Archive for the ‘Interior Design’ Category
December 4th, 2008
Hand-Build an Earth Sheltered House For $5,000
Stumble it!
Written by Susan Kraemer, courtesy of GreenBuildingElements.com
Cash, that most basic element of our economy, can be in abysmally short supply for new young families scraping by on marginal jobs. Sustainable housebuilding may not be foremost in their minds.
But one young couple in Wales managing on an annual income of just $10,000 went ahead and built their own cheap home anyway, sustainably, mostly out of materials from “a rubbish pile somewhere.”
They had wanted to spend as much time as possible at home while their two children were young. Their nearby woodlands ecological management work would have been impractical if they were paying a mortgage.
So they enlisted some help from family, and sometimes just from people passing by, and from any of their friends who stopped by to visit.
The result was their very low impact homemade house. A hand built unique setting for a charmed life for their two young toddlers. I’ll bet they’ll remember this first home for the rest of their lives.
Four months of hard work and they were all 4 moved in and cozy.
Total expenditure? $5,000. Tools? A chisel, a chainsaw and a hammer. Building expertise? Simon Dale says:
“My experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around in-between. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.”
Sustainable design and construction:
- Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
- Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
- Frame constructed of fallen trees from surrounding woodland
- Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally very easy to do
- Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
- Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
- Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture compared to cement
- Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
- Other items were reclaimed from “a rubbish pile somewhere”: windows, wiring, plumbing
(Maybe there should be a new LEED rating just for building so inexpensively: Sustainable Financing. This is one mortgage bill that’s not going to be haunting their mum and dad for years.) Inside there’s a wood-burner for heating - waste wood in the old-growth forest is locally plentiful. To get the most of the heat, the flue goes through a big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly releases the warmth.
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November 25th, 2008
Natural Building 101: How To Make and Apply Earthen Plaster Finishes
Written by Brian Liloia, courtesy of GreenBuildingElements.com
Earthen plasters provide a beautiful, soft, and an organic finishing touch to your home’s walls, whether they be straw bale, cob, wood, or even sheetrock. A simple natural plaster can be mixed from ingredients straight from the earth, including sand, clay, and fibers such as straw, cattail fluff, or even cow manure.
It’s a simple process and a creative one, too: you can let your imagination shine through earthen plaster with its vast sculptability and its variety of application.
How to make earthen plaster
A natural earthen plaster is composed of three main elements, typically sand, clay, and fiber.
- Sand provides structural strength and makes up the bulk of any earthen plaster mix. Fine, sifted sand is used to provide a smooth finish without small stones or pebbles to interfere in the application.
- Clay is a binding agent which helps to make the earthen plaster sticky and adhesive. Clay is typically soaked and mixed to break up larger chunks before being mixed with the other ingredients. Your earthen plaster’s color may be determined largely by the color of your clay. Local clays come in a wide variety of colors.
- Fibers such as short, chopped straw, cattail fluff, or even fresh cow manure are common and important additions to earthen plasters. Fibers help make the plaster strong and resistant to cracking. Manure is the fiber of choice of many traditional peoples (and many modern natural builders, too), and for good reason: the fiber content and enzymes make for a very strong and durable plaster mix. (And to set the record straight: once dried, earthen plaster containing manure does not have an odor. Also, it’s actually really fun collecting cow pies for plaster. Try it!)
Additional additives such as wheat paste help increase durability and stickiness. These ingredients can be mixed by foot on a tarp, or with a hoe in a wheelbarrow.
An earthen plaster recipe
The ratio of these basic ingredients may differ depending on the quality or type of materials that you choose to use. I can provide at least one recipe that I have recently used that has worked well for my cob house.
- 3 parts (that’s three five gallon buckets) sifted sand (sand sifted through a 1/8″ screen)
- 1 part soaked clay
- 3/4 part cow manure
- cattail fluff (to taste)
- 8 cups wheat paste
Applying earthen plaster
Earthen plaster can be applied by hand or with a trowel. Depending on the evenness of your wall’s surface, you may choose to go either route. The final mix should be soft, sticky, and wet, and it should hold readily to your (pre-soaked) wall. Add small amounts of water if your plaster seems difficult to spread on your surface.
Take the opportunity to experiment with your plaster and try making different shapes and forms. You can even embed mosaics directly into your plaster using smooth, broken glass or ceramic bits. (Save those broken dinner plates!)
Once your plaster has had some time to dry (but has not dried completely), you can make an even smoother finish by buffing the surface with something like wet burlap or a small sheet of rubber. Go in circular motions to work out rougher areas. You’ll be amazed by how much smoother your wall is after this simple process.
A low impact finish for your home
Earthen plasters are very beautiful, smooth, and soft, and can give your home a very warm and inviting ambiance. They are an obvious choice for straw bale or cob homes, but you can experiment with them on different wall surfaces, too.
Ultimately, they are a very low impact and environmentally safe way to make your home more attractive and to protect your walls.
For more information and natural plasters, check out the following websites:
- The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime, and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes
- Get Muddy! Make Earth Art at Mother Earth News
- Earthen Plasters at The Last Straw
- Natural Building How-To: Making Earthen Plasters video from Dancing Rabbit TV
Happy plastering!
To find more eco-friendly wall-covering options, click here.
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November 17th, 2008
Eco-Pregnancy Makes for Healthy Babies
Many women discover the green lifestyle when they are expecting, or become moms. Wanting to do the best you can for your child includes considerations that you make before your baby is even born – after all, that’s why you’ve given up wine, right? Everyone knows that eating right and getting enough rest will help both mother and baby be healthy, but the green movement has opened our eyes to the effects that the world around us can have as well.
Back in 2005, a frightening study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found chemicals in the blood of the umbilical cords from 10 newborn babies. These chemicals were linked to cancer, birth defects, and hormone disruptions, and included lead, mercury and PCBs. Since then, moms-to-be have demanded more information about reducing the impact of the chemical soup that we all live in.
We Are What We Eat
According to most studies, it’s not clear whether organic food has higher nutritional value than its non-organic counterparts. Regardless, one thing is for sure: organic food contains fewer chemicals. Organic food is grown without artificial fertilizers, conventional pesticides, or sewage sludge, and processed without ionizing radiation and food additives. That stuff is gross, whether you’re pregnant or not. To label a food product organic, it must be certified by the National Organic Program, which is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A USDA Organic seal indicates that the product contains at least 95% organic ingredients, so look for this label.
Eating the fresh fruits and vegetables recommended for everyone, but particularly pregnant women, may also help you to avoid Bisphenol-A (BPA), a toxic chemical found in the linings of food cans. Most recently linked to plastic baby bottles, it can also be found in canned infant formula, as well as canned adult foods like soup, fruit and soda. BPA has been linked to breast cancer and infertility, and there is concern that exposure can affect fetal and infant brain development. Scary stuff, so try to avoid processed foods and stick to real, whole food whenever possible.
Once you have that food home, it’s important to prepare it carefully. Use cast iron or stainless steel cookware – Teflon and other non-stick surfaces have been shown to emit toxic chemicals when preheated to high temperatures, which can occur in just a few minutes. In fact, these chemicals are a known hazard to pet birds, causing lung hemorrhaging and death, so it can’t be good for us either. Particles of non-stick surfaces are also found in food itself.
Most pregnant women know to eat only low mercury fish, avoiding species like tuna and swordfish. For a complete list of sustainable and healthy seafood, download a Seafood Watch card from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You should also filter your tap water, as pollutants may lurk there. Check out the EWG’s Tap Water Quality Database to see what your city’s water may include, then take a look at our recent post on water filters to help you decide on the one that’s right for you.
Personal Care and Cleaning Products
Without knowing it, we slather chemicals on ourselves in alarming quantities. Women, on average, use 12 personal care products per day. Look for better choices products in the EWG’s searchable Skin Deep Database. The database includes a rating for each product on its developmental/reproductive toxicity, which includes birth defects and developmental delays for children. Phthalates are particularly harmful for boys, while the EWG recommends that everyone avoid perfume, cologne, or products with added fragrance. The database also has a section for products just for kids.
Cleaning products are another key source of toxic chemicals in the home. Whatever you spray on your counters or floors makes its way into your system and thus into your baby. Check out our selection of eco-friendly cleaning supplies, use plants to clean the air, and open windows whenever possible.
Make Your Nursery a Safe Space
It’s just as important to provide a healthy nursery for your little one! Visit our post on green kids, including green furniture, bedding, low-VOC paints, plus the age-old debate over diapers: cloth or disposable? Be careful when painting or renovating while pregnant, as the chemicals can pass through to your baby.
Let’s Have a Baby Shower
OK, enough of the scary stuff, it’s time to celebrate! Turn your baby shower green by asking for pre-worn clothes and other used goods, or natural products. Check out environmentally-friendly invitations and favors, like those at ecoparti. Request non-plastic items and reusable packaging to inspire guests’ creativity. They can wrap used books in an organic cotton baby blanket, or give a bundle of healthy, eco-friendly baby skin-care products.
Now all that’s left is to actually have the baby!
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November 16th, 2008
Natural Building 101: How To Make an Earthen or Adobe Floor
Written by Brian Liloia, courtesy of GreenBuildingElements.com
When mention of an “earthen floor” is made, one might imagine a dusty, drab dirt floor. Earthen floors are far from this, however; instead they are very elegant, durable, inexpensive, and ecologically sustainable solutions to a typical floor installation. They are varied in construction, but the idea and ingredients are essentially the same across the board. Earthen (or adobe) floors are poured or compacted combinations of sand, clay, straw, and sometimes crushed rock, with pleasantly smooth surfaces resistant to wear and tear, and capable of storing heat from the sun.
There is no one way to construct an earthen floor. They are a natural option for straw bale or cob buildings, but they can even be installed on concrete slabs or preexisting wood floors, as along as the framework is strong enough to support the heavy weight of many buckets full of earthen material.
How to make an earthen floor
A typical earthen floor might include 70% sand, 30% clay, with lots of chopped straw for tensile strength. Oftentimes, they are constructed of two or three layers. My own earthen floor is (or will be, I should say) composed of two layers, the base layer composed of sand and clay at a 3:1 ratio, with handfuls of long straw mixed in for extra strength. (See photo to the right!) This sublayer is 2.5″ thick. Once it is dry, the final layer will be installed and smoothed with a trowel, composed of a similar sand to clay ratio, but mixed with very short chopped straw. The sand will be sifted and the clay will be sieved to remove larger particles.
Earthen floors in suburban homes
Some homeowners have even installed earthen floors in their suburban homes, influenced by the low impact nature of an earthen floor. The New York Times has a nice article detailing one family’s earthen floor installation experience. Earth is an environmentally friendly alternative to hardwood flooring (which requires lots of lumber typically shipped over great distances) and carpet (which may offgas dangerous toxins like formaldehyde), making it an appealing option for more eco-conscious homeowners.
Benefits of an earthen floor
Earthen floors can be very easily made using local materials, and are a common sight in traditional housing all over the globe. Materials can be found locally, as close as the ground underneath your feet.
Notably, they are also an excellent option for passive solar homes, due to their thermal mass. For example, the heat of the sun striking the floor in the wintertime will be stored in the mass of the floor, making for a pleasantly warm surface. This heat can also slowly radiate into the living space over time.
To find more eco-friendly flooring options, click here.
To find green builders and contractors near you, click here.
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September 9th, 2008
Two Great New Eco-Computers
Considering a new computer purchase? Wait! There are some great new eco-smart computers on the market you must check out.
First, our friends at Earth911.org have alerted us to HP’s new computer release. This new HP Notebook cuts 97% of the packaging!
The new HP Pavilion dv6929 Notebook won Wal-Mart’s competition for an electronics product that reduced environmental impact. To do that HP has ditched the styrofoam and cardboard boxes that traditionally protect computers in favor of a 100 percent recyclable messenger bag that reduces packaging by 97 percent. The computers will still be shipped to stores in a cardboard box that will fit multiple machines. However, consumers who purchase the new notebooks will take home just a messenger bag with the computer and its components, meaning less packaging to dispose of. The new computers are sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, which is also offering free electronics recycling when the HP notebook is purchased.
Next stop on our cool computer search is the Dell “eco-computer.” Michael Dell unveiled the new machine in April and it is to be 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop and uses 70 percent less power. Dell has recently released the model as the Studio Hybrid. It’s very small — less than 9 inches tall!– and very cute. It also comes with a super eco-swank bamboo shell. Click here to visit the Dell Studio Hybrid page. (Dell image courtesy of Earth2Tech.com.)
In general, please remember that when buying a computer you should look for Energy Star approved models. Click here to find out which computers meet Energy Star qualifications.
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