LIVING OFF GRID

This blog is about our travels in our solar powered "Airstream" and living off grid, in our passive solar home, near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

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Sunday 15 April 2012

Building Blocks

Some of you are wondering what we used to build our house. Since we are building off grid and need to conserve energy we decided to use Durisol building blocks. Well we didn't really decide it was highly recommended by Tom and Christine our architects and we are very happy with the product.


Here is the block as it comes from the factory, minus the label of course. It is 12 inches high, 12 inches wide and 24 inches long. It weighs about 32 pounds and is dry stacked without mortar.


The block is made from wood fibre and cement and has the insulation on the outside facing part of the block.  That hollow space we fill with cement.


Once all the blocks are stacked to make a wall they are filled with cement and rebar. This creates a very durable wall with a high R-value (R-32)

Next job will be to install horizontal strapping to the vertical strapping, then two inches of spray foam between the strapping. Once this has cured the entire wall will be covered with metal siding and the outside
will be complete.


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