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The Juzwik McDonald house build notebook, 2005-2009.
Compiled by Joanna Juzwik 
(cost amounts may be outdated)

Standard building material sources in and around Madison County, Kentucky

Cellulose insulation: 84 Lumber, Richmond 624-1147. $6.50/bag (44 sf: 6” thick R-19). Free blower rental with purchase of 10+ bags. (Note: same size bags are $9 at Lowes)

Cisterns

• Clifford Collins, Mt. Vernon 606-256-2535. 1000-gal. cisterns $458. 108”x67”x57”, 2’ square opening on top. Leave 4” above ground level; okay on undisturbed ground. Truck clearance: 10’ wide, 30’ long, must be able to back up to hole to set cistern.
• Concrete Materials 623-4238. 2000-gal. cisterns $1000+ tax. 149”x78”x53”. Leave 8” above ground; set on 5-6” fine gravel or sand. 36” round hole on top

Concrete and block. Concrete Materials 623-4238, off Duncannon Lane. Concrete $80/cu. yd.; truck size 13/ tall, 7-8’ wide; pigment $45/yard; 20’ rebar $6.50; can get 8’ sheets of metal lath here, washed masonry sand $34/ton 3-ton min. for delivery, truck can haul 10 tons

Flooring:

• Corbin Surplus 606-523-9166. 2 ¼ unfinished t&g .79/sf
• Monticello Flooring (near Somerset) 606-348-5941. 4” unfinished t&g oak .50/sf

Lumber

• Parrett’s Sawmill, Owsley Fork Rd. 626-1509. Pine 40¢/bf.
• Ernest Isaacs, Irvine 606-723-7311. Green poplar and pine 45¢/bf. Everything over 12” wide=$1/bf. 1x6 t&g beadboard $1.19/bf.
• Feldmans, Lancaster 792-2141. Green pine and poplar 60¢/bf. Kiln dried poplar $1.15/bf. Add .15/bf to dress down.
• Begley Lumber, London, 606-877-2073
• Hick’s, Berea. 986-6127. Free delivery. Kiln-dried pine $1.25/bf.
• Lumber King, Mt. Vernon. 1x6 t&g beadboard 51¢ linear ft

Metal roofing: Montgomery’s 986-0558.

Metal work: Middletown Industrial Machine shop 986-0336

Plumbing supplies (Area Supply has best prices)

• Area Supply: Black pipe 2” $5.60/ft.; Galv. Steel 2” $9/ft.; ¾” copper roll $3.05/ft.; ¾” rigid copper $1.63/ft.; ½” roll $1.91/ft.; ½” rigid $1/ft.
• Ferguson’s: Cast iron 2” x 10’ $40; 3”x 10’ $48; ¾” copper roll 100’ $350
• Middletown: cast iron 2” $4.07/ft.; 1½” $3.33/ft.

Rentals, Bypass Rental, Richmond 625-0409

• Gas Mortar mixer $65/day, $260/wk. Bypass
• Electric rotating drum mixer, $30/day, $118/wk. Bypass
• Scaffolding. 5’x5’ set $15/week; walkboard $15/week Bypass
• Truck rental: Lowe’s 3-ton open truck rental: $20 1¼ hrs.; $5 each hour after

Trusses: Beaver Truss, McKee, 606-965-2560

Windows and Doors

• Discount windows and doors: Willy and Norma, Irvine 606-723-6601. $60-90/window
• People Helping People, Winchester, Dale Hanson 859-771-5660: warehouse of returned windows for donation only
• Harding Door and Window, Brandonburg 270-422-4119 Doors and returned windows $79-99/each. Vinyl, double pane, low-e.
• Made to order triple-pane windows Gilkey, Lexington 800-474-0949

Natural building material sources

Air-Krete, (seaweed based foam!) Bruce Christopher 315-834-6609: proprietary, no licensed installers in Ky.

Aluma-Foil (metal+paper vapor/radiant barrier: 1-800-421-5947. $65/500 sf roll (4’ wide), plus shipping

Chisels for timber framing, Woodcraft, Lexington 859-231-9663

Cork: Expanko is the only brand I could find that does not add a synthetic binder to their cork. 1-800-345-6202. Regional distributor (Welling): 1-513-793-6900. Closest retailer: Carpet Specialists, Louisville 502-245-0221.

Earth bags. Used feedsacks (woven polypropylene) for earth bags: Owsley Fork Farm 986-7491

Expanded shale. L. Thorne Block Co., New Albany, Ind. (Louisville area) 812-246-4461; deliver 16-ton loads

Faswall prefab building blocks 1-800-491-7891; 85% woodchips, 15% Portland cement. R-value 18-24; embodied energy .24 kw/block

Iron sulfate powder (Hi-Yield Copperas): Fayette Seed, $5/4# bag—used for plaster color, lt. rust to pumpkin orange.

Milk/casein paints. Woodcraft, Lexington. 859-231-9663

Plastering clays and pigments: Kentucky Mudworks, Lexington, kaolin 50#/$30. Pigment: www.realmilkpaint.com.

Straw bales: John McCord, Richmond, 623-9564, cell 624-6077: good tight, dense, dry bales. $4 delivered summer 2007.

Vermiculite and perlite: Fayette Seed, Lexington, 4 cf bag $13. Concrete Materials can order Grace “stabilized concrete aggregate” vermiculite $12/4cf. bag. CMC carries Zonolite (perlite) $11/4cf bag

Waterglass (sodium silicate) Kentucky Mudworks, Lexington. 5 gal. $55. Masonry and interior wood sealant, glue, binder, paint base.

Wood chips Berea Garden Center 986-1010; $19 half-yard (flat bobcat scoop)

Accumulated information about building & natural materials

Casein (internet) $10/lb.

Code requirements:

• Stairway code: 36” wide; max. riser 8 ¼”; min. tread 9”; headroom 6’8”; handrail; nosing ¾”–1¼”
• Bathroom window: 3 ft.2; half openable
• Lights on stair landing
• Toilet 21” clearance in front, 15” on-center to wall
• Shower 24” clearance
• Sink 27” clearance
• Tub: double its width
• Bedroom escape windows 5.7 ft.2; min. ht. 2’, min. width 20”
• All wood less than 18” from ground must be treated
• Interior load-bearing walls 2x4 or 2x3
• Woodstove: 36” from anything combustible; 12” from wall ok with heatshield

Earthblocks: Clay/woodchip/straw: Fox Maple Building School, Maine 207-935-3720; Fox Maple recipe in Serious Straw Bale that we used: 4 parts coarse sawdust, 2 parts wood chips, 1 part chopped straw (4” length), 2 parts stiff clay slip (pea-soup consistency). These are very light. Figure 1 week per inch thickness for drying time.

Ergonomic design

General optimal reach zone: 20-44” from floor

Hydrated lime: type S recommended, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the area, including Lexington. We got type N from Montgomery’s. Fill a 5-gal. bucket 1/3 full of water, add lime and mix with drill mixer attachment (Middletown Industrial), to consistency of sour cream. We made 12 50# bags of lime into putty, producing about 200 gallons. We used almost ¾ of it for the thin exterior finish coat (1,345 sf). The lime putty sat for 3 months before use. Our lime plaster recipe was 1 part lime putty: 3 parts sand.

Insulation. Cost comparison: cellulose 25% less than fiberglass. Cotton 2x more than fiberglass, mineral wool 15% more than fiberglass.

• Cotton batts $1.20/sf
• Wool batts $2.40/sf
• Fiberglass $.70/sf
• Wet-spray cellulose $1.20/sf
• Blown-in cellulose R-38 $.50/sf

Paint.
Silicate paint. We made our own sodium silicate paint, mixing SoSi with pigment and a small amount water. It did not turn out well! The color goes on very uneven, and reveals every little imperfection on the plaster surface. It is also very difficult to fix, since clay doesn’t adhere to it. The only way to fix it we found is to paint a limewash over it, then repaint. We used it only in our bathroom, over lime plaster, as a sealant. The color (yellow ochre pigment) is uneven, but groovy.
Clay paint. This stuff is great—nontoxic, easy to make, and creates a non-dusting surface! We mixed equal parts white powdered clay (kaolin) with screened flour paste, plus pigment. Making one’s own flour paste takes FOREVER, so we bought wheat paste powder, and mixed it with water—works great. The pigment needs to be pre-mixed with water, or else it doesn’t get mixed thoroughly in the paint. (We shook it in a jar with a screw-on lid). It is hard to get bright colors with this base. I experimented with doing a flour paste+pigment glaze over top an unpigmented base. This gives a more luminous quality, with the white behind the color, but the flour paste texture is rougher and seems less durable. For example, the only way I could get a bright orange was to paint a yellow ochre flour paste glaze over a rosy pink clay paint. Clay paint with flour paste goes bad in a couple days, so dry it out right when you finish and save for touch-up (add water).

Plaster coloring
For exterior, we used 3 c. iron sulfate powder dissolved in 2 ½ gal. water (or 6 T./1 qt.) This mix produces a brilliant pumpkin orange if applied at the right time. Best applied 2+ hours after lime plaster. Our lime plaster (type N) set green hard within 2 hours. The color is hard to get consistent with this fresco technique; timing is very important! Iron sulfate is very cheap; we colored 1,345 sf for $10. Synthetic and natural pigments available from Concrete Materials and Kentucky Mudworks, Lexington.

Plaster recipes  We used washed masonry sand, unscreened, for all our plaster. Clay content in soil varies from place to place, so if you use soil, you must experiment.

1. After stuffing, we sprayed the bales with clay slip, using a hopper sprayer and compressor bought at Lowe’s ($250). We let our soil sit in buckets of water, then mixed it with the drill+mixing attachment, screened it, and sprayed.
2. Scratch/1st coat: 5 parts clay soil (1/2” screened): 3 parts sand + chopped straw and water. This mix must be fairly wet and goes on thin. We chopped the straw using a weedeater in a trash can. On loose straw sections and window corners, we worked a lot of the plaster into the straw and shaped it. After it set up, we went back and found springy pockets, stuffed long straw in with a stick, and worked more plaster into it.
3. Infill/2nd coat: 1 part clay soil (1/2” screened): 1 part sand + chopped straw and water. This mix is thicker. Make sure to really smoosh it into the wall to get good adhesion. Any thick spots must be built out in layers. For sections that needed more filling out, we mixed extra straw into a handful of plaster.
4. Interior finish coat: 4 parts white powdered clay: 6 parts sand + water
5. Exterior finish coat: 1 part lime putty: 3 parts sand + water

Plastering tips.

• Do not mix lime and clay; cracking results.
• Apply all coats by hand (trowel can’t follow curves of wall), unless you want to use lots more plaster to make a flat wall.
• It was not necessary to scratch the previous coat to get good adhesion.
• Finish coat smoothing: As soon as a small section of finish plaster is on (e.g. 3’x4’), immediately smooth with a plastic circle to get rid of all grooves/lines. Go over it again with the plastic circle after it’s set up a bit (20 min. or so) to polish and get a smooth texture.

Slipstraw walls: Design Coalition, Madison, WI (see website); 608-246-8846 lou@designcoalition.org. Phone conversation notes: Mix straw and clay without excessive moisture; soil should be at least 40-50% clay; use as little clay as possible. R-1.7 per inch; R 19-20 for 12 inch wall.
            Note from our experience: The slipstraw interior partition wall we built molded badly on the surface. Perhaps not a great idea for Kentucky, though could have had better ventilation to help it dry. I killed the mold by using lime plaster for the first coat—pretty wet so that it filled all the gaps.

Solar hot water estimates: $2000 equipment, plus labor for prefab system; $500 homemade open/batch heater

Straw bale structures in the region:

• Berea area, Bob Towers, Donna Phillips 986-3066, Wolf Gap Road, built octagonal SB studio: hired Howard Switzer from Tennessee to oversee; put up bales in one weekend, started plaster but didn’t finish (cement)
• Chattanooga, Francis McDonald, 423-605-5257: built big 3-story SB in downtown, codes approved; Chattanooga Codes Dept. 423-757-5105 (Roger Taylor)
• Linden, TN, Howard Switzer  and Katie Culver, 931-589-6513, offer straw bale and natural building workshops at The Farm or on-site; consulting fee $90/hour or $75 if you go to him. 3-day on-site workshop $1500
• Near Chattanooga, Sequatchie Valley Institute (aka Moonshadow), 423-949-5922 various natural building materials used in multiple structures
• North of Knoxville, Narrow Ridge, Bill Nichols, 865-497-3444; narrowridge.org; 3 SB buildings 10 yrs. old; one has mold problems

Straw bale info. from phone conversation with Michel Bergeron, Archibio 1-514-271-8684: they have observed that condensation (from dew point) tends to form on the exterior wall, not inside the bales; make sure the plaster is airtight to keep the air from carrying heavy moisture loads into the bale wall

Thermal mass compensation for solar gain:
1. Over 7% of glazing: each s.f. of glass requires 5.5 sf direct sun on floor mass
OR 2. thermal mass not in direct sun but in same room: 40 sf uncovered floor mass for each sf of glass
OR 3. over 7% glazing: 8.3 sf wall mass for each sf glass (regardless of direct sun or not)
Max. thermal mass=4-6” (more than this doesn’t work as well)

Ventilation: Recommended house circulation: 60cu. Bt/minute: replace 1/3 air every hour; heat-recovery ventilator $600-1500

Weather stats (from worldclimate.com)

• Berea College weather station reporting: 37.56°N, 84.30°W
• Heating degree days/year: 4172°
• Cooling degree days/year: 1255°
• Average rainfall/year: 46.3”
• Average humidity (Lexington): 82%

Wheat paste powder (internet): $3/lb.

Window area for passive solar:
South side: 7-12%
North: 0-4%
East 0-4%
West: 0-2%

Windows in straw bale building: 2x6 rough frames; Get new construction windows with a built-in outer flange (about ½” out from the nailing flange), then plaster can go right under the flange—brilliant! We did not do this, and will be caulking into eternity. . . .

Wood stain
I got black walnuts from trees at Indian Fort, filled a steel pot 2/3 full of the hulls only, covered with water, and boiled 2 hrs., then let them sit  24 hrs. or so. I added 1/3 c. Spanish red iron oxide pigment per gallon of walnut brew, plus some boric acid powder to help preserve the wood (about 1 t./gal.). Makes a nice reddish chocolate brown.

People who know things or have equipment

Portable sawmill: Don and Jamie Gabbard, Mt. Vernon 606-256-3007, 606-308-1791

Tree trimming and felling: Joe Wilkie 859-985-2662

Timber Frame: Don Weber, Handcraft Woodworks: dbodger@kyblue.com, 859-925-9225 shop; 302-1586 cell. $300 retainer fee; $35/hour design and consulting

Natural building systems: ASPI 606-256-0077

Madison Cty. Health department (septic system) 624-2284

Madison Cty. Planning and Zoning (building permits & inspections): 624-4780. Tip: Ask about temporary certificate of occupancy.

Richard Olson, Berea College SENS department: 985-3573

Greywater systems: Craig Sheehan 859-737-3415: state-level consultant on greywater systems; Jack Kieffer 606-455-3211

Solar energy  Josh Bills 985-9032

Backhoe work  Gary Alewein, 985-8027