↑ Fig 1
↑ Fig 2Whether you live in a conventional existing home or you are building a new one, there are many things you can do to improve the quality of your environment. Many of the techniques I’ll be mentioning below are aspirational but you can adopt some, or all of these over time to reduce your personal environmental footprint and your exposure to building material toxins.
I’ll start from the ground up.
We need to limit the amount of concrete used but balance this with minimising exposure to toxic chemicals. Conventional suspended timber floors are typically supported on tanalised timber piles set into concrete footings. Tanalised timber is toxic and banned or restricted in several countries. An alternative to this is to fix the timber bearers to cantilevered concrete piles. To reduce the amount of concrete used, one can have timber jack studs between the bearer and concrete pile. This was typical in NZ before the availability of H5 treated pine in the late 70’s. To go even further, if one has an adventurous engineer, timber posts can be scribed into a stone footing set into the ground. This was historically done in Japan and other countries to keep timber out of the earth where it rots quickly. Once timber is out of the ground and protected we can remove the main durability considerations and the tanalised treatment requirement. Refer Fig 1 for more details.
Conventional suspended floors usually consist of manufactured sheet materials on joists with finished flooring atop. The sheet material is usually particle board or plywood. Both these materials ‘off-gas’ formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This means they give off harmful chemicals that can be absorbed by our body. These are bad for our health and bad for the environment. In addition to this, both of these materials are non-durable and need to be tanalised (or alternative toxic preservative treatment) when used in wet areas such as bathrooms and perhaps kitchens. One natural option is to revert back to solid timber tongue and groove strip flooring over joists. To protect such floors from water damage during construction, and to form a building platform, first frame and clad the roof and external walls and then lay the floor inside. This was the traditional approach in NZ, and one can use a natural oil finish. Note that polyurethane, which is usually used, is toxic and also ‘off-gases’ VOCs. Natural insulation can be installed between the joists below.
In terms of framing, if one is to follow a conservative approach, there are alternatives to treated pine. Untreated heart cypress can be used for the structural framing of a typical home, and if your house conforms to the low-risk design requirement of the New Zealand building code, untreated douglas fir (oregon) can be used for all enclosed timber framing instead. In this case you will be wanting to use heart grade douglas fir as the sapwood of all species is non-durable.
Douglas fir is arguably the preferred framing used in other western countries, as it is slightly more durable, and possibly stronger than the pine used here. We use pine in this country because it is fast growing in our climate and we can harvest the crop four times a century. Douglas fir is also grown in NZ and is readily available at a similar price.
If you want to increase the insulation value of your external walls, 140mm thick framing can be used instead of the more usual 90mm.
Timber frame walls need to be braced to resist horizontal wind and earthquake loads. The studs will carry the gravity loads but without bracing they will buckle under normal conditions. Nowadays bracing is typically achieved with plasterboard sheet linings and tightly spaced fixings. Alternative and traditional bracing techniques include; diagonal timber boards ‘let-in’ to the studs, diagonal metal straps or angles, or a ‘lath’ of diagonal timber strips if you have an adventurous engineer.
If one of these traditional approaches are used, the walls can be sarked in timber or finished with an earthen plaster over a timber, reed, or expanded metal lath, or even over old carpet if on a budget. If a thick earthen plaster is used this will aid in the temperature and humidity regulation of your home. You will want natural insulation in the cavity. Refer Fig 2 for more details.
Alternatively if plasterboard is to be used (or another sheet lining material), the walls can be given a thin natural plaster, or even a natural paint atop.
In essence paint consists of a pigment and a binder. Natural paints may be have clay (alis), milk (casein), lime, linseed oil or water glass as the binder or glue. These are all safe to use, and many can be made at home. Note that conventional ‘plastic’ paints are toxic and ‘off-gasses’ VOCs.
You will want to use splash backs in areas subject to water splash for durability.
Externally, the walls could be clad in local, plantation grown, untreated heart cypress weatherboards (refer Fig 1) or shingles over battens. The cladding could be oil finished, or painted with a natural linseed oil paint. You will want to use a non fire retardant wall underlay if you want to avoid the fire retardant toxins used in most synthetic underlays. You can also use heart cypress cavity battens to avoid toxic LOSP or tanalised timber variants.
In terms of external joinery (windows and doors) the environmentally friendly option is double glazed untreated timber. This has much less embodied energy (the sum of the energy required to mine, manufacture and transport it) than aluminium or steel, and it also performs a lot better thermally. It can have an oil or a natural paint finish.
Arguably the most important feature of your home and the one that usually defines a shelter is the roof.
It is hard to beat the cost, durability and convenience of a long run metal roof, and for this reason corrugated iron became the kiwi standard. However, metal is very high in embodied energy and there are other options. More natural materials include timber shingles, reed thatch, terracotta tiles, green roofs, and slate. But unless you can afford the high cost of the natural alternatives, which either need to be replaced more frequently, or are durable but more expensive upfront, this is one area where you may want to stick with the standard.
Timber shingles are beautiful, but in our climate the typical western red cedar varieties are non durable unless tanalised. This increases toxicity, and renders them unfit for harvesting drinking water. You may be able to import durable eucalyptus shingles and shakes from Australia, and these have apparently been used successfully here. Water reed thatching is the predominate thatching material used in Europe. It is a premium roofing material, but it is also non durable in our climate. Raupō or bullrush is our local reed, and was used for thatching by the Māori and the pioneer settlers. Terracotta tiles are a very durable roofing option, they are heavy however and do not perform as well in earthquakes. The firing process also means they have high embodied energy (although less so than metal roofs). They are non toxic, but pipe penetrations and flashings need to be of lead (coated in an acrylic paint), which must be considered if rainwater harvesting is to occur. Green roofs have enormous aesthetic appeal, but they are incredibly heavy (similar to adding a full second storey to a building), which is not very appropriate in earthquake prone areas. They also require waterproof membranes beneath the soil. Finally there is slate, a natural stone and the mother of all roofs, if one can afford it!
Once again you can use non fire retardant roof underlay if you want to reduce your exposure to toxins.
Options include 100% genuine sheep wool (blown in), rigid wool / polyester blends, boric treated cellulose (subject to availability), rock mineral ‘wool’, or perlite. If the insulation is to be retrofitted into existing walls, a gap to the cladding must be maintained. Claddings leak and a ventilation gap is required to help them dry out. Also the insulation value of a material is usually reduced if it gets wet. A ventilation gap can be created with a proprietary drainage matt.
If you want more density in an internal wall for sound insulation, a 90x45mm stud wall can be filled with light earth. This can be fitted ‘insitu’ (in place) for a new build, or installed as pre made bricks (stuck together with an earth mortar) in a retrofit. This technique is not the best for a conventional 4x2 frame external wall however. It is less insulating than some other materials, and you would really want to use it 300mm thick to achieve good internal comfort levels.
Walk in showers have become the norm in this country but there is no natural way to waterproof them. Behind and below the tiles is a waterproof membrane. A metal or ceramic shower tray could be used instead but you still have to deal with the walls.
Tadelakt is one option used to waterproof wet areas in the middle east. This was traditionally applied over stable adobe walls and not movable stick frames though. To put this in a conventional home one would have to deal with timber movement to avoid cracks and water damage.
One non toxic solution for a shower is to use a clawfoot bath with a beautiful copper frame for the full surrounding curtain and rose, though this option is difficult for elderly or disabled people.
MDF is ubiquitous in the modern kitchen. It is used as a backing for laminated drawers or cupboard carcases, or as a substrate for laminated, lacquered, or veneered facing panels. MDF is toxic and ‘off-gases’ VOCs. An expensive substitute would be solid timber carcases and facing panels, or a cheaper option would be open timber shelves. These can look nice, and if objects are regularly used, dust will not be a problem. In terms of bench tops, natural stone is the ideal surface. It will last a lifetime, and can accept hot objects. Alternatively, oiled solid timber (new or reclaimed) is a more budget friendly natural solution, but requires more care during use.
Hot water accounts for approximately 30% of a home’s energy consumption, and some say it is hard to beat solar hot water systems in NZ. They may meet 50-75% of your hot water needs for free (after the initial outlay), and will have an electric, gas, or wetback booster for cloudy days. Some say they are not very durable, and overly complicated though, and one is better to create electricity via renewable means, and then use this to power a conventional hot water cylinder.
For hot water backup, space heating, and even cooking, a wood burning stove is a good option in our temperate forested islands. They can be connected to the hot water cylinder with a wet-back, and to radiator wall panels in a central heating system. You will need to check with your local Council to see what they allow.
I hope this information has been useful. Much of it is not commonly known, and if more widely adopted, over time, environmental toxins and our carbon footprint would be reduced, comfort levels in our homes increased, and personal satisfaction and quality of life enhanced.
Scroll down ↓