These days, homes are vulnerable to many threats, including wildfires and storms, but what if there was a way to make your home safer and sustainable? After hours of research, one couple chose to build theirs with hemp and horse manure.
As shown on Grand Designs Australia, Dan Rawlins and Chloe Meyer built their house in a remote location out of hempcrete, a mixture of hemp, lime, and horse manure, on a budget of $300,000. This combination is impervious to fire, mold, and vermin.
It was a pretty ambitious task for two people who had never built a home before, let alone with alternative materials. Still, Rawlins' dad, Pete, was a career builder, so he could direct his son through the process.
Unfortunately, before any work got started, Pete was diagnosed with cancer and began treatment. Dan carried on with the work before his father passed away, and he chose to keep going, believing his dad would have wanted him to finish.
Dan had some luck along the way. A Tasmanian oak tree had fallen on the property, so he could use it for the "bones of the house" and save $50,000.
The hardest part of the project was creating the hempcrete mix. If mixed incorrectly, it won't work. Luckily, everything went according to plan, and volunteers were standing by to help put up the walls. The project took six weeks to complete.
Lastly came the horse manure mixture, which was used to waterproof the walls.
The entire house took 18 months to build and went $30,000 over budget.
"It feels kind of surreal," Rawlins said.
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Rawlins believes his dad would be proud of him for finishing the house.
In addition to having a safe home for him and his partner, it's also good for the environment.
He said, "It lasts for hundreds of years. It's actually carbon-negative, so it sequesters more carbon."
While a hempcrete home may seem revolutionary, some builders specialize in it. Hempcrete is also not new. According to the Rapid Transition Alliance, the hempcrete used today was created in the 1980s in France. It was used to add thermal performance to medieval buildings.
Additionally, the Gauls, a European Celtic people, built a bridge using hempcrete-like material over 2,000 years ago.
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