House bloggy thingy stuff no. 1

[tieke]

I've realised that there are many things that happyinmotion and I are doing with our house build, that we've never fully explained, and that might be interesting and useful for people to know more about. So I’m going to write a series of posts about different aspects of the build, focusing on the things we’ve done to make our house more eco-friendly and healthy

Comments

[pombagira]

mmm earth buildings...so pretty.. however i am stoked that you are doing these posts and explaining how and why you chose what you chose to build your house from.. cause it is possible to be practical and environmental.. *nods*

yay.. am looking forward to reading more!!

ACQ

[edm]

Thanks for taking the time to write up some of these details. I'd not actually heard of ACQ (or CCA specifically) before, and while I figured that treated timber was most likely treated with something toxic (in order to effectively treat it) it'd not occurred to me that the resulting product was sufficiently toxic to require (or at least make desirable) taking toxic-material precautions. (I guess I'd assumed that whatever residue there was left after treatment was sufficiently well bound up in the treated wood that it was stable and didn't pose an additional risk.)

You are completely right about most of Wellington (and I suspect most of New Zealand) being close enough to marine environments to warrant the use of more stable metals. Even over 10km from the nearest sea I've grown tired of finding rusted out hinges, nails, etc, in my house from where a previous owner has taken the cheap route (any that I replace are brass or similar, rather than the "lightly galvanised" ones that seem to have been used). So even without the wood

Re: ACQ

[tieke]

Yeah - it's best to avoid inhaling, or accidentally ingesting treated timber. I (almost) always wear a dust mask when I'm working with it (almost because sometimes I'm too lazy to fish one out and put it on - my bad). Also, take the offcuts and sawdust to the tip - don't use it as firewood!

Agreed re. stainless - costs more up front, but I like knowing that we're not going to have to replace it any time soon!

[rivet]

Thank you!

[ferrouswheel]

This is great stuff.

(I reckon you should tag these posts with some unique name so that people can later search/link all of this series)

[tieke]

done!