| ALTERNATIVE CONSTRUCTION Alternative construction simply means you are not building a typicalized "stick and brick" house. The building materials and sometimes the construction methods themselves are different that what you find in the big cities. There are many tried and true methods for building, and we find that what is done in other countries as "standard" are considered "alternative" to the more narrowly viewed opinions of Americans. The real question is, with all of our technological advances and higher living standards, are American homes really made BETTER? Take adobe, the earthen brick.... we have here a brick that is about 10" wide, 14" long and around 3" thick which is stacked with a mud mortar to make a monolithic wall system that has lots of thermal mass. There are domed adobe buildings that are literally thousands of years old still standing and being lived in in the middle-eastern countries. With a little maintenance these homes obviously stand the test of time. Could you see a standard constructed "stick and brick" still standing, even with proper maintenance, 2 thousand years from now? In all honesty, it's not the materials which make a difference, but HOW it's made. You can find wooden beams in ancient temples and even living trees which are over 4,000 years old today. What we see today, in typical American homes is the APPEARANCE of quality because everything is based on "the facade", a superficial "face-lift" in construction which makes things look great, when in fact the quality is very poor. Everything is aimed toward marketing and the almighty dollar. How to cut corners and cut costs without going below the "to-code" minimum standard and make the most profit in the process. Isn't that the American dream? To have a house with a yard and a garage and all the necessary appliances like hot water heatings and refrigerators, running water for our long showers, hot tubs, pools, and wasteful washing machines and dishwashers, electric grid hook-up for all the electricity we ever need at the flip of a switch, a tie-in to the sewer system where all the waste and junk that is poured down the drains go to some magical place where it's all cleaned up for us and some of it is recycled/reclaimed, and trash pickup that hauls off all our consumer-driven waste off to no-man's-land never to be seen or heard of again. Out of sight, out of mind. Are we out of our minds??? Everything is automated and geared toward having no personal responsibility for the land, this earth, or even our next door neighbor. It's as impersonalized as the superficial lives we live every day. Somehow, through it all, we try to find meaning. Some of us get tired of the "system" and quietly back out of it and search for alternatives. Some of us don't go so quietly, but the rest of society feels helpless and would rather remain ignorant and uninvolved rather than have to change their lifestyle of conveniences. It is true, however, that many don't have the options that some do in life. There are many who live in poverty (not by their own choice) or are stuck in the "rat race" of life and still can't figure out how it happened or how to get out of it. Some people, like many who live in colonias here on the border of El Paso County, are just struggling to put tortillas and beans on the table while adding on one room at a time to expand the size of their house (which is usually an older mobile home or concrete block house), which may or may not have adequate sewage and water availability, or even electricity. It is those families and individuals who could use this empowerment of energy efficient housing, whether it's standard or alternative construction. To those in Santa Fe, NM an adobe house is an expensive and huge house with very strict codes, but to a Hispanic-American who lives in a border colonia, an adobe house may be a sign of someone who is in poverty living conditions, so they may not prefer this type of dwelling. Everywhere we go we find people of all different races, cultures, beliefs, and living styles. It is true that one man's trash is another man's treasure, but when it comes to energy efficient housing, ALL can benefit from it's long-term effects, for an energy efficient home will save the persons living it 30% or more on their utility bills for the LIFETIME OF THE HOUSE! So again, we ask, which type of building materials should we use? Alternative or Standard? The answer is simple. "It depends..." It depends on the individual and what they like. It depends on how much they have to spend. It depends on if they want it built for them or if they want to build it themselves. It depends on their knowledge and expertise. It depends on how much time they have on their hands. It depends on a lot of things, but just to cover some of the basic examples for some alternative building materials, so you can make a comparison for yourself, we'll give you some ideas and a list to think on. Choices for the walls and construction of your home could include: Adobe - for the "southwestern" look, perhaps in the Pueblo style, or the Mediterranean style. Adobe is a brick made from dirt, sand, and straw with cement or asphalt emulsion as a stabilizer. Adobe has an excellent thermal mass quality, especially when insulated on the outside before being plastered. Rammed Earth - rammed earth has a similar mixture of dirt, etc. but is rammed by a hydrolic ram which packs it solidly into forms. It's conductive qualities are similar to adobe, but tends to be more expensive than adobe. Strawbale - strawbales are easy to build with and have an incredible insulative factor of R-40 to R-50. These are becomming very popular and information all over the internet can be found, as well as entire books on how to build with strawbale. Their fire-safety, once plastered, is 4X safer and fire-resistant than a typical wood-framed wall. Cob - cob is like a combination of strawbale and adobe, except that it is mostly clay (mixed with loose straw) and is shapeable and has both insulative, but mostly conductive qualities. Like adobe, it's labor-intensive. Papercrete - officially known as "fibrous cement" blocks are made very inexpensively using recycled newspaper or magazines (or other paper) and cement, and perhaps a little sand or borax. These blocks are very strong, lightweight (can be picked up with one hand easily), and have an R value of 2.8/inch. A typical wall block can range from 6" to 14" or more thick. There are other options for alternative construction materials like bottles, cans, tires (earthships), cordwood, fidobe, etc. however they will not be covered here. To learn more about the energy efficiency (EPA Energy Star) qualities that are incorporated into all our standard/alternative/hybrid homes click here. |
| Standard or Alternative Construction Which one should I choose? Continued..... |