Documenting a personal quest for non-toxic housing.
Sunday, September 19, 2004Systems
A new and promising building system has been brought to my attention recently. The German company Bambutec is now offering tools and components for a very novel bamboo and wood based space frame system. The system uses bamboo or milled wood struts with precision milled ends that plug into laminate lumber joints with precision milled sockets. The components are permanently fixed together with epoxy. Cladding attachment is performed at the joints. Simple as this seems, the system is capable of large scale structures and seems able to produce both truss based and geodesic based structures. Housing structures have been built using a bay frame truss structure with a triangulated sandwich wall framing. They also offer an arch truss system with a 10 meter span that looks quite suitable for housing.
I was concerned about this meeting non-toxic housing requirements when using epoxy but I've been told by the company that they have used milk-derived casien adhesive for both joints and the laminate lumber joints with equally good results allowing for a completely VOC-free building system. However, that still depends on using chemically unadulterated wood and bamboo -which may require importing all that material from Europe or using the few and expensive 'organic' lumber sources there are here in the US. Also, keeping the lumber VOC-free means using designs that well protect the wood structure from the elements without the need for chemical sealants, though I know of some VOC-free wood sealants from Palmer Industries (the makers of non-toxic Airkrete insulation) and others that might be suitable for exposed structure use. Altogether, this is an intriguing system that seems to offer some strong possibilities. My only complaint with it is the lack of demountability, which seems to have become an increasingly important capability within the logistics of my situation. But I'm definitely looking into it.
Also, a member of the ReadyMade Magazine readers forum informed me of an aluminum building system I had not heard of before. Called Aluma-Strut and offered by the Texas based Aluminum Engineered Systems company, this appears to be a medium scale beam and post with truss roof system using an unusual round profile shape with locking flanges for four attachment faces. It's rather like a scaffolding system evolved into a permanent structure building system. The system apparently relies on load bearing perimeter wall structures supporting truss floor and roof joists or pitched roof trusses with an interior clear span of up to 60 feet. The system is apparently designed to emulate the look of conventional housing, though is also used for commercial and induatrial buildings.
This looks to be another very promising building system but the company does not appear to sell any standardized components via a catalog. Instead, they are contracted to produce a housing 'package' on a made-to-order basis. This precludes the possibility of stockpiling components incrementally -the same problem faced with using the pre-fab park shelter products I previously explored. But it is engineered to accommodate sweat equity, rather than relying on exclusive assembler contractors with heavy equipment. That is a strong advantage. And it should be easy for a volunteer team to use this system as the parts are light and easy to assemble with simple tools. Not as quick and easy as theatrical truss structures but not too far from that.
Lastly, I have gotten the final word from the BLM and Park Service on those mining claim properties I was interested in. It turns out that the sites are under Park Service jurisdiction and this adds further restrictions on their use due to environmental regulations. It's simply not possible to build any kind of 'worker housing' if there is any readily available private land for sale within 'commuting distance' of the site. Of course, it's not their concern whether such land is affordable or not nor is 'commuting distance' clearly defined. So that pretty much puts the kibosh on that notion.
