GOING GREEN

which building material to use?

I am in the planning stages of my first development- a 3×2br triplex. I would like to build as ecologically sustainably as possible including solar power and hot water systems, rainwater and greawater tanks and possibly double-glazed windows. I am utterly confused about which building materials to use though! It sounds as though mud-brick is more expensive than traditional brick, although I have read that it doesn’t need to be lined internally and no structural frames are needed as they are load bearing wall. Besser-brick sounds a little cheaper and may not need internal frames as well? And then there’s hebel and concrete sheet, and I’m not sure if this is the same as connite! Basically, I want to know what is the cheapest, most insulative, eco friendly and reasonably priced. Help!
Thanks

You need to do your own research for specifics and choices. What you are missing is the absolute need to do this within the context of the Uniform Building Code. It does not make any difference if you live in a jurisdiction that mandates it or not. You don’t make any assumptions about bearing walls, etc. If you don’t document and follow acceptable standard practices, you can end up with a mess that no one will insure, no one will finance and no one will ever buy or accept as collateral. I know what you are trying to accomplish and all of that can be done within the UBC. Once your design is complete, don’t buy any materials or do any work until you first pay a PE professional engineer to review everything.

Environmentally Friendly Sealer for Concrete & Masonry

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 7:12 am and is filed under eco friendly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.