We need a Insured builder for a natural hybrid home

Hello all,

I am looking if anyone knows builders who are good with hybrid homes and thermo evaluations of different designs. We live in zone 7a and it gets humid. We are looking for east, west, and north insulation and the south wall being eathern for a battery with eves over it during summer. Materials for south we're thinking of will be rammed-earth or cob. The materials for all other walls can be hempcrete, aircrete, or maybe strawbale. Looking for greywater designed in as well as a simple roof for rain catchment. Maybe 3000sf or so central around a masonary stove with out door kitchen. This may be a weird question for a forum like this, but I'm finding very little online. We are worried about mold in the design.

Welcome to the forum.

Those are a lot of requests.

I would suggest looking for a local contractor.  Ask your friends.  Ask for references. Talk with the prospective contractor at length to see if they know what they are doing and are reputable.

Since you mentioned insurance ask the prospective contractor about their insurance.

For the greywater design, I would suggest investing in Art Ludwig's book Branched Drain Greywater Systems so you will know that a contractor knows what they say they know:

https://permies.com/wiki/43124/Create-Oasis-Greywater-Art-Ludwig

Best wishes on your endeavor.

Hi Bennie, sorry to be late to the discussion—I usually watch the straw bale forum since that’s my area of experience.

I agree with Anne—start by talking with local contractors.  

You don’t say where you’re building, but most states in the U.S. (if that’s where you live) have some licensing requirement for building contractors, which may include carrying liability insurance.  Visit https://www.homeadvisor.com/r/state-by-state-licensing to learn more about your state.  

Except for the mention of mold, you don’t say why you’re looking for a builder who carries insurance, but that alone is probably a good reason.  Most lenders won’t support a construction loan unless the owner is working with a general contractor who has liability insurance.  Lenders want to give you a loan—but they also want to minimize their risk by being able to go after deep pockets in the event of project failure.

And it’s not easy to find contractors with experience or interest in building with some of the natural materials you described—straw bale, cob, rammed earth, hempcrete, and I’ll add straw-clay, too. This is truly unfortunate because it often means that homes made with these materials just don’t get built.  Learn if there’s a natural building association where you live.  The western United States has the California Straw Building Association (www.strawbuilding.org), the inter mountain states has the Natural Building Alliance (www.natural-building-alliance.org)—there may be others.

And I second the suggestion to get Art Ludwig's work on greywater--excellent resources!

Jim
Many Hands Builders