Which Alternative Building Method?

[docjered]

I want to build a home to retire in. I have studied the following disciplines:

Earthships (rammed earth tires)
Cordwood Building (post and beam with cordwood infill)
Strawbale (Nebraska style, self supporting)
Strawbale with post and beam frame
Yurts

Now the dilema: each has distinct advantages and disadvantages. With a need to become self sustaining, eliminate as much as possible a dependence upon outside utilities, to be thermally balanced: in harmony with the elements, and to be able to be built alone and cheap, cheap, cheap (possibly in stages without a mortgage.

Which style do you have, like, have built, have considered, or plan to build and why?

[AlchemyAcres]

I'll be building a small PAHS (Passive Annual Heat Storage) "cabin"....500-600 square feet.....all the advantages of building underground and self heating/cooling. Single story, near zero maintenance.

http://www.axwoodfarm.com/PAHS/UmbrellaHouse.html


~Martin :)

[desdawg]

There are indeed a lot of choices available. I think some of your decision should be based on what you have available for materials on your land. For instance I have a lot of Juniper trees on my property and a lot of stone. The Juniper is not of sufficient size to make for a log home but for cordwood it would do fine. It would be silly for me to haul in strawbales with all of this free material at my disposal. On the other hand cordwood building is very labor intensive and there are quicker alternatives. So I guess what I am saying is you need to do a little inventory and set some priorities. If you have a lot of time and natural materials available, that could be your priority. If you have a good income and would like to "Get 'er done" that could change your priority in another direction. I don't think there is a "one size fits all" answer.

[JAK]

I think depends largely on size and climate.

[SolarGary]

Hi,

It seems like the Earthships offer a good all around approach -- they address thermal efficiency, efficient water use, water collection, grey water reuse, and onsite black water treatment. They also typically include solar electricity and solar water heating. They can be totally free of the electricity, water and sewer grid.

About the only source of outside energy they use is a modest amount of propane for cooking and backup heating.

The fact that the design has been continually refined over the past 30 years is also good -- most of the bugs have been worked out.
We stayed in an Earthship in Taos for a couple days last year, and by and large it does seem to live up to the claims -- my only small complaint is that it was a bit dark for me in the back area, away from the big south window wall -- this may be just me.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/Earthship/Earthship.htm

I think that strawbale homes are also good, but they only address the thermal efficiency issue -- you would have to work out your own approach to water collection, and all the other issues that an Earthship addresses as a part of its basic design.

The Yurt seems like the worst choice to me.


You have probably looked at more low impact homes than you want to already, but here is some more info just to confuse things further :)

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/solarhomes.htm

Gary

[JAK]

I think the Yurt would be a good temporary choice if the canvas material was cheap, but I don't think it is cheap. I like the shape of a Yurt though. I think a ferrocement Yurt might be very interesting place to begin. From there the walls could be supplemented or replaced over time with cordwood or strawbale or cob or wattle some other alternative depending on whats available. The roof could be sod. The floor could be earthen, or patio bricks. There could be a small root cellar for utilities and storage but just in the center, with the kitchen above it. There might be a loft above the kitchen also, or some sort of lookout place, or a solar/wood heated hot water tank. The round house could be devided in have with a cob wall, with the kitchen straddling both the dry side of the home for sleeping and storage, and the wet side of the home for laundry, bathing, greenhouse, patio space. Glass walls on the wet south side, with some sort of thermal shutters that fold down like draw bridges. Cordwood or strawbale walls on the dry north side, with small windows through the cob wall to the sun space. It would be interesting if Eastern White Cedar could be incorporated into the walls also, as living walls. it is slow growing however, so that would take some thought into how the walls might transition from ferrocement and strawbale walls to some sort of living wall of ferrocement and strawbale and cedar.

[HockeyFan]

I would recommend the earthship or some sort of earth-sheltered structure. The specific building methods would likely depend upon several factors. Your age and ability to do the labor required is one consideration. Budget is another. The area of the country is important, as you have annual temperature extremes to consider, as well as the amount of rainfall you get, and also whether you have termites to deal with.
I've always wanted to build earth-sheltered, and my wife and I have been planning for years. Finally, we're doing it.
Originally, we were looking to build in the Earthwood method. That method is less expensive than we we ended up doing, but it's much more labor intensive. Because of our age, we chose something less labor intensive.

Check it out. If you do check the site, please sign the guest book. I'm curious how many people are actually interested in this sort of building.

www.freewebs.com/stocktonunderground

We've got lots of photographs during construction (and it's an ongoing project). We have a blog to report progress as we move along. We have an ip-cam and hope to get another inside the house for watching work (although right now, it's just my wife and I working).

I hope for anyone wanting to build, that you plan for it (plan adequately), and be willing to do the work. It's intensive. Be prepared to spend at least a couple of years, unless you have lots of money.

[Backwoods_Bob]

Which style do you have, like, have built, have considered, or plan to build and why?

My wife and I built a load bearing straw cottage.
We did it without going into dept a bit, and did just about all the work ourselves ( my father in law did help with the roof.

I'd never built anything before, and it worked out just fine.
Loadbearing straw bale is probably about the easiest and cheapest way to go!

This is what our off-grid homestead looks like in the dead of winter -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P2230071-2.jpg
I've also built a two story barn with poles cut from our property and dry stacked cement blocks. Cost me only 3,000 -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/the%20barn/P1010148.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/the%20barn/P1040031.jpg
I like dry stacking blocks and filling them with concrete, I think I'll make use of this method again some day. Of course, using poles cut from your land is a given!

We also built a big woodshed out of mortared cordwood.
I do like this technique, and it certainly is low cost and easy to do, but I don't think it's the best way to go for anything but a small cabin.
They just get to many cracks in the walls, and do not have much insulation, and are very labor intensive. Still, if all you have is a plot of land that was worked over by loggers with lots of slash piles, it may be the way to go.

One of the great advantages of cordwood is the fact that you can build it a little at a time. The unfinished building can be left to weather just as is all winter long, and you can pick up yer building again when the snow mwlts off.

My next building is gonna be a small guest cabin in the form of a ferro-cement dome, using ordinary cattle panels for a framework.
Here is the plans
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/bobsgasthaus-Model.jpg
And a full size mock-up
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/P1010057.jpg

After that my next building will be an earth shelterd work shop.
The area against the earth will be dry stacked block like the back wall of my barn, the exposed front will be mortared cordwood and the roof will be a cattle panel ferro-cement barrel vault! ;D

[MadTripper]

Bob,

Do you have any info on that ferro-cement dome? I'll do some googling however I thought you might have some links already.

Thanks

[annabella1]

I think ferro cement and or concrete block is the way to go. I have done some experiments with the makeup of the cement and haven't finalized a formula, but then I don't even have any land yet. I would like to use some recycled materials in it. for example broken car safety glass. I did some research on use of glass in cement and found that the problem they had was residual sugar in broken glass bottles reacting with the cement with car safety glass you shouldn't have that problem.

[flatwater]

If I had my druthers I would go for an underground house. One that would be hard to see from the air or driving by on a road. The less conspicuous you are the more fun you can have. I think one with a back door that would tunnel about 200 feet away from the house in thick cover would be pretty cool also.
Flatwater

[Backwoods_Bob]

MadTripper,
Are you familar with cattle panels?
They are low cost ( less than 16 bucks each, usually ) welded steel wire fencing sections. They are 16' long and fifty-odd inches tall depending upon who makes 'em.
They are strong as heck, flexible and low cost.

This is the kind of thing your supposed to do with them -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/animals/prop.jpg


This photo shows how one transports these panels, and how I was inspierd to make use of them for building. They could be used to make great barrel vaults, coverd wagons, domes, etc...
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/P1010052.jpg

My initial design was to make a ring of two panels welded together and connected to a door frame, with a roof made of strips cut from two more panels.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/bobsgasthaus-Model2.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/bobsgasthaus-Model1.jpg

When I did a full size mockup, just tying the panels in place, the roof height felt to high, and the interior felt to cramped.
So, I added a chunk of panel I had laying around, and widened the doorway a bit.
Total circumfrence is now something like 466 inches or 38.8 feet in the photo I posted above.

This makes the diameter a little over 12 feet.
This lowerd the roof somewhat, and gave the feel of a Yurt, rather than a dome.
I used only two panels cut lenthwise to form the top. I don't think any additional panel strips will be needed. Also, once the panels are welded or firmly wired together, the structure should be quite stout.

This time around the cattle panels cost me 15.99 each. I used four of them to frame up the cabin, so the cost so far is $63.96
It took only about 1/2 hour to set it up. Not bad for framing up a 118 sq ft cabin.
The only cheaper way I can think of is a hand wrought log cabin.

Now the stucco part I'm still working on, and i have been so busy this summer I really haven't had much time to play with it.
I made up some test panels. they are chunks of cattle panel coverd on both sides with chicken wire.
This is what they look like -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/Cabin/P1010164.jpg

I tried a standard cement stucco mix on them and it was a total failure.
Most ferro-cement info I can find on the internet like this -

Building a ferrocement rainwater jar
http://aquamor.tripod.com/rainwaterb.htm

- Recomend using some sort of fabric like burlap in the form, and painting it with a thick mix of portland cement and water first, then slathering on stucco.

Also, in the link above they remove the frame when the water tank is done, leaving just a thin concrete and chicken wire shell.
Of course, we want to leave the cattle panels in place to form a super strong framework for the building. I mean, what happens if a tree blows over ontop of the cabin? That's whay I wanted a low cost, strong steel framework inside.

So, so far what we have is a frame of cattle panels coverd on the outside with chicken wire.
On the inside we have burlap, them another layer of chicken wire tied in place with short bits of wire.

Paint the burlap with a portland and water mix. let it stiffen . Now stucco the outside with an ordinary lime, portland and sand stucco mix.
plaster the inside of the dome with gypsum plaster. I don't think you'll ever make stucco stick upside down no matter how hard you try, and ordinary gypsum plaster is low cost, easy to apply, and has a mucjh softer "feel' to it then cement.

Now white wash the inside and your all done!

[machinemaker]

When I used to travel for work through Az I used to stop at a place called Archisanti, built by the architect Paolo Solari. There are some good examples of alternative building made from cast concrete. I hope to incorporate this into the next home I build.
kent

[MadTripper]

Good info and thanks. I found that the site http://www.ferrocement.com is a great site for information about the various applications and history of ferrocement. I thought about building my chicken coop out of it because my existing concrete base is round however I think I'll go with standard wood at this point.

[cordwoodguy]

I`VE SET UP ANOTHER BOARD WHERE I DISCUSS THE PROS AND CONS OF SOME OF THE ALTERNATIVE BUILDING SYSTEMS.CHECK IT OUT.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alternative_building

I HOPE THATS THE CORRECT URL...GET BACK TO ME IF IT`S NOT


CORDWOODGUY

[eeyore]

The link above in the second post is dead, he is a similar one i think

http://www.norishouse.com/PAHS/UmbrellaHouse.html

[HockeyFan]

I am encouraged to see so many people trying all these different approaches to building their own homes. It's the pioneer spirit. I'm all for it, no matter what you end up choosing.

[alfriedar]

I was reading the post and It seems you all might want to look at MONOLITHIC DOMEs they are water , fire , earthquake , insect and impact proof. what is really good about them they utilize the best insulation man has developed to date as far as I know. They have a waterproof outer shield that can be made very strong then three inches of polyurethane type sprayed insulation giving the structure about an R-60 rating - the lined with steel re bar 1/2 to 3/4 thickness depending on the size desired and if you want to bury your home under let's say 30 feet of earth. Then using a poly-fiber reinforced, fly ash added ,with reduced water cement mix which is super strong - sprayed on from three inches thick to ten inches depending on application ie buried or not. and size of structure. A home that is so powerful to the elements and so insulated that energy cost are fantastically diminished. A home that can be made so small its just for one person or so large it can fit a 747 or two. The process is so simple but go to WWW.MONOLITHIC.COM You can buy the airform, rent the spray equipment for the foam and the cement after taking the week long hands on course in Texas at MDI home office. If you have a bit of design talent you can make them look pretty good. If you make a few of them .. you can rent them out to lower income workers and make a profit while helping people live in a safe, secure, solid and very insulated home.

[HockeyFan]

thanks for the info. I'm currently already building, but if I ever get some additional money and time and want to add on, I might consider monolithic domes as an option.

[dataman]

WWW.MONOLITHIC.COM * * You can buy the airform,
you can even make your own air-forms as we did on our 8 domes that make up our home and garages.
See how we did it on our web site www.mountainviewdome.com
Enjoy - Ray