There’s a huge groundswell of interest in living more lightly on the earth. On the one hand, conscientious homeowners want to pollute less and protect natural resources. But they also want to save money on construction and energy costs and still have a beautiful, safe and comfortable home. Whether you call it natural building, green … Read more
Here’s another project in New Mexico. You can follow the progress on festismr’s Channel. The photo below shows where they’re at now.
A BIG issue in everyone’s lives today is increasing fuel costs. (Don’t be fooled by [temporary] low prices. They’ll be going back up shortly due to limitations in oil production.) High oil prices are connected to peak oil and gas production, wars to secure limited resources and climate change. These problems are all a consequence … Read more
Plumbing is typically a major expense in any new building. Price hikes in copper and plumbing parts in general continue to drive costs higher. And at $50/hour for journeyman plumbers, costs add up quickly. Consolidating the plumbing in one plumbing wall (also called a wet wall) will reduce costs and labor. This reduces the lineal … Read more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfwnQwpVDlE Here’s an innovative way to cover walls. Fusion stone doesn’t require mortar. Stones are held in place with clips and screws. You can see a close-up of the stone and mounting system at about 50 seconds. It’s possible to do something similar with cast thin geopolymer stone with grooves in the edges.
Be sure to check out my article “How to Build a Survival Shelter” at Survivalist.com that just came out in issue #3. Here’s an extract from the article. When I designed this survival shelter, I had four key concepts in mind: practicality, simplicity, safety and cost. Each concept is discussed in more detail below. Practicality … Read more