091 – WOFATI Eco Buildings

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Paul shares about wofati buildings, an eco building that requires no heat or air conditioning, can be made from the materials on your woodland, and is quicker and cheaper to build than strawbale or cob. Their primary design changes are the exterior walls. Straw is not a particulary good insulation, and cob is beautiful, but requires a dumptruck of sharp sand, straw, and clay, and is very labor intensive. Ianto Evans created “Cobville.” Paul mentions frustrations with code, and specifically the requirement of a ziploc bag design with a hole in the wall. Mike Oehler inspired much of Paul’s wofati design, along with John Hait. Mike wrote the $50 and Up Underground House Book. The design is dominantly a pole structure, and it is good to dig a ditch on the uphill edge of the house. You would compress the ditch rather than dig it out. Paul likes having a thick roof. He talks about thermal inertia, and describes the layers on the roof of the house. Paul talks about black locust wood. He says you can make wofati freezers, root cellars, animal shelters, and homes–which will have windows. Paul mentions the benfits of building your home on sloped land, as well as keeping the poles from rotting. A raindrop falling on the roof never finds a roof edge. Black plastic sheets, if not exposed to light, will neither offgas nor decompose. Paul is not a fan of using newspaper in gardening, but would in the wofati roof. Paul compares Oehler’s structures to those of Sepp Holzer. Paul shares a story about a mole coming into Oehler’s house. Paul comments on earth ships.
Discussing the podcast.

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