How do you think your total emission figures will stack up for your house in the end?
I want to calculate this when we're done. I think we did OK. We used as little concrete as possible, by putting the house on concrete pillars instead of a slab (I think I posted pictures at the start of the thread). More than 90% of total materials is wood and cellulose (recycled paper). A lot of the materials have been sourced regionally. We're buying as much second hand stuff as we can.
And if everything turns near to what I expect/hope, we should be needing very little energy. Relatively speaking, that is. My estimation is about 4000 kWh per year for a family of 3, and that includes hot water and heating. Our solar panel array will produce around 6000 kWh per year. Oh, and we stole this plot back from a corn field. We're planning to grow around 10 trees and lots of plants.
Either way, it's much better emission-wise than a brick and concrete home, but how much better, I don't know yet.
What's disappointing, is that there's a young lad we know, who comes around every now and then to pick up ideas for the house he plans to build this year. He's quite eco-conscious, but still adamant about building a brick house. It depresses me a bit, because I'm also building this house to show others what can be done. But everyone builds brick houses, here in Austria. It's so ingrained in the mentality (from the 50's-90's) , although there's a fantastic wood working tradition here.
How does that play out over the expected lifespan of the structure? (mild steel is capable of being maintained and repaired almost indefinitely if you keep on top of things - but the keeping on top of it is critical).
When keeping on top, the lifespan should be more than 80 years. But that's my guess, could be much more, especially as we're building in such a way that everything can be replaced. Some luck is needed though. There might be big construction mistakes or and accident.
Over many centuries tile/concrete has been used because it is better than alternates. One way to reduce fossil use is scavenging. Last bathroom i put in was entirely built with tiles and concrete board scavenged from other construction and demolition projects. So much left, that next bathroom on the list is covered. (I have plenty of storage space, these are farm properties.)
If you play your cards right, they will pay you to haul the (usable debris/leftover) from demolition or new build sites. The fossil burden is already incurred, you add nothing by repurpose, and save landfill volume. Downside is that i still get fonecalls from contractors who would love me to haul more such (to them) junk away, since their waste haulage/landfill tipping fees are exploding. If you have access to, say, a triaxle hauler, you may never need to buy construction material again.
Good luck, let us know how it turns out.
sidd
Thanks, sidd. I will.
My favourite place is the local garbage dump. It's mindboggling to see what people throw away! I often take my daughter with me who finds stuff she likes there, so we don't have to buy toys. When she's done, we bring it back again.
A couple of weeks ago the guys working there approached me (slightly aggressively) to tell me that scavenging was now against the law. I understood their problem: 1) people coming from Hungary to sell the Austrian garbage back home, and 2) potential accusations of them doing business on the side. But still I tried to make clear that I was a local, and that it was a shame to let those things go to waste. They even have big signs promoting stufff like 'reduce, re-use, recycle'!
One argument was so silly. The guy told me that they got complaints from people who were actually annoyed that their stuff was re-used, rather than destroyed. Austrians are like that with their stuff (not all of them, of course). So I asked if I could take the non-personal stuff, like bricks and wood and metal scraps. No, I couldn't.
In the end the guy said: "OK, I'll let you take that table, but it's the last time!" To which I replied: "OK, I'll pay you later!". Unfortunately, Austrians don't get my sense of humour yet.
But I'm going to have to talk to the boss, or even the mayor. I need my garbage dump. Where else can I scavenge? I'm so not ashamed about that!