Sustainable Wood Ceilings

Rustic wood ceiling by Whole Log Lumber

Barnwood ceiling by Stout Carpentry

Open beam ceiling by Vintage Timberworks

‘Naily grade’ wood by Whole Log Lumber

Recycled wood or reclaimed wood ceilings add warmth and character to a room. Each ceiling is unique, and the final result often looks better than new wood. Not only can you save a lot of money if you gather your own salvaged wood and build the ceiling yourself (which isn’t particularly difficult), no new trees have to be cut down. This means recycled wood ceilings are eco-friendly, especially when the wood is locally sourced. Reclaimed/recycled wood ceilings can last almost indefinitely and don’t have to be painted. Rustic wood ceilings are often made with old wood timbers (beams and joists) and planks of old recycled lumber. You can combine rustic wood planks with box beams for special effect.

A wide range of woods can be used – barnwood or barn boards, rough sawn pine, beetle kill pine, naily wood, unique hand-hewn antique woods, old growth wood (stronger and typically more beautiful and durable than new), remilled wood, knotty wood, pallet wood, beadboard, tongue and groove, recycled trim. You can mill almost any wood for ceilings if you have a bandsaw mill (blow downs, wood from tree trimmers, etc.). For more wood ideas, check out our blog post on Low Cost Wood for DIY Homebuilders.

Image source: Whole Log Lumber
Image source: Stout Carpentry
Image source: Vintage Timberworks

Earthbag/Superadobe House Construction

Another video tip sent by Pleabargain.

American Housing Ripoff Part 2

Typical starter home in SE Asia

So let’s say you’re a young couple who want to buy their first house. You’re tired of living in apartments and spending all your money on rent. You want a place of your own, a solid investment that will become more valuable over time and hold up as you grow older. Let’s compare what you get in the US with some developing parts of the world – SE Asia and Mexico. Assume 600 sq. ft. with just the basics. Costs are ballpark averages.

US: 2×4 frame, sheetrock, pressed board siding, OSB on wood floor joists, synthetic vinyl and carpet, wood trusses, OSB roof sheathing, asphalt shingles, particle board cabinets, plastic laminate countertops, modern plumbing and electrical and Internet. $100/sq. ft. Approximate construction cost (can vary significantly): $60,000

SE Asia and Mexico: concrete slab, reinforced concrete post and beam, mortared brick infill between posts, cement plaster, steel frame roof, tile roof, brick or block cabinets covered in tile, tile countertops, tile floors, modern plumbing, electrical and Internet. $34/sq. ft. Approximate construction cost (can vary significantly): $20,000

This example shows roughly triple construction costs in the US due to a number of reasons. Note, generalizations like this have all sorts of exceptions and details that can blur the main point. For instance, much of the US is colder and this explains some of the higher costs for heating systems, insulation, etc. But when you take into account the higher quality building materials used in Mexico and SE Asia, the US housing market is a giant flaming ripoff.

Have you seen recent charts of US housing prices? Some experts say the downward trend could continue indefinitely (10-20 years or more) since so many jobs have been exported to other countries. They’re basically saying how can house prices go back up if people don’t have jobs. Homes sales are so abysmal that realtors have admitted double counting to slow the downward slide.

Comparison of the percentage change in the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for the housing corrections in the periods beginning in 2005 (red) and the 1980s–1990s (blue)

Image source: Thailand Blogs
Related:
American Housing Ripoff
Trailer Houses versus Earthbag
How to Build Houses That Will Self Destruct and Burn Like Crazy

DIY Home for Less Than $3,500

Pleabargain, one of our readers, sent us a link to this video. This mobile tiny house includes lots of useful ideas that could be used in any small house. Note the size of house shown in the book she has. Full sized houses used to cost $3,500 and now you can’t even build the bathroom for that price.

“In a town where the median home price is over half a million dollars, Jenine Alexander decided to build her own. Using resources like the tiny house blogs and the 1950 bestselling DIY book “Your Dream Home: How to Build It for Less Than $3,500″ (a gift from a friend), Jenine spent less than $3,500 on her home. In fact, she used nearly only materials recovered from the dump or found on craigslist and the only things she paid for were a used trailer and fasteners (nails, screws, hinges, etc). She built it on wheels not just to get around minimum size standards, but mostly because she couldn’t afford land in her hometown of Healdsburg, California.”

Original story here.

This is another great video by Faircompanies.com. So far all of their videos I’ve watched have combined a good story, professional filming and lots of useful details. Watch more videos like this at Fair Companies YouTube channel.

Rounded Corners in Rooms

A curved sofa like this would look great in a rounded corner.

Rounded/curved room corners create stronger earthbag walls at no extra cost, and can speed construction. A good size radius is around 3’-4’ (about one meter). Rounded corners can also improve functionality by creating a cozy, curved space for a round table, computer desk, easy chair or, as in the photo above, a sofa. You could put a window, wood stove or fireplace in one of these curved corners. Other options include niches (nichos) and/or curved bookshelves. Rounded/curved room corners are very appealing visually and make a nice focal point. They break up the monotony of too many straight lines. Not every corner has to be rounded, of course. Even one rounded corner can improve the looks of your home. I think rounded corners look perfect with thick earthbag walls, especially when window and door openings are also curved.

Image source: Creative Leather Furniture

The Sheer Lunacy of the Housing Situation

Kelly Hart’s Carriage House combines insulated earthbags of scoria with a manufactured steel Quonset hut.

Nick, one of our readers left the following comments. “I think the sheer lunacy of the housing situation, what you pay versus what you get, will insure that alternative means of construction will prevail in the end. Even if you don’t have the patience to build yourself, you can buy a steel warehouse building, say 30X40, and play with it to your heart’s content–stone facing on the outside, rice hull insulation indoors, clay walls to cover the rice hulls and steel, earth floor, half height earthbag fencing around the house for utility and beauty–and you’ll still only spend $20,000 versus half a million or more with a 50 year mortgage.

I’m in my mid 40′s and it boggled my mind that I’d have been a slave for my entire life, +5 years just to own a plywood & plasterboard shack that requires constant maintenance to not disintegrate, especially in the humid South. The bankers really do want you to become an adult, and then work for them for your entire life until you die, paying them rent, the pharma groups not far behind, with their belief that everyone of us needs to be on lifelong medications just to line their pockets. Ridiculous.

Another reason for pushing these 50 year mortgages, by the way, is that the robo-signing scandal and real estate fraud that took place during the bubble puts them in serious jeopardy of losing during the foreclosure process, in court, if those people have a good lawyer. By getting fresh signatures on new, proper, documents and invalidating the old fraudulent documents, they gain a much stronger position in any future foreclosure process, and as a final bonus, they also turn some non-recourse mortgages into full recourse mortgages, if state law allows this. ”

Owen: How true. People are waking up to the new reality big time. Take away people’s homes, and make other housing alternatives unaffordable (high rent, excessive building fees), and people are bound to start looking for low cost options. Geez, people can’t even afford a garage now, let alone a decent house. So they start surfing the Internet and see all the cool earthbag and strawbale houses, and other natural building methods using pallets, adobe, earth floors and plaster, ferrocement, pole building, and so on. I look forward to the day when the masses snap out of it and make more sensible choices. The times they are a changin’.

Kelly Hart’s Carriage House plan
This method of adding insulated bags over a manufactured steel vault is a great way to build – very fast and efficient, just bolt together, stack lightweight scoria bags, then plaster. And, it’s easy to get code approval. If you like vaults, this is probably the best way to go.

Photo Blog #6

EcoSteps

EcoSteps

Series of photos showing how to build an earthbag vault.

Earthbag vault Milton’s 960 album

Retaining wall

Mixed Martial Arts

ECHO Asia’s Earthbag Seed Bank

This small structure is the ECHO Asia Seed Bank’s earthbag house that is nearing completion.  ECHO promotes community-based seed sharing and saving. It is also part of their mission to recommend appropriate ways for communities and organizations in the developing world to better store seeds.

James (ECHO Asia intern) and Lue (Assistant Seed Bank Director) were trained in earthbag house construction by Engineering Ministries International (eMi).  To prevent the invasion of surrounding warmer air (the seed bank is located in a tropical/sub-tropical region), a small door with a foam interior and a thick but light ceiling composed of sacks filled with burnt rice husks were installed.  And to keep costs low, almost the entire structure was made from local, cheap materials, including a roof of fan palm thatch.

Data loggers will be installed to record the interior temperature and relative humidity.  These will be compared with outside readings over a period of one year. So we look forward to reporting on the long term results of the modification of temperature by the earthbag house and the potential of such structures for community-based seed storage in the tropics.

See sustainabilityquest.blogspot.com to read the entire article.

The Easy Way to Make Ferrocement Roof Panels

Make ferrocement roof panels on the ground so you don’t have to plaster overhead.

I just found this great technique for making ferrocement roofs at Steve’s Flying Concrete site. Steve explains how to make roof panels on the ground so you don’t have to plaster overhead. This eliminates the most difficult and awkward step of making ferrocement roofs. The panels can be hoisted in place by crane or with a crew of strong workers.

“My latest idea is pre-fabricated, arched triangle, roof panels. 12 -18 ft wide–On the ground you build arched triangles in a dish shape. Finish the inside of the dish, flip the dish over, set with a crane and this becomes the ceiling of the dwelling.–No overhead plastering. A row of tiles inside, finishes interior ceiling.

The panels can either be set in a circular pattern to form a “dome” or alternating in a line to roof a rectangular shaped room. Building triangular dishes– start with insulation then structural layer and then polish the inside of the dish. THE HARD PART–Turn the dish over and stack it in vertical pile until the crane comes to set 8 dishes. Crane –reality check– for these dishes on the first floor I’d say 4 hrs at $150/ hr is $600– or $75 X 8 panels. Set the dishes and stick them together in the valleys– form work very simple using plaster lath– mix this pour on site, (pour out of a 5 gal bucket) and vibrate from above. 1/2 yd should go a long way.”

More details at Flying Concrete

Loft or Attic Trusses

Loft or attic trusses create efficient extra space in the attic that can be used as a loft or for storage. (click to enlarge)

We have previously discussed a number of low cost, do-it-yourself trusses and roof systems. Use the search engine above with keywords such as ‘truss’ or ‘roof’ to find older blog posts.

Today’s post is about a special type of truss called loft trusses. Also called attic trusses, room-in-attic trusses and attic storage trusses, they create cost efficient extra space in the attic that can be used as a loft or for storage. This method is one of the most practical ways to gain space, often because attics are not fully utilized. It’s almost free space. Many times attic trusses have steeper roofs to create additional space, and can be used in place of conventional trusses. You don’t have to build the loft right away. The loft can be built at a later date when you can afford to finish it. Standard truss spacing is usually 24” apart. Truss manufacturers typically give free quotes and engineer the truss to meet local codes.

Trusses are one of the best options for building roofs. They are popular because they are very strong, efficient and relatively lightweight. They also create ample space for roof insulation. Trusses can be built before the walls are finished, and installed quickly. Trusses are made of multiple short pieces of light-weight wood. Because trusses span longer distances, fewer center walls or supports are needed. If you live where building codes are enforced, then using trusses will make code compliance much easier.