The Sustainable Home

Are electric cars good in winter? Yes! But…

As I dug our Chevy Bolt out of a snowstorm this week I remembered the questions I had about winter performance before we bought an electric car. Our experience over two winters agrees with the research I did at the time: EV’s perform fantastically well in winter, at temperatures well below -30C in my experience (I don’t even know if there is a lower limit), but there are some things you should know. Will your electric car start in the winter? 100% yes, at temperatures when many of your neighbours’ internal combustion powered cars may be frozen blocks of metal

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Lime-stabilized earth base coat

Lime-stabilized earth is one of the most versatile plaster base coats for natural buildings – it bonds well to both clay and lime, it’s a versatile plaster that can be used to level walls with fills up to 2″ deep or more in spots. A lime finish coat is applied over top for weather resistance. In this post I’ll share a recipe for lime-stabilized earth that’s a hybrid of two recipes you can find in our book Essential Natural Plasters – one recipe comes from Vermont-based New Frameworks (p. 87) the other from Ontario-based Straworks (p. 89 – you don’t

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Evaluating oils for earth floors

Many of the wonderful properties of earth floors, including their strength and water resistance, derive from the oil used to harden and bind them – I find it useful to think of earth floors as linoleum made with earth, instead of cork and sawdust. Linoleum was originally hardened with boiled linseed oil, but linseed isn’t the only oil that works for earth floors. The main types of oil that have been tried for earth floors are boiled linseed, raw linseed, hemp, and tung (note that boiled linseed oil actually contains drying agents, and you should source oil that is free of heavy metal

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Binders part 2: gypsum and lime

In Part one of this post we looked at clay-based plasters; now we’ll examine the other natural binders, all of which are different from clay in that they have a chemical set. Gypsum Gypsum is one of the oldest plasters, and because it can be cooked as low as 350 degrees Fahrenheit to create a binder, it is in fact among the most ecological. Gypsum is a soft, fairly common mineral that is formed when sulphuric acid (typically from volcanoes) reacts with limestone. It is carried in solution and deposited in layers on sea-beds, and over time it forms into

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Binders for Natural Plasters (Part 1)

As their name implies, binders glue the other elements of a plaster together. More than anything else the binder defines the properties of a plaster including strength, permeability, and resistance to weathering. Over thousands of years of natural plastering there are three major binders that have been traditionally used: clay, gypsum, and lime. There’s a lot of variation within all three. Lime in particular is further categorized into hydrated lime, natural hydraulic lime, and natural cement; all of which have very distinct properties and are considered as unique binders. But for simplicity let’s look at the properties and origins of the

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Sand for natural plasters

Sand is underrated. It provides the structure of plaster, and the quality of your sand can make the difference between success and failure. So what makes sand good or bad? In general, good plaster sand should be sharp, with a diversity of particle sizes, and clean. Sand should be sharp and angular, not worn and rounded. Imagine trying to build any kind of structure out of balls vs blocks, and the reason for this becomes obvious. Unfortunately this means that many natural sands are poor plaster sand. Beach sand in particular should be avoided, because waves have often been rounding

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A review of the Natural Building Companion

Two years ago I saw a presentation by Ace McArleton, co-author of the Natural Building Companion, and based on that I knew I needed to order the book. For a while it sat on my shelf, alongside a collection of other books about building and natural building. However it has distinguished itself from its companions in the true test – when I have a question, or encounter a problem in my work as a straw bale builder, it is the first book I reach for. I now consider this book to be an essential reference for those planning to build

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The Dumont House

The first time I saw Rob Dumont’s house I was unimpressed. I was visiting an ex-girlfriend in Saskatoon, I mentioned that I was doing some research into sustainable homes, and she said “there’s one near here, we should walk by it.” It just looked like any other house. The Dumont house is in the colonial revival style, it’s simply built and doesn’t stand out in the neighbourhood, which has a suburban feel to it (though it’s not far from the downtown). I’m used to seeing half million dollar ecohomes, so when you take away the architect and expensive finishes, solariums,

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