, so that any excess electricity that is produced will actually run her meter backwards! For backup electricity, in case the power grid goes down, she has a battery bank, but this rarely gets used so she expects that batteries will last a very long time.

A short walk down the street brought us to the compound where both Jeremiah’s and Adam’s families live. They are proud of the work they have done on the property to advance various aspects of permaculture design, in terms of rain-water catchment and grey water reuse. There is a lovely pond that Jeremiah constructed that collects water that can be used for plants and livestock.

Adam’s house is nearly finished after several years of hard work. It is a hybrid structure, consisting of a central core cylinder of strawbale walls with appendages of wood-framed walls. The insulation for the wooden portions is sprayed soy-based foam. Much of the interior plaster is of earthen materials. There is an interestingly designed passive solar greenhouse attachment to the south. Adam admits that his lack of planning for his house has cost him some difficulties with lost time and money.

Just up the hill from Adam’s home is Jeremiah’s work-in-progress: a partially underground dwelling that he is building mostly on his own. He started out with having a large hole excavated with a backhoe. Then he carefully sifted through all of the excavated soil and threw the larger stones back into the hole. Next, he constructed a heavy timber-frame supported roof that is covered by thick EPDM waterproof membrane. Originally he was planning to turn this into a green roof, but later decided to fashion it for water catchment instead, so there will be a mat of gravel over the membrane to protect it and help filter the water.

The entire southern wall of the home is wood-framed for glass and passive solar heat. The rest of the walls are finished with stonework (using all of the stones that he threw in earlier) as infill between the wood posts. These walls are insulated on the outside with several inches of foam, and then protected with a moisture barrier before being backfilled. A room in the far back will serve as a cool pantry/storage area and the walls here were fashioned like those that the famous $50 underground house book advocates, with wooden slats attached to wooden posts, protected with plastic and then bermed with soil.

Jeremiah’s house is likely the most economical of all the houses we toured, since he claims that he will spend under $20,000 for the entire project. Being substantially underground and rather small, it will also likely be one of the most energy efficient homes.

It was threatening rain when we hurried over to Keith’s home, with Jeremiah leading the way on one of his ponies. This is another hand-made labor of love, with Keith doing most of the work. He is obviously a master at timber-frame construction, as the expansive vaulted cathedral ceilings proudly demonstrate.

Sandwiched between the massive timbers are thick, home-made structural insulated panels. The roof panels are a full foot thick, constructed of OSB skin with custom TGI ribs and partially soy-based foam (he has his own foaming machine). He claims that these panels provide R-65 insulation, while the thinner wall panels provide R-32. All of this insulation helps hold in the passive solar heat from the southern glass. Most of this glass is not protected from the summer sun with shaded overhangs, but with such a high vaulted interior, overheating in the summer may not be an issue…it was certainly comfortable inside the day we were there.

There is a full basement in this house, and some of this space is devoted to the equipment for regulating and distributing both the solar water and solar electric panels on the roof. The rusty color of the roof is intentional: he used tin-core metal roofing that is designed to provide a natural rusty coating, while keeping the metal from corroding all the way through.

As we left Keith’s impressive abode, the threatening rain was beginning to materialize, so I scurried along the side of the road to seek shelter in my waiting car. It was an afternoon well-spent, with much camaraderie and learning. I certainly have a better sense of the sustainable wonders that are harbored in unique Crestone.

Green Guidelines and Certification for your Home

2009-07-21T16:18:00.000-06:00

There are several ways for your home to meet guidelines or gain certification for certain standards for "green" qualities. The reasons for doing this vary. It might be that a particular certification will allow the home to qualify for special financing or participate in some desirable program. It might be that the certification will make the home more desirable for resale. Or it might simply be that this will prove that the home meets the high environmental standards of the builder or homeowner. I'll list below the most popular guidelines and certification programs that are available.

By far the most publicized and the most expensive certification program is LEED for homes. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, and is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Initially these standards were being applied solely to commercial buildings, but now they have transitioned to residential as well. LEED certification is most commonly sought by builders and contractors as a way to attract clients or qualify for specific programs. It requires a fair amount of detailed analysis and the inspection by a trained inspector. This can cost between $500 and $3000. What is being evaluated is the location and linkages, sustainable sites, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and homeowner awareness.

The National Green Building Standard is a collaborative effort between the International Code Council (ICC) and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). This book provides the "green" practices that can be incorporated into a variety of areas, from new homes to high-rise multifamily buildings, and from remodels and additions to hotels and motels. This standard outlines effective, relevant green practices, including lot design, preparation and development, resource, energy, and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and operation, maintenance, and building owner education. By defining four threshold levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Emerald, the standard gives builders the means to achieve their sustainability goals – whether they are designing a basic, entry-level green building or aiming for the highest level sustainable "green" building with energy savings of 65 percent or higher.

The Energy Star Qualified Homes certification is administered by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Dept. of Energy. Similar to the Energy Star rating system for home appliances, this certification is often employed by custom builders as well as production builders to enhance the desirability of their homes. The cost is that of a professional energy audit on the home. What is being checked is effective insulation, high performance windows, tight construction and ducts, efficient heating and cooling equipment, lighting and appliances.

The Green Building Guidelines were written by the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. These guidelines read more like a textbook that discusses why, how, where and when to implement specific parameters. They deal with community and site planning, renewable energy, the building envelope, energy efficiency, water use, indoor environmental quality, materials, operation and maintenance. There are diagrams, pictures, and other resources, including checklists from some of the other green programs.

Health House guidelines, created by the American Lung Association, is actually a certification program. The objective of this is to assure that new homes do not adversely affect people's health. Specially trained builders pay attention to the site, building enclosure, finishes and furnishings, mechanical equipment, commissioning, construction hygiene, safety and health. The focus is on air quality, but efficiency is also considered.

The bottom line with all of these programs is that the homeowner will end up with a healthier, more energy-efficient, and durable home. And all of us will benefit from a cleaner environment.

The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome

2009-07-14T15:38:00.002-06:00

The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream is a timely book that analyzes the origins and eventual failure of what has been known as the "American Dream." John F. Wasik, the author of this very well researched and written book is a finance columnist for Bloomberg News, so he has his finger on the pulse of American finance and folly. Published in 2009, The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome is full of insight about how the dream has become a nightmare and ways that we need to proceed so that we may sleep contentedly again.

Europeans began settling in the Americas with the dream of establishing private domains that would provide wealth and security. Thomas Jefferson popularized and manifested the "pursuit of happiness" through land ownership with establishing his grand Monticello in Virginia. He believed that all free men should have the opportunity to follow his lead and he imagined a huge grid of towns and farms extending across the continent. There would be lots of open space between individual homesteads, and each domain would be more or less autonomous.

If you fast forward to the twentieth century, you can see how Jefferson's dream became manifest in the movement of people out of cities' central districts to establish their own little Monticellos in the suburbs. Homeownership became a way of building and preserving wealth. Everybody could have, and was entitled to, his own little kingdom. The cul-de-sac syndrome was born.

Wasik outlines the history of how this simple impulse for a better life became a real estate mania, where leveraged debt became a tool for creating wealth through homeownership. The belief that real estate values only appreciate fueled a speculative frenzy that created one of the largest bubbles of overvalued commodities ever: homes. Tempted by mortgage companies with easily accessible loans, even people who obviously could not afford homes jumped on the bandwagon.

As we are so painfully aware now, the bubble suddenly burst in 2008, and the fallout from this will be felt for years. The author uses case histories of real people to demonstrate just how difficult these post-bubble times have been.

John Wasik doesn't stop the narrative with his description of how unsustainable the real estate bubble was. He discusses what is probably even more important: how unsustainable the homes themselves are in terms of design, placement within the infrastructure, and energy consumption. He shows how these factors are adding to the misery of homeowners who cannot afford to pay to heat and cool their mini mansions, nor can they afford the necessary commute to work. The cost of these energy inputs (largely from fossil fuels) is stifling both the consumer and the earth's biosphere.

In general the infrastructure that supports suburban development is not borne directly by the inhabitants or the contractors who built them; these costs are passed on to government agencies. So this is another way that such sprawl is economically unsustainable.

The cul-de-sac syndrome is negatively affecting our health, productivity, and family life. All of those hours spent driving is lost time that could have been spent walking or getting exercise, doing productive work, or having a good time with the family.

As an antidote to all of this malaise, the author outlines a variety of strategies. He describes how houses can be built to heat and cool themselves through passive solar design and how they can even produce their own electricity. Water can be conserved in many ways. And often these greener homes are healthier to live in because attention is given to possibly toxic materials.

Wasik sees green manufactured housing as a strong component of sustainable development, and he gives examples of these. He points out that factory-built homes generally waste less material, can be constructed faster, and are designed with proven efficiency.

One aspect of home building that I feel is largely neglected in this book, and in much of the "green" building trade, is any discussion of the embodied energy inherent in both conventional and manufactured housing. From an environmental standpoint this is a significant factor, in that all of the energy that goes into manufacturing industrial products for home construction, and transporting them to the site is a form of pollution. I would like to see greater recognition that natural building techniques and materials, such as adobe, rammed earth, cordwood, strawbale, and earthbag building have an important place in designing a sustainable future.

A major thrust of any movement toward a sustainable residential complex is the recognition that inner city, urban dwelling is considerably greener than living in the suburbs outside the city's core. Wasik shows that not only are people finding that they save money by being able to walk or take mass transit, but they are healthier and more productive because they are not spending that time commuting. It is a high priority for cities to examine their zoning and building codes to accommodate more dense urban and greener residential development.

So the new American Dream may take awhile to realize, but once we begin to attain it we will become more secure with a smaller carbon footprint, we will become healthier, and we will lead happier, more fulfilling lives. This new dream is less about each person having his own fiefdom and more about all of us coming together to realize a common dream of living in balance with nature on earth.

John Wasik has a blog where he explores many of the issues touched on in this article: dailywombat.blogspot.com and he also has a website: www.johnwasik.com You can find his book, The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome listed at Amazon.com.

Radio Interview with Kelly Hart

2009-05-21T16:11:00.002-06:00

In May of 2009, I was interviewed for nearly an hour by Veronica Entwistle for her “Paradigm Shifters” Radio Program, at www.bbsradio.com. Veronica and the station have been kind enough to allow you the opportunity of listening to some or all of this interview directly. Either the entire program, or specific aspects of sustainable architecture and natural building can be heard as individual segments. You can listen to all of this from this page. The topics covered in the interview include:

natural building
sustainable architecture
strawbale building
earthbag building
Earthships
passive solar heating
cost of natural building
papercrete
education
vernacular architecture
recycling building materials
underground building

Earthbag Slide Show

2009-05-03T09:50:00.003-06:00

The folks at www.naturalhomes.org have assembled a fun little slide show featuring images of earthbag projects around the world. If you click on one of the images it will take you to the source page.

Internet Radio Show Appearance

2009-04-14T12:04:00.003-06:00

I was a guest on an internet radio talk show Wednesday, April 15, 2009 in the afternoon, discussing topics related to green home building: http://truthbrigade.com/

If you miss the live show, it will be archived at http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-11887/TS-212923.mp3

I don't actually make my appearance on the show until about 20 minutes into it.

Toxic Drywall and the Ills of Modern Building

2009-04-12T10:38:00.004-06:00

I just read this article about the toxic effects of new houses that used drywall material shipped from China to the US in the last few years. Many people are getting quite sick and can no longer live in these contaminated homes. Nobody quite understands exactly what the cause is, except that the suspect drywall seems to emit toxic sulfuric fumes, especially under hot and humid conditions. These fumes are so corrosive that they can turn copper pipes black. It is estimated that at least 100,000 homes are likely affected by this problem, many of them built during the height of the housing boom when domestic drywall material was harder to find.

Wow. What a devastating example of the imbalance that exists in our modern times. Contractors, wanting to provide more wealth for themselves and those buyers who expected to soon turn around and make a profit on the houses they bought, turned to Chinese producers of building products. To meet the demand the Chinese carelessly threw together raw materials that appeared to be safe enough to use and shipped them across the ocean to the eager market. Everybody was making money...so why not?

Compare this to a more wholesome, sustainable scenario, where only local, natural materials are used for building, and speculation is not driving the economy. This never would have happened.

Thousands of lives are being ruined by this situation, through loss of health and economic loss, paying for houses that cannot be safely lived in. What a double whammy! The author of the article assumed that these houses would eventually have to be torn down to deal with the problem; I doubt that this is true since it is quite possible to pull out all of the drywall and start over with that phase of the construction, which is actually one of the last stages of building. Still, the impact is enormous.

If anything is to be learned from this, it should be that we need to take a serious look at how we go about using resources and making money.

Natural Building in Korea

2009-04-09T09:16:00.002-06:00

Professor Sunny Cai, who teaches architectural design at a college in Beijing, China, sent me some wonderful photos of traditional earthen buildings he photographed while on a recent trip to Korea. Sunny is especially interested in various forms of rammed earth, so I presume that these mostly represent that form. The stone structure appears to have been mortared with earth.

Time to Learn about Natural Living

2009-04-01T14:52:00.002-06:00

We are fast approaching the prime season for learning how to live more sustainably. This summer there will be opportunities galore to take a workshop nearby that will give you hands-on experience and understanding of a wide range of topics.

I have assembled dozens of these workshop and training sessions at one convenient place: www.greenhomebuilding.com. They are listed chronologically with enough information to give you a sense of whether they might be appropriate for you. If you don't find something there, I have also listed many places that have on-going workshops throughout the year at www.greenhomebuilding.com/education.

There are workshops about renewable energy that feature training about photovoltaic, wind, and hydro electric generation. Solar hot water for domestic use is also covered.

The theory and practice of passive solar architecture is taught, along with household energy efficiency in general.

Water conservation techniques, waste water treatment, compost toilets, water systems, and permaculture, are all featured topics at various venues.

In the realm of "natural building" there are many workshops about cob, timber framing, earthbags, earthen plasters, strawbale, stone masonry, cordwood, and green roofs.

There is no better way to learn some of the basics of all of this than by actually trying it out with your own hands. You will soon discover whether a technique is something you would like to use for one of your own projects. And there is the fun of joining with other folks to help each other learn. The instructors are mostly professionals who have dedicated their lives to learning and teaching the various techniques.

If you don't have the time or inclination to participate in such workshops, then you might enjoy attending one of the many expos or conferences that are listed along with the workshops. Much can be learned from browsing the exhibits and sitting in on presentations.

However you do it, there is no better time than now to find out more about how you can become more sustainable in the ways that you live!

Green School Primer

2009-03-22T09:05:00.002-06:00

I was given a pre-release review copy of "Green School Primer: Lessons in Sustainability" published by the Images Publishing Group. At GreenHomeBuilding.com I am mainly concerned with residential architecture, but what better way to learn about the effectiveness of sustainable architectural principles than within a school building that was designed with this in mind?

I loaned my copy of the book to a friend, Vince Palermo, who is advising a small charter school in Colorado. It just so happens that they are in the process of coming up with a proposal for a new school building. Vince, a retired physician and renewable energy consultant, is well versed in what makes for good sustainable design. Here are his comments:

"This is an excellent book, and very timely -- both in content and production. First, the book quality is very good, well laid out and organized, with lots of very good representative pictures
illustrating various principles, and is has a quality binding. Though LPA Architects are one of the largest planning firms in California, the book was printed in Australia. The forward and jacket are written by the current president of the American Institute of Architecture and Dean of
North Carolina State College of Design, so it is strongly supported by an important professional in the business."

"The content looks to my appraisal to be very good and embraces the spectrum of Green, from energy to holistic planning, including the environment and approach to proper utilization and selection of materials. The book is focused on ten principles and presents them succinctly and clearly with supporting illustrations. It is not focused on the details of execution -- leaving that to the architects."

"There is only so much you can put in 143 pages. It has a chapter on rating, but interestingly does not pursue the ultimate in energy efficiency, looking more on the total picture of green, healthy, and functional. LPA has designed or modernized 200 schools in California, some illustrated in the book."

"In all, an impressive book! I particularly like it because this could not be published at a better time, when the Secretary of Education is supporting charter schools and has a big purse. This is a template for progressive thinking in school design."

Natural Building Bookstore

2009-03-19T09:41:00.002-06:00

Rosana, my ex-librarian wife, has taken the data from book sales at www.greenhomebuilding.com over the last four years to create a convenient book store that features the top 350 books from that list. These are grouped into several topics, so browsing is easy. You can check out this new book store at hartworks.com/naturalbuildingbooks.

The Most Popular Green Home Building Books

2009-02-17T12:45:00.007-07:00

I sell a lot of books from www.greenhomebuilding.com, mostly as affiliate links through Amazon.com. Out of curiosity my ex-librarian wife did a search through our sales records of the last four years and discovered some interesting trends. Our top seller was Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques, and we averaged selling over 6 of these every month.

Close behind this is The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage. Actually, books about building with cob are very popular, with two others showing up in the top 11 best sellers: Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide and The Cob Builders Handbook: You Can Hand-Sculpt Your Own Home. This makes cob building the single most popular topic!

General books about green building are also very popular, with Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods selling about 5 copies each month. The New Ecological Home: A Complete Guide to Green Building Options and The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding were also in the top 15 best sellers.

Two books about underground and earth-sheltered construction made the top 25: Earth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground House and The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book. Actually the first of these is more about cordwood building, so if you combine this with Cordwood Building: The State of the Art, author Rob Roy has two titles among the top 7 best sellers.

The Stonebuilder's Primer: A Step-By-Step Guide for Owner-Builders, The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling, and Earthship: How to Build Your Own, Vol. 1 all made the top 10 list, selling about 3 each month. Then, if you add to this The Tire House Book, which was also among the top 25, it is obvious that building with tires is a popular concept.

There were three books on the top 25 list about adobe and rammed earth building: Adobe: Build It Yourself, The Owner-Built Adobe House, and The Rammed Earth House: Revised Edition. This makes methods of using earth for construction extremely popular.

Strawbale building also had three titles in the top 25: Small Strawbale: Natural Homes, Projects & Designs, More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw, and Serious Straw Bale: A Home Construction Guide for All Climates. Considering how popular strawbale building has become in the last decade this is not surprising.

There are two books about storing food in root cellars that made the top 25 list: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables and Build Your Own underground Root Cellar.

One of my favorite books, Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, a book published by Lloyd Kahn which features the earthbag/papercrete house I built in Colorado along with many others, made the top 25 list.

The final book on the list is Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own, a book written over a decade ago by Nader Khalili of earthbag building fame.

It is gratifying to see the popularity of all of these books, and many others that didn't quite make the list, that feature various aspects of natural building and sustainable architecture. It bodes well for the future.