Natural Building

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Where tradition and innovation come together

Members: 19
Latest Activity: 7 hours ago

A call to Natural Builders and Natural Building projects.

This is a networking group for those practicing or interested in Natural Builiding. It is also a place where people can ask questions or find out about projects near them.

For those of you new to the term Natural Building, I am talking about building using locally available materials that have low embodied energy like straw, clay, stones, wood, water reed, etc. and putting them together in a way that takes into consideration the best possible outcome ecologically and socially.

Some common Natural Building techniques - Cob, Strawbale, Wattle and Daub, Light Clay, Woodchip-clay, Timber Framing, Stonework, Thatching, Clay plasters and floors.

Discussion Forum

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: DESIGN-AND-BUILD EARTH ARchiTecture CHALLENGE

Started by AfriCOAE Apr 19.

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Comment by Ben Graham 7 hours ago: Hi Linda,
This is cool to be communicating in different formats!
Yes, thatch is the only insulating roofing I know off. And the biggest problem with thatch in the northeast is red squirrels.
North American natives used grasses and other plants for thatching structures. Currently the best thatching materials is widely considered Norfolk Reed or phragmites. This is not native to the Americas but has come over from Africa and places like Estonia. It is considered an invasive species on the East Coast because it chokes inland waterways. You often see it alongside highways because it like saltwater.
Because it is so rare to find a source of thatching bundles(prepared thatch material 1 bundle=1 sqft of roofing) it is expensive, even though you could go out and harvest it yourself. The state of Maine allows people to take it from the coast, which I have. And because thatchers are also rare you end up with an expensive roof unless of course you do it yourself for free. So how much thatch would you need for your house? Lets say your roof was 1000 sqft (a modest size). thats 10 square. You can harvest 4 square (or 400 sqft) of thatch materials from an acre. so you need to harvest 2.5 acres of reed! Or you could get a reaper/bundler that does all the work for you. There's a thatcher in Ohio selling it who used to grow his own. Colin McGhee in Virginia imports containers of it from Estonia. Typical retail is around $7/sqft = $7000 for 1000sqft roof and add probably $10-30K on top of that for a master thatcher to do the work.
Personally, I am looking forward to doing more thatch work and plan to one day thatch my own roof.

Comment by Linda Ide 9 hours ago: Oh, my gosh, it's possible to thatch roofs here in the US? I thought I read once that we don't have the right kind of rushes, or something to that effect. Our house will be such a cottage when it's finished, a thatched roof would have been great.
Oh well, maybe 100 years from now when the metal roof needs replacing ... How long will a thatched roof last? And is it terribly lots more expensive than conventional materials?
- Linda

Comment by Ben Graham 9 hours ago: Brad,
The picture at top is a dorm/dining hall for the Foxmaple Traditional Building School in Maine. The left side of the roof was thatched by a workshop that I participated in a bunch of years ago with thatcher Collin McGhee.
It is a timber framed structure with a combination of cob/unfired clay brick and light clay wall systems.
Foxmaple has some really great buildings on their campus, this is one of several.

Comment by Brad Vietje 9 hours ago: Hey Ben,

Can you tell us a little about the building pictured at the top of the Natural Building group? It looks like a thatched roof and is such a beautiful building! Is that anywhere around here?

Thanks,

Brad

Comment by Dora Coates 1 day ago: Yay! Good information, and glad you gave me some sites to check into. Thanks, Ben.

Comment by Ben Graham 1 day ago: Hi Dora,
Yes, we often talk about the community building aspect of natural building. But to be honest, this is not unique to natural building, my grandfather was a director for Habitat for Humanity and regularly accomplished amazing things with all volunteer, community support.
I think you are right though, that natural building these days seems so much more inviting to be a part of and pretty easy to jump into with some guidance. So thanks for adding that part.

As far as how straw and clay hold up in our climate, I can say with confidence(from building with them for the past 12 years and 7 in Vermont) that straw and clay do great in cold, wet climates like Vermont. Anyone who says otherwise, I would guess may have heard some bad story or rumor, which there are plenty.
I stand by my work and have never had to replace any wet bales and have never had a moldy or wet bale problem. To be clear we typically use lime as an exterior finish. We do not recommend ext. clay finish unless you have huge overhangs and no risk of exposure. That said, there are steps you can take to give extra protection to ext. clay plasters that will give them quite a long life.
There are already many books written by engineers and people better equiped than I that explain how straw and clay work in our environment. If you go to the Canada Mortgage and Houseing Corp's website and search strawbale you will find many report they have done. another website is the Development Center for Appropriate Technology.
My focus lately has been around showing how natural building methods are actually higher performance systems than the current "high performance" systems. People tend to think of natural materials as base and crude when in fact, when you know how to put them together well in the right conditions they last longer and work better than conventional materials.
Serious Strawbale is a good book for northeast climates and a colleague of mine will be starting a general book on natural building for the northeast soon.
I will certainly address this at the conference as well!

Ben

Comment by Dora Coates 1 day ago: Ben,
I greatly admire for you for dedicating yourself to the daunting task of building differently from the norm. My love of natural building techniques has arisen for all kinds of reasons, but one of them you didn't mention is that it can be a community effort. The good thing about that is the possibility to involve all ages in the process (although not in ALL the processes), and the money saved in doing so.
For some time now I've thought yes, we already DO know how to build efficient, beautiful, and sturdy buildings. We only need to access and re-learn those old skills, rather than depend upon technologically complicated systems and materials that require highly specialized professionals, thus more money, bringing them out of the range of many folks.
I'm glad you are apprenticing young people, getting them interested in natural building, and I hope it becomes a new wave.
One thing I hear a lot, from those designing their homes, as well as from builders, is that natural clays and straw bale "do not do well" in our cold and wet climate. If there is some good information out there about how these techniques CAN work in New England, it would be helpful for all of us in the design/build world.
Or, maybe you can write a publication about this. Maybe this is your topic for the upcoming "Better Builds by Design Workshop?"
Enjoy, Dora

Comment by Ben Graham on December 5, 2009 at 10:32pm: George,
I believe people are drawn to Natural building because it feels right. I dedicated my architectural and building career to natural building after experiencing the inside of a cob house. There is a deep connection humans have to their natural surroundings. I believe this connection is shut off in most dwellings. In a natural home it is enhanced and it inspires you.
There are many logical and reasoned trends as well. Natural materials tend to be non-toxic, they are local and tend to have little embodied energy.
Your question about how nb skills are spread throughout conventional trades is good also.
Natural building techniques are built off traditional building techniques so there is a lineage and most of the skills are known, if not well. Such as plastering, timberframing, and so on. The innovation of developing these techniques to meet current energy efficiency standards is also quite similar to conventional efficiency practices. The biggest challenge is that natural builders think differently and this is developed through education and experience. Yestermorrow now runs a yearly course on natural building where you can get a 2 week intro course or a 12 week intensive. We are also working on apprentice programs for younger folks interested in natural building.

Comment by George Lisi on April 7, 2009 at 4:14pm: Ben,
I left him a phone message after leaving note below, so may be able to update soon. Bringing up this theme at Convergence sounds right on to me. Hoping to lay some groundwork. I'll see what Dave has to say.

Comment by Ben Graham on April 7, 2009 at 11:56am: George,
I don.t. Maybe we can bring this up at the Permaculture convergence. I think we are looking to bring David to keynote.