Kristin Lang

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since Jul 24, 2022
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Recent posts by Kristin Lang

Thank you yes we have wrapped the line and made a foam box of r10 around it.  But it is just on bedrock. So feel like even if we piled foam all around it would still need something more??
1 year ago
Can I add thought and question for those of us living in frozen snowy world for 6 months.  A couple issues.  We lived without an inside toilet for two winters but the path to pee on gets gross when you have 6 people peeing outside.  It’s very obvious.  Not sure if the solution is to make more paths but in -40 you don’t want to go too far to pee.  Most of the time the kids run out without a jacket.  But my question is is it even helpful for plants if we peed on them specifically as then their snow cover is frozen and they are not as protected from the elements without the big snow layer?  Any way to make it less of a visible eyesore?   Currently we have a composting toilet and pee goes into greywell.  So no longer an issure for us.  But just wanted to add this to discussion and thoughts if we want to make it more appealing to a wider audience.
1 year ago
We sealed our earthen floor with a mix of raw tung oil and raw linseed oil.  It takes a long time to harden. We live in the house and did the floors in sections at times needing to walk on the freshly oiled floors to get to bathroom.  I felt safe with kids in the house and knowing the oil wouldn’t hurt their feet. The floor is not as perfect as it would have been if we didn’t have so much traffic on it but it looks beautiful still. About three days after the last coat of oil it was no longer sticky to feet and after 20 days I was putting the table on the floor with felt pads and felt it was nice and hard.  
1 year ago
Hi. We live in a home built hemp house, earthen floors have a small dug well they produces for us all year.  Last two winters we hauled buckets from the well.  It only froze a in deep cold -40 but we could still break ice with an axe and get water.   This winter we have a line in and 12 v pump.  My husband has wrapped the pipe and we need to cover it.  Not sure what material to use to cover the pipe and base of well.  Debating sand or pea gravel?   Anyone know what keeps freezing temps out better.  We get lots of snow cover ever year about 5-6 feet.  But have a few weeks of -40 as well.   Our natural soil here is very silty and binds tight the layer above is root mass loam.   We are on bedrock.   Any thoughts on best cover material.  We thought we could put straw bales on top of whatever we choose.
1 year ago
Hi.  Curious the pine you are using is it balsam? We live deep in the boreal forest and are clearing some areas for animals. Can balsam be used for watteling like this with bark on? We peel our spruce logs and plan to use them for fence posts, raised above ground by rods or rock jacks. We have not been using any balsam. But I like the idea of watteling it in the fence areas between animals.  And my husband is building wire rock jacks! So they won’t rot.  Would be great to use more of the wood I was just curious about the bark as well as it was not peeled does it last as long?
Hi.  We are considering where to put a root cellar and how to build. We live in northern Ontario and are off grid, so it’s a priority, but we are on bedrock.  Main question is if we make a concrete stem wall on bedrock and then build wi the salt preserved logs and surround the cellar logs with extra dirt. Is it too cold if the floor is bare bedrock?   Obviously we would choose a slight hill by the house to prevent flooding but our home is on bedrock and bone dry.
Thoughts anyone?  
2 years ago
Another major hurdle is building codes,   We live in unorganized area and are making plans for one. But none of the fireplace suppliers want to sell us pipe for this. They tell us it’s dangerous and won’t work.  So yes we are planning to still find supplies elsewhere, but it is a hurdle for anyone thinking about it.  I know building codes up here would never allow for one currently. Every wood stove has to be wet certified.
2 years ago
Hi.  We are trying something new.  Thought I would share, we have poured 5” of earthen floor base (using lots of hemp fibre and sand in clay mix). This was poured over vapour barrier then rockwool comfort board insulation, which can handle compression but is flexible, under the rockwool is gravol bedrock. The home was built on bedrock pinned to it to en we filled low areas with gravol to make it more level, then placed comfort board then vapour barrier.  The main concern is the flexibility of the rockwool comfort board. We would have loved to use glavol but no suppliers here in northern Ontario and rigid foam did not seem like a good option in a home we are trying to make sustainable.  So we opted for a thick pour hoping the thickness will be enough weight to compress the rockwool evenly and prevent cracking. I can post an update in a few weeks.
2 years ago
ThAnk you for feedback.  We have decided to keep the feed inside we would have had to extend the burn tunnel slightly and appreciate feedback that that is not ideal. So I guess I will be trying to cob in shelves for wood storage to try to contain all the mess of wood inside the living space but I have seen a few fun ideas.  Thank you
2 years ago
Hi. We are looking to puta rocket mass heater in our hempcrete home.  We live in northern Ontario and have cold winters, we managed this past winter with a small stove and uninsulated floor, bedrock.  And we were warm.  This year we are putting in earthen floors and adding a mud room on the back of the home.  Our question is why is it not advised to feed the rocket mass heater from a different room than the burn chamber bell?   Ideally we feel feeding the heater from the mud room addition will keep wood storage out of main area and any potential backdraft out of living space.  Our walls are 12” thick. We have the chimney exit already for an 8” rocket mass design.  Other than monitoring issues with fire bing in a different room is there any reason not to put the j through the wall. Hempcrete does not burn, and has some thermal mass
Thanks
Kristin
2 years ago