Questions

I live in the greater Sacramento area and I've recently learned about straw bales and earthen plasters. I'm completely in love with the beautiful simplicity of using the earth right beneath our feet to construct our dwellings and I'm looking for a community of people to promote this with. I searched for contractors with expertise and the picking is slim to nill from what I found. Is there not a market for this here, or is this one of the beautiful situations where the supply has not reached the demand?

If anyone from this area reads this and would like to start a small company in earthen plaster artistry, please contact me because I'd really like to brainstorm with you and possibly get something going.

Hey Kevin!

A short while back, I saw a clip from the show on Youtube. That particular episode showed you guys pouring a formed limestone window sill cap. I'd be interested in knowing the ingredients in the mix and the ratio's used? I'd considered using quarried stone, but this looks to be a better, less expensive choice. Any details you can supply would be greatly appreciated...

Regards,
Mark aka: Spuds

I'm in the early planning stages of building my dream green home. I've been working on a solid plan for a little over a year now and have considered a tire home, underground home, and a straw bale home. After looking at 'final' projects straw bale won out in a land slide. The looks of the home are beautiful and still retains all the green features I am looking for. My question is about the roof. I understand the simple stuff like the color of the room matters, it only makes sense that a back roof will be hot while a light colored room will be cool.

But what do you make the roof out of? What is the material you use? I want to know everything from what is the supporting structure made out of to what goes on top of that and finally what is the final covering made out of? It seems everywhere I look it talks about the wall of the home being straw with a earth plaster but very few references to what to make the roof out of or choices when it comes to making a roof? Can you guys put together a simple guilde to the best ways to make a green room including what they are made of and the insulation you use on them.

Thanks,
Gregg Webster
Iowa City, IA

We have an 1893 Queen Ann Victorian with lovely stain glass windows. Is there anything that we can do to keep the stain glass but add more insulation around the windows? There used to be a product that allowed you to cut the weights and add insulation but I haven't seen it around in quite a while.

Hello there, wanted to ask whether you guys know where to buy the buy ECO products for men's personal care products.

Thanks.

Hello,

We are a high end furniture manufacturer looking to move into the green or organic / "eco-friendly" furniture space and become certified sellers of this type of furniture. We are just beginning our search and need a good and reliable source or sources (suppliers) of materials...

These include:

Sustainable wood / hardwood
Soy glue
Latex
Organic foam
Sustainable metal springs, etc.

If you are or know of a great source for these items, please let us know.

Thanks in advance!

Nelson
nfreytes@gmail.com

My wife has almost died several times and we found out it's from extensive formaldehyde and other toxin overdoses from our manufactured home and now she has lupus. We are wanting to move and would like to make this move as green as we can afford. We are looking at recycling used shipping containers to build a home with. One of our problems is that there are 10 in our family. Does anyone have any suggestions and/or help and/or information? Would Building Green TV be interested in doing a show(s) about this? Thanks.

Hi,

I would like to know if there are any "green builders" in my area.
I'm interested in the straw bale homes.

Thanks,
Judy
Albuquerque, NM

Despite my love of sailing (noted in below post) ; ) I spent the weekend landlocked in beautiful south-central Virginia discussing greywater with our contractor. (That is, when I wasn’t getting fat on all the yummy Amish food we bought: dinner rolls, goat cheese, pickled beets, zucchini relish and oatmeal cookies. Yum.)

The land perks, but because of the soil conditions I am trying to best approach the greywater as if it didn’t because of concerns for the stream (way below) the site.

It looks like we *are* going to be able to dig deep enough for rainwater cisterns (a separate topic) but I was having trouble explaining my idea for what I want to do with greywater and finding the "proof" of what other states/counties have done to back me up. (I am hoping to completely avoid a traditional septic field as that does not have peak performance for greywater- we will be using a composting toilet so the blackwater is separate, and using gravity to irrigate downhill where the land plateaus before continuing downhill to a creek...)

I keep a list of greywater manuals, etc. on http://www.greenmodernkits.com/greywater.htm

But what I found tonight is more food for thought:
http://www.enviroalternatives.com/toiletgraywater.html

Does anyone have any other information/resources to add? Anyone else building/using greywater treatment/fields?

Using hay is great for thermal protection,but squirrels and mice love it. How do you protect against a home invasion? Once they are in, they have a ready made mansion.

Hello,

I am a teacher at a school in Toronto and the students have started a school-wide program to green the school. One of the projects they are keen to pursue is building a large green wall. While the principle of the wall is easy to research, the name of the material the plants are to be set in is not so easy to find. We have looked around and have not had any success in finding what the best media is to set the plant roots in- does anyone know what the fibrous material is?

Thanks in advance,

Dr. Seth Halvorson
www.dragonacademy.org

Student Green School Project Website:
www.greendragonproject.blogspot.com

After my first book "Unwrapping the Hook&Build™ Building System" (http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=19116&92120739-26490aaa), I was asked by friends and colleges to write a follow-up about the use of the Hook&Build Building System for the Shell Housing idea, and other modular structures. They believe that there is a great need in the industry, especially in large housing developments to provide a building technology which is not only economical and green, but also of high quality, affordable, with flexible R-values, and a very long life expectancy. More importantly, these structures can be erected very quickly and enclosed with very little effort, and without getting into the problem of labour shortage. A shell house can be installed in less then a month.

Please see my web site under: http://web.mac.com/wwilbert1, and click on top of the site on 'Shell Housing' for more information on this idea.

My question to the members of BuildingGreen is: Do you feel that this kind of idea would create interests in the building industry, especially in larger developments.
Your input is very appreciated, thank you. Wolf

I'm looking for a recommendation on the type of glazed tile for my new project. It is a passive solar addition to my cape house in southern vermont. The new insulated concrete basement covered with a concrete floor will form the basis of my heat sink. I have the following questions:
1. Does the floor need cracking mitigation due to thermal expansion or will steel reinforcement suffice?
2. Is there any specific tile grade, color, surface texture recommendations to cover the concrete floor. This floor will be connected to my current living room (for expansion purposes) which has thin hardwood flooring stapled to hardibacker substrate. I intend for the new trombe floor and the existing living room floor to be seamless and covered with the tile in question.

Dear Kevin,
My husband and I have purchased a one acre lot in Shadow Hills, California. We have done extensive planning to build a house on this lot. We plan to use only green materials, have solar panels, solar water heating, have a gray water system, use permaculture gardening methods, as well as other environmentally conscience systems. Our hope was to document the process as you did, in order to share and inspire others to build in the same fashion. We plan to as well, be our own contractor/owner builder. Do you have any suggestions?

I am trying to do some research on Carbon Credits. Has anybody delt with a Carbon Broker or with these Carbon Credits before? I am a little lost since they seem to be incredibly popular overseas but not so much here in the US. Please help!!

Thanks!