Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Green construction materials

[Sanda Everette (severette]

I may be late on this response.  I just got back from a trip to
Washington to visit our community land as well as Rosewind in Pt
Townsend and attend the WTO protest in Seattle.  Doug Milholland from
Rosewind had told us about Deltec homes previously and is in the process
of building one now (He is a contractor.)  If I recall correctly, they
use standard dimension plywood on at least their walls.  I don't know if
he is currently on-line but Lynn Nadeau certainly is. She probably can
give his phone number.  By the way, he has worked with many alternative
building methods including straw bale and rasta block.  They even used
straw bale to build the local Unitarian Universalist church and this is
in the Pacific Northwest--doesn't get much wetter.
> 
> By the way, I have no information about the other method that was
> originally mentioned (Deltec  Round House).  However, it should be noted
> that whenever you get away from "standard" materials  dimensions and
> angles, you're adding cost.  They don't make plywoood that fits on an
> octagonal roof without a fair bit of waste.   Labor costs are higher if
> you're making extra cuts  too, just because of the the extra time taken.
> It all adds up, and the building industry is geared toward straight lines
> and right angles.
> 

-- 

Sanda and Brian Everette
http://www.wordrunner.com/sanda

San Mateo Cooperative Community
http://www.wordrunner.com/sanda/smcc.htm
Toward a sustainable lifestyle: 
grow some of your own food and/or know the gardener who is growing it.