I receive numerous emails each week from people with natural building questions, so I thought this would be a good way to answer some of them and spark new discussion! Please send me your questions, comments, drawings and ideas. I'll post some of them here like a sort of natural building "advice column".
Also remember to sign up for the newsletter so you can get seasonal updates on happenings here and in the wider world of natural building.
Here's a doosy of a question!
ReplyDelete(wait for it)..., I bought an old 1940's Nth Florida Cracker house 20x50 feet, no insulation cept whole thing is cypress and cedar (awesome right) w/asbestos shingles (whole thing on pillars & off the ground). It needs A LOT, doors, windows, a lift on the backside and replace the outter wood that wraps the bottom (weather exposed for some years). Everyone says I should doze it and just put a mobile on the property. My funds are limited (bout $9,000). I want to save the house and make it stand another 70 or so years. Pros/cons of Cobbing the shell (Outer layer attaching it to the main frame. The whole thing is tongue n groove (ceilings, floors, walls)! Can it be done? It would be ambitious I know. Strip the outside walls to the frame? Incorporate some kind of wire mesh to the exterior and fill in to the interior wall?
BUT, might be too heavy for existing support beams holding up the house. So..., ???
Anyone ever heard of such a retro-fit?
RV2u in Taylor County FL
(single mom w/not too young kids & 4 Acres)