The Real Know How

How-Tos, Videos, Tutorials — Ramping Up for the 21st Century

Archive for the tag “construction”

18 Mar 2012

How to Cure Wood

Curing wood you’ve felled or found (drying ‘green’ wood in a controlled fashion) is essential if you want to use it for construction, woodworking, or even just for use in your woodstove or fireplace.

You can read Curing Wood in 5 Steps here.

Curing the wood keeps it from cracking, splitting and distorting after you’ve already created/built something with it.

Artificial drying – over a fire or in an oven also risks splitting or otherwise damaging your wood.

“Cabinet maker Jeff Segal shows how he’ll store and cure the freshly milled plane tree, using bearers or stickers [square dowels] to separate the wood and allow the air to circulate.”

Posted in building materials, craftsmen, UK, wood, woodworking and tagged building materials, construction, craftsmen, wood, woodburning, woodworking | Leave a comment

17 Mar 2012

How to Make Wood Shingles

WoodlandsTV from the UK shows us how to make oak shingles with hand tools. He notes that the oak shingles should last about 70 years untreated due to their high tannin content:

Posted in building materials, buildings, construction, craftsmen, roofing, UK, wood, woodworking and tagged building materials, buildings, construction, craftsmen, oak, roofing, trees, UK, wood, woodworking | Leave a comment

14 Mar 2012

Rammed Earth Construction

Rowland Keable from the UK talks about rammed earth and rammed chalk construction.

Posted in alternative materials, building materials, buildings, construction, house, rammed earth, UK and tagged alternative materials, building materials, buildings, construction, house, rammed earth, UK | Leave a comment

14 Mar 2012

“Natural building expert Michael G. Smith from the Emerald Earth Institute shows us the first layer of an earthen floor (clay soil, sand, chopped straw and road base, or crushed rock): just one layer of the 3 layers they eventually use. He also shows us a finished floor that has been treated with 4 to 6 coats of linseed oil and is water resistant and completely mop friendly.”

It was nice to see a natural, durable floor that didn’t come from a factory.

Posted in alternative materials, building materials, buildings, cob, construction, house, save money, success story and tagged alternative materials, buildings, cob, construction, house | Leave a comment

11 Mar 2012

1 Comment

Passive Solar Earthship Homes

This video (in English, despite the title in Russian which translates as ‘house build from tires’) takes a look at “Earthship” houses in New Mexico. The houses are designed to be stand-alone, self-sufficient, off-grid units.

In this case, the “Earthships” have thick walls that allow for passive solar heating formed from rammed earth in recycled automobile tires. Empty aluminum cans and glass bottles also provide filler for the walls.

The thick walls can store so much solar heat that the inside temperature is easily a stable 70 F without additional heating, even on freezing days.

So, heating = solar passive via thick walls and window siting, energy via solar panels and wind turbines, water and waste = special filtration and septic systems.

Posted in alternative materials, buildings, construction, earthships, new mexico, solar energy, the southwest, wind turbines and tagged building materials, buildings, construction, earthships, new mexico

10 Mar 2012

Straw Bale Build in Fairview, Utah

“When this home is finished and you walk into it , it will be like putting on an old pair of Levis. It’s just extremely comfortable and personnable.”

This (4H?) video shows a straw bale house under construction in Fairview, Utah. The house is a wooden post and beam house that uses straw bales as in-fill material (versus a structural straw bale house that would use the bales as support for the structure).

At the time of the video all or most of the straw bales are in place between the wooden joists and the all-ages work crew is focused on finishing the interior walls with a home made plaster (a mix of mud, sand, wheat paste and straw).

Posted in alternative materials, building materials, buildings, construction, straw bale, the southwest, utah and tagged alternative materials, building materials, buildings, construction, straw bale, the southwest, utah | Leave a comment

10 Mar 2012

Adobe Brickmaking 101

Here they are making stabilized adobe bricks including Portland cement.

Posted in adobe, alternative materials, building materials, buildings and tagged adobe, alternative materials, building materials, construction | Leave a comment

10 Mar 2012

Straw Bale, Adobe and Post and Beam House in New Mexico

The following videos feature a small (800 sq ft) “hybrid” house built by designer Ted Owens in Corallis, New Mexico, near Albuquerque. His house uses post and beam construction (he got the lumber from salvage yards and home renos), straw bale and adobe with mud used as plaster. The house draws its electricity from photovoltaic solar panels.

The house also uses sunlight, heavy materials (adobe walls and concrete floors) and shifts in temperature (passive solar concepts) to keep the inside temperatures comfortable. Windows are also carefully placed to maximize comfort in the house.