You know when you come across something so shocking your instinct is to tell people about it ("holy heck did you know..."), but then they don't want to know because it's so shocking?
We set out on this project just innocently wanting to build a passive solar house - we just wanted somewhere warm to live. Josh researched extensively as to materials for the walls. We knew we wanted concrete floors and lots of insulation in the ceiling. But what to build the walls out of for best performance? Once he started looking into it though, he came across the nasty truth about VOCs - volatile organic compounds. It's one of those things that the more you read about it, the worse it gets. And we decided, if we want to bring up children in this house, we don't want VOCs.
They're the worst in things like paint and carpet and cabinetry. If you don't want VOCs, you're in for more expense because it's no longer standard. It's one of the main reasons (besides saving heavily on cost) Josh decided to make all our kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and some of the doors himself. We found ourselves wishing very quickly that we hadn't found out about VOCs at all.
But in standard stick frame walls, most framing pine has VOCs, and the standard paint has VOCs. So Josh really didn't want painted walls on the inside. One day, he was looking at roof tiles and came across an architect (MacPherson Architecture) who is also into natural and breathable materials and is importing clay blocks called Porotherm.
The more we looked into it, the more we liked it. The blocks are made simply of fired clay and sand. They have a waffle-like construction allowing air pockets inside which provide insulation, unlike other bricks which are solid through and hence have little insulative value. Also, the clay blocks require plastering outside and in and there are a selection of very natural plaster coatings available, including insulating plaster for the outside.
If you'd like to get your hands on a Porotherm block and have something (anything!!) to swap for it, get in touch now!
Call Amy on 0276 354 901 or message us on our facebook page.
We found a company (The Natural Paint Company) that provided fume-free paints for our ceilings. We used a Resene low VOC paint for the doors and ceilings in the minor dwelling though, and that doesn't smell at all so we think we would have been fine with that.
If you do use VOCs in your build however, don't worry you just need to get a few indoor plants to recycle the air and suck up all the off-gasses and you're all good to go. We found the most effective plant to have is called Mother in Law's Tongue. You just need one in each standard sized room (and a few in the lounge / kitchen / dining space).
Please do get in touch even if you can't think of anything to swap but you would like to get your paws on the coolest clay brick on the block. I'm sure we could figure out something you have that we would be happy to swap for it :)
Thanks!
:)
We set out on this project just innocently wanting to build a passive solar house - we just wanted somewhere warm to live. Josh researched extensively as to materials for the walls. We knew we wanted concrete floors and lots of insulation in the ceiling. But what to build the walls out of for best performance? Once he started looking into it though, he came across the nasty truth about VOCs - volatile organic compounds. It's one of those things that the more you read about it, the worse it gets. And we decided, if we want to bring up children in this house, we don't want VOCs.
They're the worst in things like paint and carpet and cabinetry. If you don't want VOCs, you're in for more expense because it's no longer standard. It's one of the main reasons (besides saving heavily on cost) Josh decided to make all our kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and some of the doors himself. We found ourselves wishing very quickly that we hadn't found out about VOCs at all.
But in standard stick frame walls, most framing pine has VOCs, and the standard paint has VOCs. So Josh really didn't want painted walls on the inside. One day, he was looking at roof tiles and came across an architect (MacPherson Architecture) who is also into natural and breathable materials and is importing clay blocks called Porotherm.
The more we looked into it, the more we liked it. The blocks are made simply of fired clay and sand. They have a waffle-like construction allowing air pockets inside which provide insulation, unlike other bricks which are solid through and hence have little insulative value. Also, the clay blocks require plastering outside and in and there are a selection of very natural plaster coatings available, including insulating plaster for the outside.
If you'd like to get your hands on a Porotherm block and have something (anything!!) to swap for it, get in touch now!
Call Amy on 0276 354 901 or message us on our facebook page.
We found a company (The Natural Paint Company) that provided fume-free paints for our ceilings. We used a Resene low VOC paint for the doors and ceilings in the minor dwelling though, and that doesn't smell at all so we think we would have been fine with that.
If you do use VOCs in your build however, don't worry you just need to get a few indoor plants to recycle the air and suck up all the off-gasses and you're all good to go. We found the most effective plant to have is called Mother in Law's Tongue. You just need one in each standard sized room (and a few in the lounge / kitchen / dining space).
Please do get in touch even if you can't think of anything to swap but you would like to get your paws on the coolest clay brick on the block. I'm sure we could figure out something you have that we would be happy to swap for it :)
Thanks!
:)
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