tanooki_suit said:
So how to you comply with the various Australian standards? All the rammed earth people I spoke with said our soil would first need to be tested before they would consider using it for building, which is not cheap. Also, the same is true for timber - I've previously tried to use massive Jarrah beams salvaged from the docks in a house construction and the builders wouldn't touch it without engineering testing and certification. I still have them sitting in the backyard - they are 40cm by 20cm and would be intact after a nuclear strike, yet if I wanted to an occupancy certificate at the end of the building process, they needed to be certified.
It would be good if you provided some more details and some photos of the houses you build. I know you've said in other threads that you want to protect the privacy of your clients, but surely you can crop the photos and de-identify them enough that there is no risk of anyone recognising the houses. I would certainly be interested in knowing how to build a house for $125k that is safe, secure, fire proof, energy- and water-self sufficient. I am sure most of the developing world would be interested too. So why not explain exactly how you achieve this?
In 50 years as a master builder, never had to do a soil test, or have any materials passed. I design and plan the houses myself, submit to council and that's it. When you know what you're doing and provide councils with real plans and specs, you never have any problems. There are no facilities for putting photo's on this site to my knowledge and in the developing world, earthen homes are the norm, as in lots of Europe the middle east and Asia.
I would say the supposed builders you talked to, are typical of the industry today, profit is the one desired outcome. This can be seen by the never ending shoddy workmanship and never ending complaints against modern builders, the majority who have only done a TAFE course and only capable of using a nail gun and glue, for their chemically saturated matchstick materials.
They make all these false claims, demand lots of money to get out of doing a decent job because they don't have clue how to build a real house, earthen or otherwise. Trying to claim using readily available free earth, rocks and decent hardwoods is more expensive than using manufactured expensive crap matchstick materials. Is ample proof of their experience and knowledge, which amounts to nothing.
Never used a nail gun in my life, we dowel and joint our structures. Never built with pine or used chemically saturated insulation, or anything else 99% of kit home builders use and the majority of homes frames are prefabricated from pine and held together with flimsy bang in junk, not even nails.
Sadly the majority today live in pure fantasy land and only accept the propaganda fed to them, if they lived in the real world they would do proper research and find earthen homes, are the most common form of building on the planet and can last for thousands of years. You will never see a modern pine matchstick home last more than a few years before problems arise, warping jammed doors, windows and ingress of water, dust and weather.
I only post here to show people what real alternative building technology can provide, economically, security and safety. Those who can't understand viewable logic and prefer to be conned, is their problem and in this day and age, that fits over 90% of those trying to enter the building market.
There is also the reality that if you are an urban dweller, your understanding is zero, urban councils and builders will do anything to increase their income. Which is why modern buildings are pure crap and every day you read of the never ending problems the majority of builders refuse to acknowledge or take responsibility for. That's why building insurance is just a rip off con, try getting one of the modern builders to come back a fix a major or even minor repair and you will soon see what the facts are. It's the same with councils, they allow crap buildings then refuse to accept it was they that passed the plans, accepted the construction process and application.
Rural councils are much more practical and logical, although we have built a couple of earthen homes in urban areas, including one in Canberra and that used all second hand materials and trucked the rock and soil in. Never had to test anything, the building engineer came out looked at a sample of what we were going to use, checked the submitted specs and said fine.
Posted Monday 28 Nov 2016 @ 12:39:29 am from IP
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