(Text of a presentation at Green Hope Day,  Roeding Park, Fresno, CA)

Jim Comegys  jamescomegys@yahoo.com

Executive summary:  Modern houses are too costly to build and too costly to supply with energy, alternatives exist but many more are only now emerging. The best house has a solid envelope, is solar intelligent to reduce costs, and has alternative energy.  For a snapshot, visit greenhomebuilding.com.  This survey takes up cob houses, rammed earth, papercrete, haybale houses, on site block construction, earthships, and ceramic houses.   The author will release a report on which of these methods are legal in the Fresno area later this year.  He can be reached at jamescomegys@yahoo.com  Jim Comegys

 

 

            The most suitable house is cheap to build, easy to maintain, inexpensive to heat and cool, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly.  Such a house ideally is in the grasp of low-income families and perhaps even the homeless.  (A target is a 1200 square foot house built for $47,500. or less and costing under $40 per month for PG&E.)  So, do we have such a house yet?

 

            A number of ideas are currently in the wind: houses made of straw bales, rammed earth houses, earthships made of old tires, cob houses, prefab houses, and houses made of cargo containers to mention a few.  There are others, too many to discuss them all here. I will start with tried and true construction methods, mention some provocative new ones, and end with a call to action. 

 

            Building Green  by Snell and Callahan calls itself  “A Complete How-to Guide to Alternative Building Methods”.  Chapter 8 deals with cob houses.  Cob is an aggregate of sand, clay soil and straw which one mixes in wheelbarrow sized batches and applies to a foundation creating walls a foot or more thick.  Creating curved walls and sculptural forms is easy and many results are beautiful.  Although it is labor intensive, a house can be built as time permits and women favor cob.  The thermal properties are something like adobe.  In The Cob Builders Handbook You Can Hand Sculpt Your Own Home by Becky Bee, the author states a cob house can run as cheap as $10.00 per square foot, and that it is easy, affordable, comfortable, and long-lasting.  I doubt this includes bathroom and kitchen, but if the shell costs $12,000 then the remaining bathrooms and kitchen for $35,500 are not a difficult stretch.  The Cob Cottage Company offers apprenticeships in Oregon, there are many organizations to help.  (www.weblife.org/cob  www.cobcottage.com www.housealive.org  Google “cob house builders” etc.)

 

            Two near relatives of cob are adobe, and rammed earth.  Adobe is very familiar here in the Valley, seismic activity is a threat so check codes. With the right soil on your property (for example in the North Fresno hardpan soils), the cost is dirt cheap.  The addition of petroleum (or cement) stabilizes the adobe so it doesn’t melt in the rain. Consult www.adobefactory.com , www.architecturalhouseplans.com sells plans for the Do-It-Yourself builder. 

 

Rammed earth interspersed with twiggy layers makes up portions of the Great Wall of China which are still standing, so are rammed earth country houses centuries old in France.  Clay soil is rammed until it compresses to form a single sturdy mass capable of bearing the weight of a roof. The thick walls have so much thermal mass that a single pane of glass is ample protection from the elements. Some of the modern style houses are quite elegant, see the NAREBA site. This method is labor intensive.  www.nareba.org  www.diyrammedearth.com  House plans are available at www.adobebuilder.com

 

An idea worth developing for this area is newspaper fiber with a cement binder, or newspaper fiber with a clay binder.  The hybrid of cement and newspaper is called “papercrete”, paper fibers with clay are called paper adobe.  Both are strong, light-weight, and if you can scrounge the newsprint very low-cost.  $10 a square foot is cited often. The material is a something like cement or adobe but lighter and stronger and with some flex to it. You can pour it in layers, waiting for it to dry, or make large bricks or blocks, then mortar them together with additional papercrete. The roof will be regular construction, but a papercrete roof is possible- it just needs sealing.  Papercrete forms an airtight envelope and has considerable thermal mass; add south facing windows and a ventilation system to keep energy costs down. Unfortunately, papercrete absorbs water, so build above the waterline on a cement foundation.  Fortunately it does not burn or support termites. This stuff is legal in New Mexico.  A possible fortune will be made by the inventor of a quick way to make this stuff in bulk.  www.papercrete.com  www.livinginpaper.com

 

Straw bale houses have entered the popular imagination.  Guys love muscling the bales around, and the fast results are satisfying.  Bales are usually of straw but paper bales are possible, the walls can carry the weight of a roof but need to be stuccoed to keep vermin out. The walls also require protection from the elements by a 36 inch over-hang.  “How to” books are available, and for the do-it-yourselfer the price of $15 per square foot is mentioned. Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building offers an on-line course for the do it yourself builder (only $250!).  www.grisb.org  For photos of construction, visit Solar Haven www.solarhaven.org  

Fifty plans for building a bale house are available at www.balewatch.com and although they are small, the author Robert Andrew’s intentions are worth telling. He states his intention is to provide plans for small, efficient houses that are easy to build (owner-builder friendly), do not require a mortgage (pay as you go), are expandable (as you have the money) and are fun to build and live in. The sensible owner-builder who participates in construction could expect a price as low as $20.00 per square foot.  So his 440 sq. ft. Guest House would cost $8,800 and the 850 sq. ft. Habitat would cost $16,000.  A 1200 square foot house would cost $24,000.

The R value of hay bales is calculated at R-57, high enough for even California. Since more than one sort of roof could be put on a bale home, breakthroughs in construction and cost are possible.  A roof of SIP panels or  steel coated with supertherm, perhaps?  Andrews’ plans typically include a utility core with much of the water and sewage concentrated and passive solar features.  Consequently energy costs would be low.

Several kinds of blocks demand mention.  On site fabricated bricks are relatively inexpensive if you have the right soil, clay.  A hydraulic press runs on a diesel motor and can produce as many as 1000 blocks per day.  A slower hand press is available.  These low-cost eco-friendly blocks do not require firing or cement. Cost of construction overseas was around $13.00 per square foot.  Visit the site at www.lowcosthousing.com  Styrofoam blocks can be stacked to produce a ready-made form into which concrete can be poured to crate an instant house, just add the roof.  Another variety of block looks just like gigantic Lego blocks. www.icfconstruction.net 

A concept that is burgeoning at present is to shoot concrete onto a styrofoam or urethane core.  The resulting walls make an air-tight envelope with thermal mass that is perfect for the energy star house.  This is not for the Do-It-Yourselfer unless he knows how to apply concrete to walls.  Another technique to watch is the use of Structurally Integrated Panels or SIPS,  they are urethane between strand board, (they look like styrofoam between plywood.)  The are very strong, light weight, energy efficient, and glue together to make a solid shell which is hurricane proof.  Unfortunately, they cost as much as conventional construction.  www.sips.org

“Earthship” is the term for a stand-alone, off-grid house typically built into a south facing mountain slope with a bank of south facing windows.  Inside the wall of glass is a pond of grey water filled with growing plants, and behind the plaster are wall of used tires filled with rammed earth.  The few solar panels on the roof provide power to ride out any emergence, water is harvested and stored on site.  This house means independence.  The creator, Richard Meyers, has had 30 years to work on the many systems.  For a look at how a house should be, go to www.earthship.org

“Ceramic house”  is the term for a fired clay house built from dirt scooped into long plastic tubes. The inventor, Nadir Khalili, found adobe bricks were too slow and too expensive for Americans. The tubes of earth are coiled into place just like you made a coiled bowl in kindergarten.  The doorways and windows are often arches.  A gang of guys can put up the shell of a house in a day for the cost of the plastic tubes.  Plans and tubes are about 6,000 for a small house, for 1200 sq ft., figure $12,000.  Training to build such a house costs about the same. When it is built, you turn on a kerosene heater inside for two days and bake the whole thing like baking bricks.  It becomes water tight and fused solid.  Ceramic houses are legal in San Bernardino county, and apprenticeship courses are offered by the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture. www.cal-earth.org

Both dome houses and dome houses have a similar defect. The future owner of a kit house has a very small contribution to construction, he merely assembles the house.  Domes require specialized labor, which eliminates much of the contribution of the future owner.  And for both, the cost per square foot in Fresno is out of reach to  a low income person.  They are suitable for the more affluent, possibly a non-profit factory or construction company could design a home in reach of the poor? (Please note, the remarks do NOT pertain to having the studs in a wall or roof pre-cut or pre-assembled; what is called pre-fabbing.) Dome houses can be made on a frame, or have walls of urethane sprayed onto inflated bubble and coated with cement.  The bigger they get, the less they cost per sq. ft.   

As for cargo containers, there are 15,000,000 cargo containers in the United States and the cost of one is said to run from $900 to $2,500.  They are water-proof, hurricane proof, and with a coating of supertherm paint (R-value of R-20) cheap to heat and cool. These are an idea worth researching in my opinion, especially with supertherm paint.

I wonder what else is out there?

 

When we settled up this country here around Fresno, we came on our wagons.  We met every obstacle and we didn’t wait around for the government to give us a subsidy, we rolled up our sleeves and used the wit God gave us.  I believe we can do as well today.  In the Good Book it is written,   “The needy will not alway be forgotten…” Psalms 9:8 

How did we get into owning these houses that make us slaves to the bankers for 30 years?  And why do our elderly have to choose between paying PG&E and eating?  And who will find a way to house thousands of homeless people in Fresno and Madera Counties?    I believe we have the materials at hand right now, and the wit to do what Larry the Cable guy says.

 

Four suggestions (taken from Balewatch) which will save you a great deal of money are 1) build only as big as you need  2) face the long side of your home to the south for winter sun  and solar panels  3)  place windows strategically  4) build eaves and windows so winter sun enters but summer sun stays out.  The EnergyValue Housing Award Guide, an 87 page book list winners in reducing energy consumption, reading how the winners have succeeded constitutes a bank of useful suggestions, especially for the builder wanting to find a niche in the market.  NAHB Research Center sells the book.  Two words too listen for are LEED and Energy Star.  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.   Energy star is a government program  administered by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the DOE (Department of Energy).  From labeling computers for energy use it has expanded to more than 35 categories of products including new construction of commercial buildings and homes.  It provides guidelines, guidelines, energy goals and suggestions for construction that are useful to you or your contractor. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a product of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),  LEED is not a government agency.  It ranks projects as certified, silver, gold, and platinum based on building.  Visit www.contractingbusiness.com/feature/cb_imp_6605/ 

           

            Where do we end with this?  The task is so very big.  I wonder if it is a coincidence that the college baseball team that came out of nowhere and against all odds took the title came from Fresno?  Sure they are not so much the Wonderdogs as the Come-back Kids.  God bless them.  And Fresno, I wonder if we could be the come-back city?  Our mayor talks that way. www.greenfresno.org   And the United States, how do you like the politics?  Do we have work to do or what?  The come-back could start here.  Right here.  Right now.  And with all the folks in Fresno from every place you ever heard of, the come-back would have to spill and spread world wide.  Let’s live in houses that leave money for the kids and the old folks, let’s “git er done.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENVISIONING

 

STEPS TO OWNERSHIP OF A CHEAP SUSTAINABLE HOUSE   

 

            Clearly, a future owner will have to have a site in mind, a neighborhood, utilities, access to services, etc. These have to be checked and double checked.  Every aspect has to be thought through in advance.  For example, the opening of Madera high School South was delayed for months because on the entire campus, no-one had planned or put up restrooms for the students!   The critical factors are the land, the method of building, and the future owner who has to fit in and thrive in his new circumstances; the model for creating abundant cheap housing is a work in progress.  Please put a check near the parts you think need work, put a happy face near the parts you think are on the money.  Feel free to jot a name, URL or phone number beside pertinent sections of this report.

 

            The dream I have is this; a young single person or family head, or even a homeless person will be able to own a home that will cost him little and will help support him by generating energy and food.  With some modifications, his house will be a haven when the power is down, or a crisis occurs and could be adapted to functioning off the grid. The house would not require a 30 year mortgage since it could be built on a shoe-string.   (For conceivable crises, consult the book of Revelations.) 

 

Step 1:  Acquire land, lots or bigger parcels.  When the land is owned outright, a construction loan is possible, so ownership is desirable. 

 

a.       Single lots or neighborhoods. There are abandoned-looking parcels all over town, might some be available as a grant or for purchase at auction?  To house so many people,  we either need a lot of scattered lots or to develop new neighborhoods from scratch (which will happen since the high speed train is slated to arrive in Fresno in the year 2021, the station will be near Chinatown. www.highspeedtrainsforca.com) 

 

·        Are there larger parcels for free or cheap?

·        Are there lots for free or cheap?

 

b.      Lone rangers or organization men. The new owner can be left to his own devices, or he can be supported by a network of qualified and like-minded people.  We settled up Fresno in the 1880’s by colonies; lots were sold in Denmark, or Germany, or even in America; so we got the Danish Colony, the German Colony, and the American Colony who arrived together, built their homes and farms.)  In a best scenario, a “colony” of people build their homes and businesses using one another for support in addition to sponsoring organizations, churches, veterans’ groups, credit unions, whomever.  A large parcel might be the project of such a sponsor instead of having a developer do everything for profit.

 

·        What non-profits or faith-based organizations could sponsor the marginal, or low income builder-owner?

·        Does an organization need to be created?

·        Does a supervisory umbrella need to be created?

 

 

2.       Selecting the size and sort of house.  Selecting the house type to build depends on the purchaser and the builder-owner.  The kind of house to go up depends on the resources of the builder-owner; does the house have to be built as soon as possible or as cheaply as possible?  Is the owner-builder a woman (who might prefer a cob house) or a man (who might prefer a bale house.)  Does the owner have a number of strong friends but little money so a rammed earth house is feasible?  The selection of house depends on the resources of the purchaser of the land.  Is the purchaser a mega-church with access to cement trucks and stucco blowers making, for example, cement domes possible?  Is the purchaser a non-profit which hopes to create a bank of skills among its clients such that it creates a body of skilled individuals capable of employment?  Is the purchaser an organization with numerous men in rehab such that free labor is a strong point?

·         Are hay-bale houses, domes, etc. legal in Fresno?

·        Is there are minimum number of square feet?

·        Are there organizations that would consider sponsoring dependable young people or worthy marginal people?

·        What sorts of grants are available?

 

 

3.      Kitchen and baths vs. the rest of the house. 

a.        Kitchens and bath. Although several methods of constructions are capable of creating the shell of a house cheaply, the kitchen and bathrooms are not cheap.  Kitchens and bath require specialized labor.  Many things can go wrong all of which increases the time and cost of a house. 

Idea:       Right now is a golden opportunity for the creation of prefab kitchens and baths that can be delivered to and dropped into a construction site.  Such a prefab kitchen could be built into cargo containers, delivered to the site, and hooked into existing electrical, sewage, and water systems.  Conceivably, a “kitchen wing” could be built to replace the existing older kitchens of existing houses.  Inside the kitchen, counters of cast concrete or paper fiber, both green and labor intensive, make possible a desirable modern alternative to granite with the possibility of a training skilled labor for local manufacturing.

For future considerations, a grey water system, and alternatives to hooking to the sewer system.

 

·        Who wants to create local jobs?

·        Does the owner-builder need a job or a skill?

·        Is a local business incubator looking for ideas?

 

b.      The shell.  The shell should be one unit or sealed for strength and low cost of heating and cooling, it should incorporate passive solar features to keep costs down. When the shell of the house is built, typically the roof goes up, then the finishing begins which includes putting in fixtures to bathrooms and kitchen.  Once the foundation and walls are up, the value added to the site can be used as collateral to borrow the funds necessary to putting up the roof.  The cost of roofing over the home can be reduced in several ways including “doing it yourself.  Steel roofs covered with supertherm have a very high R value,  a papercrete roof is possible;  in short, methods of building the roof need more  researching.

·        What is the most economical, green roof?

·        At what point of construction can a builder move in?

 

4.       After the roof.  If the owner-builder creates a house with walls and roof, but otherwise unfinished, with just a toilette and shower, and a cookstove, he might be able to legally move allowing him to save money until such a time as he can finish the kitchen cabinets and appliances. Perhaps a sponsoring agency could acquire some FEMA or other trailers as temporary housing.

 

·        Are FEMA trailers available locally?

·        Under what circumstances can a builder live on site?

 

 

 

 

 

5.      Follow the money. 

 

(Warning! Unfortunately, these numbers are imaginary so far.  The quantities have to be priced out and checked out carefully.  It is one thing to read about it, it is another to accomplish it at a real place in a real time like Fresno or Texas.  Signed Jim.)

 

1. Acquire the land, purchase it if possible, if not buy an option.  $40,000 to free.
2. Select a construction method compatible with the future owner-builder’s time, money, and abilities.
3. Build the foundation and walls for as cheaply as possible using available resources and free labor.                                                             $6, 000 or less?

Put up the roof.                                                                            $6, 000 or less?

      d.   Finish the inside of the house, walls, doors, etc.                        $1, 000 or less?

      e.   Finish the kitchen and bath(s)                                                   $16, 000 or less?

      f.    Fees and permits, cost of inspections                                         $3, 000 or less?

                                                                                                              $32, 000 or less?

 

            At 4.9% interest borrowing $72,000 costs for 30 years costs $760.16 per month,

                                                         $62,000                                       $654.58

                                                         $52,000                                       $549.00

                                                         $42,000                                       $443.43

                                                         $32,000                                       $337.85

                                                         $22,000                                       $232.27 per month.

 

 

            The prices compare favorably with the cost of renting, and a properly built house will afford some saving on PG&E.  Also, the prices will stay pretty much stable whereas rents will go up. 

·        Is there money available for cheaper than 4.9%, the going rate?

·        Can we acquire donated materials for under market prices?

·        Is there a society or club that knows where to get materials cheaply?

 

The business of selecting a construction method implies a set of model homes where prospective owner-builders can view and study the sort of house produced.  There are 40 acres available next to Valley Teen Ranch, and the speaker Jim Comegys owns 10 lots in NE Texas,  there should be such a collection of model houses for viewing and studying.

·        What suggestions are valuable for creating model sustainable housing?

·        How do you see the future of this project?

 

·        Jamescomegys@yahoo.com  cell:  (559)  269-7154

·        Jim Comegys /1566 W. Browning Ave. / Fresno, CA 93711

We will find willing allies

 

Envisioning Green Hope Veterans Promoting Housing and Jobs for Veterans

 

            Green Hope Veterans have a mission to see veterans housed and working.  Sadly, veterans can be found among the marginally employed, the unemployed, and the homeless.  The mission of Green Hope Veterans and a notion of a method can be found in the name for the organization; the group focuses on Veterans, and has some hope in Green solutions to unstated problems.  If the name were Green Housing for Homeless Veterans, or Green Job Training for Veterans or Green Job Training for Under-Employed Veterans then we would instantly know what Green Hope Veterans aims to accomplish. 

 

                To house Veterans in a Green (that is sustainable) fashion some method or other of green construction has to be selected which requires reviewing the options and matching them to the environmental and legal landscape of Fresno County.  This requires some help from builders, designers, the planning departments, and building code inspectors. (And of course, we just might want to get some change in the building code adopted if a really suitable option is currently against the code.) Besides these it means getting a clear idea of the resources of our target population with regard to building skills, savings, income, social and life skills. 

 

 

                The list of green or sustainable is very long.  Although Fresno County ranks high in California for diverting items from landfills, it has by no means exhausted the possible means of saving the environment.  One can imagine a number of industries existing alongside existing ones; energy generation by a number of means from wind, to passive and photo-voltaic solar, to heat reclamation, and so on.  Each of these industries could include light manufacturing of solar water heaters or photo-voltaic panels, wind generators, stirling engines, and so forth. Just installation of new technologies that reap savings could employ many.  Such a conscious shift toward a sustainable future is already part of our city and regional agenda, many governmental and non-governmental groups will be involved and cheerfully take part.  (I notice that the local Mennonite University made a presentation on Earth Day about being good stewards of our Earth.  The church the writer attends prays regularly for not just spiritual but also economic revival!)  Green Hope Veterans should expect to find willing allies