Hemp and Building Sustainable Homes

 

83Hemp has a long history of industrial use dating back some eight thousand years B.C. In more recent times hemp has been perceived as a drug but industrial hemp is making a comeback.

Hemp is a vital component of eco-bricks which are being used in sustainable cave houses. These are being redeveloped from derelict properties, using recycled materials and eco-bricks to form unique ecological homes for the future.

Hemp comes from the Anglo Saxon word ‘haemp’ and is the popular name for plants of the cannabis genus. Hemp usually refers to the strains of the plant cultivated exclusively for industrial use as opposed to cannabis which is associated with pot and similar drugs.

Hemp has a huge variety of uses but continues to be overshadowed by the cannabis connotation of illegal drugs, with which it is often confused. However hemp can legally be grown, under license, in many countries, including the European Union countries and Canada.

Cannabis sativa L. is the variety primarily grown for industrial purposes, it is a fast growing plant and has been cultivated for many thousand of years being used to make rope, clothing, paper, hemp oil and medicines. Growing hemp improves the condition of the ground and reduces ambient contamination. It is a robust plant that requires neither herbicides nor pesticides during its cultivation.

Hemp as an industrial material has a ten thousand year history. The first recorded use of hemp was as a cloth fabric, found in China as far back as 8000BC.C. Circa 4000B.C. hemp started to be used, again in China, to make ropes and as food. 2000 years later, the Chinese hemp oils and medicine were in use. By 1000B.C. its use had spread to India and Greece where the first instances of hemp paper were found.

By the 6th century hemp was being used in Europe in some amazing ways, in France a hemp reinforced bridge was built and it is still in use today. The hemp fiber also found uses in sail making, caulking materials, fishing nets and lines. In later years hemp was used to make a variety of foodstuffs including butter and beer. By the 15th century Renaissance painters were using hemp canvases.

Today industrial hemp is used to make a staggering variety of products ranging from medicines, body care products, building and insulating materials, clothing, textiles, food, fuel, livestock food and bedding, plastics and paper.

In the building industry hemp bricks, because of their sustainability and excellent insulation properties, are being used to construct external and internal walls of ecological homes. In this area of Spain the external walls of an eco house will consist of a eco-bricks, manufactured in Guadix with the proprietary name of Cannabric®.

Cannabric® derives its properties from industrial hemp fibres (cáñamo). The hemp bricks are made up of industrial hemp fibres, slaked lime and a mixture of innert mineral materials. The bricks combine the functions of a load bearing wall that is fire-resistant and does not require the addition of thermal or acoustic insulation.

The most important component of the eco-brick is industrial hemp which has a very low thermal conductivity (0.048W/m²k) producing a brick with vastly superior insulation properties against both cold and heat. The mineral component of the bricks gives them their mechanical strength. Being a solid brick, with a high specific heat, it has the optimal thermal properties to protect against heat.

These characteristics make hemp bricks the ideal choice in areas of southern Europe where there are extremes in temperature through summer and winter.

The mechanical strength of the block starts with formation of insoluble hydrates. The strength increases over time with the carbonation of the free lime, (a constituent of slaked lime) by moisture and carbon dioxide present in the air. Another important factor in the progressive curing of the eco-bricks is the gradual petrifaction of the industrial hemp by the lime and minerals present in the bricks.

Due to its unique composition the hemp bricks allow the transpiration and diffusion of water vapor between the inside and outside of the building equalizing humidity within the building thus avoiding humid and cold areas and minimizing condensation on the inside wall surfaces.

Slaked lime acts as the binder, basically holding the brick together, but it has other uses. The slaked lime acts as a filler protecting the brick against water entry via the external surfaces exposed to rain and snow. On the other hand it provides a protection for the industrial hemp fibers against fungal and parasite attack.

The hemp bricks when laid endwise are used for the construction of external walls thirty centimeters thick. The internal walls built with hemp bricks are thinner being half the thickness. The delightful, popular cave homes of this area of Andalusia are naturally ecological in that they are re-developed from ancient derelict cave houses. Where ever possible the construction materials used are salvaged from derelict properties that have been demolished. This recycling minimises the environmental impact.

It is ironic that this area of Spain, the Altiplano, until the late nineteen sixties, was renown as an industrial hemp growing area. The hemp growing era came to an end with the introduction of nylon, farm mechanization and the growing freedom of movement coinciding with the end of the Franco regime. The combination of these factors threw large numbers of agricultural workers out of work. As a result the village populations suffered a catastrophic decline with those leaving migrating to the Costas and principal cities in search of employment.

As a result of these traumatic changes in demographic the remaining population was mainly aged, the villages incomes dropped to near poverty level and many empty houses fell into disrepair.

Most of the land workers who moved away lived in cave houses which are now being revitalised by the growing demand for eco-properties.

Author: Les Edwards

 

The Hempcrete Book: Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime (Sustainable Building)
 

The Hempcrete Book:
Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime (Sustainable Building)

Hempcrete is a building material with excellent properties. It’s made from lime and hemp shivs (a waste product from hemp fiber growing); it can be used for walls, floors, and for roof insulation; it’s breathable, absorbing and emitting moisture to regulate internal humidity and avoid trapped moisture and mold growth; it provides excellent acoustic and thermal insulation and thermal mass; it’s lightweight and reduces construction costs; and it’s environmentally friendly—it locks up CO2 for the life of the building, and the hemp doesn’t require agrochemicals or insecticides in its cultivation. This book is a detailed practical manual for professionals and self-builders, detailing how to source and make hempcrete and other hemp-lime composites, and how to use them in new builds and restoration. The Hempcrete Book provides a full explanation of construction techniques, highlighting potential pitfalls and how to avoid them, and includes a comprehensive resources section and examples of completed builds, with design notes.

The Hempcrete Book: Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime (Sustainable Building) | Living off the Grid

41 Comments

  1. That is some pretty fascinating ideas, but Ive got a question for you. I have a WordPress site, however my design is rather boring. Yours looks genuinely great though and I am wondering if it is a premium theme? Im just contemplating acquiring one, but I genuinely like yours. Cheers!
    Arcteryx jackets Sale http://www.arcteryxsale.org

  2. How is it that just anyone can create a blog and get as popular as this? Its not like youve said anything incredibly impressive more like youve painted a pretty picture about an issue that you know nothing about! I dont want to sound mean, right here. But do you actually think that you can get away with adding some quite pictures and not genuinely say anything?
    mont blanc sale http://www.asosso.co.uk

  3. I am so delighted to see this particular kind of content articles . I appreciate lots and hope to determine another terrific posts in your blog . I concur with most of the things you stated , and i adore the valuable points you revealed . With thanks lots and wish you the most effective with your internet web site.
    cheap merrell http://merrell.kmmits.com

  4. Spletno oglaševanje – Learn more about the professionals as well as downsides of each and every of such approaches. Current changes inside adsense program have got shaken upward several affiliate marketers. May this suggest an instantaneous collapse regarding ad-sense is incorporated in the cards? even better, can cost per acquisition or cost-per-action advertising and marketing necessarily mean your loss of life involving google adsense as well as contextual advertisings?.
    jimmy choo boots sale http://jimmychoo.hawksportsind.com

  5. I am impressed, I must say. Really seldom do I discovered a blog thats both informative and entertaining, and let me tell you, youve hit the nail on the head. Your post is outstanding; the matter is something that not many people are talking intelligently about. I am really happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.
    north face jackets sale http://northface.easyinboxmailer.com

  6. This in actual fact is my very first time i go to here. I found so numerous entertaining stuff in your internet site, chiefly its conversation. In the lots of feedback in your writing, I guess I’m not the only one obtaining all the leisure here! Keep up the superb work.
    buy Millet http://www.milletonline.cc

  7. Thank you for posting this piece. I’m undeniably frustrated with struggling to search out relevant and brilliant commentary on this subject. Everybody now goes to the very far extremes to either drive home their viewpoint that either: everyone else in the planet is wrong, or two that everyone but them does not in truth understand the situation. Many thank you for your succinct, applicable insight.
    barbour jackets store http://www.barbouroutlet.online

  8. You can certainly achieve a better rank on YouTube by only elevating the amount of views. But it doesnt show up real when you have a huge number of views with no comments or ratings. To deal with this problem, there are actually one or two companies on the market who offer at least an increase within the amount of views. They offer packages that take on expanding the amount of views and subscriptions, along with ratings and including comments. In the event you buy YouTube views as a piece of an entire package, your videos rating will seem much more authentic.
    buy merrell online http://merrell.kmmits.com

  9. An exceptionally cold profit by searching on the internet can be which you can look at distinct specific features of the computer inside the article, simply just search for this component in which pronounces “Technical Details” and “Tech Specs”. Once you try out a ordinary save it may need most people a lot of time simply disk drive now there and additionally look ahead to sales person to express to a person the specialised data for one netbook, and perhaps they dont understand the right formula.
    Rene Caovilla online http://renecaovilla.kmmits.com

  10. What i dont understood is in reality how you are no longer actually much more well-preferred than you might be right now Youre very intelligent You know thus significantly when it comes to this matter, produced me personally imagine it from so many varied angles Its like women and men dont seem to be involved unless it’s one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your own stuffs nice Always deal with it up!
    Rene Caovilla outlet http://renecaovilla.unilorites.com

Comments are closed.