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Summary
Paul continues his discussion on the building codes at
Wheaton Labs with his usual crew (Mark, Katie, Opalyn, and probably Kyle).
If Paul were to build a new wofati from scratch, he’d go for a much simpler design – taking Allerton Abbey as an example, he’d make the shed roof half as steep, get rid of the gable roof and replace it with either another gentle shed roof or something similar to a gable roof with a flat roof on the inside and a mild gable-shaped pile of earth with a membrane over the top of it to encourage the
water away from the middle of the house. Overall he’s found that the interesting designs add a lot of build time and require bigger, thicker logs that they don’t always have.
Mark has seen bales of rice hulls for sale that can fill up to 90 cubic feet, but are expensive. Paul doesn’t completely approve of the concept due to having stuff delivered and would prefer to build with materials that are already on-site or close to it. That said, if you’re going to be importing something regardless, rice hulls are a good material. Massive
straw bales are also viable, but you’ll need equipment to unload it. If you’re lucky
enough to get it, bark from a timber forest is ideal, and won’t even have any persistent gick on it. In general, you don’t want green material in the insulation layer as it can be prone to spontaneous combustion if it gets wet.
If you can get used glass for windows, that’s great, but if you want double glazed windows, make sure you buy them locally, as if they are delivered via an area with different elevation like a mountain, they’ll crack from the difference in air pressure.
Relevant Threads
Wofati and Earth Berm forum
Recycling forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn Brenger
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng
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