Green Building - Materials Testing and Longevity Study Facility - Facades,Roofing,Plasters, Flooring

I've looked around the internet quite a bit in search of data to support various claims for homemade green building products such as cob, earth plasters, rocket stoves etc. There are dozens of facilities that test manufactured products from carpet to glass, rubber, paints and metals. If they make it, it's being tested.

With green-homemade products, we have mostly anecdotal stuff with examples from different climatic zones and building styles.

There is quite a bit of data concerning durability of rammed earth and adobe which might be somewhat transferrable to cob. I'm interested in seeing data on any other homemade materials.

If you have knowledge of a test facility, please add a link to it.

MY OWN TEST FACILITY --- My place on Vancouver Island has quite a variety of micro climates - hot and sunny, damp forest and variations in between. I will add a pond and I already have a little stream with its own little micro climate. Probably the greatest variation will be between the southern walls with full sun and northern walls that face dark forest.

So my place should work as a testing ground representing a wet coastal environment that dries out in the summer. Other facilities in divergent climates would be needed to thouroghly test any material. For data to be useful ,it should be backed up with many redundant parellel tests in similar climates.

I'm primarilly interested in testing exterior facade materials. Floor coverings, stoves and other interior items aren't climate specific in their behavior and longevity.

FACADE TESTING --- Since I'm constructing several buildings on the property, there will be plenty of surfaces to use. Walls in the various zones will be covered in several different pannels of the materials being tested, so that direct comparrisons may be made. The north wall of my house will have no windows and will all have the same overhang and solar conditions. North walls here are prone to mildew problems, so any comparitive study would include mildew resistence as one of the properties to keep an eye on. I could see breaking this 40 ft wall into vertical strips 3 or 4 feet wide, running from the overhang to the foundation.

Most of my strong wind and driving rain comes form the south and west. Those walls will demonstrate resistance or succeptability to water erosion and infiltration.

Data from this sort of testing would be valuable to others who are building and it would help anyone dealing with building officials.

THE LIST OF MATERIALS TO TEST - Here is a list of some of the more common materials in use This list should grow over time.

1. Raw cob, plastered cob, whitewashed cob
2. Earth plasters over a variety of substrates
3. Rammed earth
4. Straw clay, plastered and raw
5. Wood chip clay, plastered and raw. Please suggest additions to this list. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are a few materials of my own creation which will be prominently featured.

I have created new threads concerning some of these. They include---

1.Sawmiill slab truss wall with wood, bark and clay infill as described in the thread entitled --- A NEW BUILDING SYSTEM IS BORN --- This is the system I'll build my walls with, once approved.

2.Gabion wall stone siding, as described in the thread entitled --- Dry Stone Pebble Wall. Stone Siding for Wooden Buildings - Requires no mortar or masonry skills.

3. The system described in the thread entitled --- Thousands of Homes Built from Earth Bags Made from Re-claimed Fishing Nets --- Disaster Relief

There are more ideas to come on new wall coverings ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS PLAN REQUIRES MANY LOCATIONS IN MANY ENVIRONMENTS TO BE A COMPLETE GREEN BUILDING MATERIALS TESTING SYSTEM --- SIGN UP BELOW



-------------- I'm totally serious about the signing up below thing. ----------------------

A school of architecture could keep an eye on the results of all of these tests and publish reports.

A student could compile data from many locations. This would give greater credibility to the studies since an independent observer would document the performance of each test block. Proponents of various building systems tend to sugar coat the results of their hard work.

Any materials tested at my place will have all costs including materials and labour documented. All maintainance inputs will also be accurately recorded so that we get a true record of all costs.

If any of you are coming to the island, I could arrange for you to install your own test block if you're using something significantly different from the others. I'll past a video, every year which compares them all.

This might make for a suitable thesis for someone in architecture or environmental studies.

I'm consolidating all of my green building inventions and adaptations under one roof. The thread is called "Dale's Marvellous Inventions and Adaptations." and links to other ideas and inventions. Here's the link --- https://permies.com/t/19303/green-building/Dale-Marvellous-Inventions-Adaptations