We have now almost finished our demo building, it looks lovely!! We’ve gone for cedar shingles on the roof as the only other natural material available locally was slate, this however was from China or Brazil, not exactly sustainable. It also looks better as they are more in proportion with the size of the roof and give a glorious warm colour.
The first of the earth blocks have arrived, these are the load bearing blocks to be used as internal walls within buildings. They are outrageously strong, 17N or about 2.5 times as strong as a normal concrete block. Their high density will also act as a magnificent heat store and dampen sound very well too. Their uniformity will also impress anyone who has ever used a cob block, they are perfectly square and straight, a far cry from the wonky cob blocks we’re used to!!
The process of building this building has been a good learning process for the construction of the hemcrete panels and how best to manufacture them and fix them together. We’ve used quite a dense mixture to ensure that with all of the repeated movement the frames will endure they don’t fail in any way. The only problem with this is that it doesn’t dry very quickly, fortunately we made them 4 weeks ago and they are nearly there.
We also have to make some design adjustments to the timber frame incorporated in the panel so as the steel bars that lift the frame don’t pull through or get in the way, all in all though the panels are a great success. The roof and frames were made by MRT Homes (neighbours in our yard) and we hope to do some more joint projects as the demand for these panels picks up.
Hopefully I will upload some pictures of the finished building soon, assuming I can work out how!