Documenting a personal quest for non-toxic housing.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003News
An interesting opportunity has emerged this week. I've learned of a Lustron home (see the article on Lustrons in the Gallery page) in Indiana which is being offered free to anyone who wishes to restore it, will dismantle and remove it, and clean up the original site. This comes very close to a ready-made non-toxic housing solution. And you certainly can't beat the price! But it looks like taking advantage of will require a lot of help. There are some 3000 components in a Lustron home and restoring this means find a team of volunteers to go to Indiana to dismantle the home and transport it to some form of storage. According to Lustron enthusiasts I've consulted, this would need about 800sf of storage and some of the roof truss components weight as much as 400 pounds. Restoration work is sort of like restoring an antique car, involving cataloging, cleaning, and repairing of the parts and replacement from salvage of those parts that are too far gone. This could take months to a couple years. Then, once the parts are all restored, another team would be needed to make a new foundation with radiant heating and re-assemble the structure. It's doable -others have done it- but I could only do it with lots of help.
Another bit of news comes from Tim Sihatgar of US Systems who contacted me recently to report that his modular aluminum building system is now in production. He has a new web site which can be seen here. Similar in nature to the expensive and scale-limited T-slot framing systems common in industry, this new Modular Housing System uses 6.75" posts and beams joined with a unique locking clamp. A system of slide-in Structural Insulated Panels (panels made of a sandwich of styrofoam and Oriented Strand Board) is used for walls and flooring, roofing, and suspended ceilings are supported by a newly added solid web aluminum truss joist. Altogether, this system comes very close to the ideal of a plug-in architectural system with standardized parts or whole homes being offered right out of a catalog. And the pricing seems quite reasonable, with the primary post and beam parts selling for $19 per line foot. Currently Sihatgar is working on a demo home of very elaborate design -shown in 3D models on his site.
This system would work perfectly for non-toxic housing with the one exception of its use of Oriented Strand Board SIPs. The system does, however, offer metal skinned and hardwood skinned SIPs which can be used as an alternative, though these panels still tend to be designed for further finishing by other wall covering and siding materials. The twin grooves in the original smaller scale framing system were designed to mount simple slide-in panels in store display fixtures. In this larger scale system, the same style grooves will work for just about any panel material one might want to use, with the caveat that one would not have the same strength characteristics of a SIP. Thus a simple wall system could be readily made using a weather resilient panel material in the exterior side groove -like sheet metal, foamed aluminum panel, or even ferro-cement panels- and something comfortable in the interior side groove -hardwood dovetail board, cork, cloth covered panels- and then a non-toxic insulation like cotton batt between them. By employing a Modernist pavilion home one eliminates this issue altogether by relying on window walls for most of the exterior with light partitions and sliding panels/screens inside. Additionally, the ability of the system to integrate the smaller scale framing components means there is also a ready means to integrate built-in furnishings with similarly non-toxic composition. Altogether, this is a very promising product.
I am corresponding with Mr. Sihatgar further to see what spans would be tolerable for simple pavilion style structures and what other materials might be employed with the system. This could be the solution I've been looking for, offering the potential to stockpile components saved up incrementally using the strategy I outlined in the Urban Nomads article.
