Lightweight materials such as rice hulls can speed construction ten-fold. But good design is important! Note how Paul in Thailand (see yesterday’s blog post) added buttresses and steel pipe here and there as problems developed. Basically, he was just “winging it”. Who knows how long the house will last before having mold problems. That’s unfortunate because a similar house built correctly could last many decades.
insulating
Foamed Lightweight Concrete
Natural builders strive to reduce their use of cement due to high cost and adverse environmental impacts. Sustainability conscious natural builders might use ferrocement, cement plaster or micro concrete roofing tiles which use relatively small amounts of cement, and avoid more concrete intensive materials such as concrete block. Foamed lightweight concrete is another material that could be added to the list of green building materials.
Lightweight Hyperadobe
As reported in a previous blog post just recently, low cost raschel mesh tube material is now available. (Thanks again to Patti Stouter for tracking this down.) Affordable mesh tubing means hyperadobe is now a more realistic option for many earthbaggers. A growing number of people think hyperadobe is the fastest, easiest earthbag method currently … Read more