James Bong

Hello,

Just looking at this from a campervan point of view and to save butane canisters, that are not available everywhere, and not needing to have a larger propane bottle, as you will use limited gas.
And you can cook carbs and meat in one go in pressure cookers.

There are those thermal cookers, which are basically just large thermos flasks, but compared to a pressure cooker, they are maybe not as good as you lose heat when you pour the contents from a pot to container.
Far better to leave contents in the pressure cooker to carry on heating.

Say you cooked something in a pressure cooker in a campervan and wanted to leave it and go walkabout.

Would wool blankets be the best option with regards to low fire risk?
Would just be concerned about the bottom of the pot burning anything?

Cheers

Not a tiny house as such, but if one wanted to insulate a cargo van as cheaply and easily as possible/least amount of work, how would you go about it?

I was thinking maybe this ;

Closed cell  (waterproof) camping mats from the poundshop and carpet taping them straight to the bare metal walls and roof, making sure to overlap the mats wherever possible, or fill in gaps with some sealent.

For the floor maybe just a sheet of polythene then carpet underlay and carpet.

But would condensation get between the camping mats and metal? Would condensation/moisture eventually break down the mats?

What would you use inside the panel spaces?

Cheers for any help.

Orin Raichart wrote:I'm not sure I"m understanding the question.

Is your current situation A:

outside |stone wall| air gap |stone wall| inside


Or is your current situation B:

outside |stone wall| inside

Or did you find a cave?

There are ways to insulate all three but the solutions maybe different for all three situations!

Tradition stone houses were built with solid walls as i understand it. These house walls need to be 'breathable', so a lime motar was used instead of modern cement which traps moisture.

But, say you put a cavity inside a natural stone wall and filled it with insulation - is there a moisture/damp issue?

Loren Luyendyk wrote:I use 44 gal (200 liter) drums, preferably made out of plastic.  These are incredibly easy since they are water and critter tight, they can support your weight (no framing necessary), and you can usually get them cheap.  For a couple we have two drums, when one fills we move to the other.  The drums have worms in them which break down the material.  I use soil, sawdust, old hay, leaves, for cover material.  If the first drum isn't finished composting when the second one is full, I complete the compost process in a worm bin specifically for this purpose.  I also add veggies to the worm bin to feed them in between humanure inputs.

check here for simple plans you can download:
http://www.surferswithoutborders.org/Ecological_Sanitation.html


Happy pooping!

Can/should you pee in a compost toilet? I notice that some designs have a seperate compartment for urine?
Is this necessary?

Charli Wilson wrote:You can personally build anything as long as you get sign-off afterwards by a 'qualified person'- which would probably be Building Control for the local council for a new build, but for renovations may be a gas-safe certified engineer for a gas appliance, or a HETAS engineer for solid-fuel stove, etc. The person doing the sign-off is taking on significant liability by signing it off, so many are reluctant to sign off things that they haven't done.

For renovations you can claim 'the house was like this when I bought it'- but without the certificates and 'proof' of signed-off change you don't get credit for the changes in things like EPCs (when you go on to sell the house, for example). You still get the actual benefits- just not on paper. You may need to get it all signed off to sell the house (depending on what was changed), or pay indemnity insurance for the buyer.

So long as the building is signed off by Building Control or an appropriate person- the house insurance-company won't care who built it. If you make changes that are not signed off then it can invalidate your insurance if anything were to happen to the house- the insurance company would use any excuse to wriggle out of paying!

Cheers Charli,

In the UK is it quite easy to get the stone masonary and all the main structural work signed off then?

Also, with the structural work, do you have to call the qualified person on each stages of the build - such as foundations first etc? How would they know how deep your footings are for example?

Thnx again.

From a regulation standpoint with regards to building a house with your own hands?

Say, you wanted to build a natural stone house in the UK & Ireland for example. Is it even ok to build the walls without being qualified? And what about getting house insurance after you've built said walls?

I'm thinking that the authorities wouldn't let you put a gas boiler in for example.

Cheers.

Hello,

Stone walls seem to be terrible insulators and traditional stone buildings need to be beatheable right? So modern wall insulation not possible for British winters on solid stone walls?

But one thing i can't find out on the web, is whether you can insulate a stone wall if it has a cavity/ 2 walls?

Would moisture still be a problem etc?

Cheers

Thanks people.

Been having a think and have come to the conclusion that a camper van would be a better choice as you already have shelter, electricity, heat, and would just need some insulation.

Cheers.

Hello,

Intetested in building a quick and easy small building to use as our accomodation whilst we build a natural stone house.

With regards to cob vs straw bale ;

Is a straw bale better than Cob for the cold weather, OR will they actually use around the same amount of energy to heat as although the cob house is a weaker insulator, it will hold the heat better?

Presumably the lack of rigidity in straw bale house walls requires you to build a wooden frame structure and roof first?

Which of the two methods is quicker to build?

Thanks