12 ms·
Building a hut with a tiled roof, underfloor heating and mud and stone walls
- SQL2219 11y agoAnd he did it without the interweb!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- eric_h 11y agoI suspect that he used the interweb to determine how to fashion many of the things he put together.
- joshrotenberg 11y agoWhich, in my opinion, doesn't at all minimize how amazingly cool this is.
- eric_h 11y agoIt certainly does not.
- degenerate 11y agoI found the wattle and daub hut video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKkHqlx9dE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKkHqlx9dE] (the first one uploaded by this guy) to be the most mesmerizing because it doesn't jump-cut through time so fast. If you have 11 minutes of adolescent curiosity laying around, it's really fun to watch.
- maliker 11y agoIf this is interesting to you, you might also like http://www.lowtechmagazine.com http://www.lowtechmagazine.com.
- skc 11y agoI love this just for their in depth coverage of alternate energy sources. I've been looking for more content on that topic, anyone have any good links?
- switch007 11y agoMight be useful for us Gen Y'ers because we certainly can't afford a real house. ;-)
- kryptiskt 11y agoPresumably you can afford more tools than a Celtic stone axe though.
- kragen 11y agoIt's not Celtic; it's a celt. You've been tricked by a homoglyph!
- jessaustin 11y ago"celt" has an interesting etymology. A medieval scribe miscopied the Latin "certe" ("indeed") as "celte" ("using a celtis or celt") in Job 19:24, and based on the context everyone figured a "celt" must be a tool for carving.
- digital-rubber 11y agoNext episode, making a UTP cable from banana leafs
- ersii 11y agoI can highly recommend watching the 14 minute long video at the top. The video in itself is in my opinion very well done, but of course the content is what is incredibly spectacular.
- bane 11y agoThis guys' videos are amazing. If anything should convince you that humans are a uniquely terrifying species it's these videos. Walking into the forest with nothing more on that a pair of shorts and a brain, he makes fire, tools, building supplies, ceramics, and entire living structures. The technology he produces by himself is almost on par with many pre-industrial revolution societies where metals (even though they had them) were too expensive to waste on building shelters. For example, if he designed things a little differently, this would pretty much be what the average Korean, now one of the most technologically sophisticated civilizations in the world, lived in up until the late 20th century [1]: tiled roofs, wooden framed houses (they interlocked with notches instead of twine), raised floors with underfloor heating (still copied in modern apartments), earth packed exterior walls. If he had time to pulp wood and make paper he could do interior finishing, and the addition of maybe 1 or 2 precision metal tools he could square off wood work even better and maybe even produce nicer floors. In many civilizations, metal cookware was simply seen as more durable alternatives to ceramic cookware and even followed similar design motifs [2], it can sometimes be difficult to tell from far away if something is a bronze or ceramic pot they often look so similar [3] Pre-industrial revolution, human-scale technology can get pretty impressive, humans managed to settle an entire planet and all of its climates with not much more than the product of their hands, some ideas and a little patience -- basically what this guy has done. If aliens were to kidnap a thousand pre-Industrial Revolution random humans from around Earth and dump them off on a suitable, but empty world. They'd have it all colonized and populated in probably 10,000-20,000 years. That's not even geologic timescale. Terrifying. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanok 2 - https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=ancient%20chinese%20ceramic%20bronze&tbs=imgo:1 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=ancient%20chinese%2... 3 - http://www.users.qwest.net/~rjbphx/BigPicture/PotteryGild.JPG http://www.users.qwest.net/~rjbphx/BigPicture/PotteryGild.JP...
- Vespasian 11y agoI absolutely agree with your assessment that this shows the real terrifying gifts of the human brain. What we have to consider when comparing this work to pre-industrial societies, is that he had not to concern himself with getting enough food for the next day. The tremendous powers of the brain can only be unlocked once the body gets sufficient nutrition.
- nly 11y agoThe scary thing you don't appreciate with regard to roof tiles is the sheer weight above your head. We recently had our house completely retiled with pantiles[0], each one weighing a couple of kilos, and the timber frame construction holding it all up makes me nervous even now. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantile
- WalterBright 11y agoLiving in an earthquake prone area, I refuse to have a tile roof.
- arxpoetica 11y agoWhere is this guy working from? He mentions a humid climate in his latest post, but no geography.
- sunwooz 11y agoI believe he said he lives in Australia.
- brudgers 11y agoThat would be consistent with mentioning the use of Alexander palms on his other project. They are native to Australia.
- thomasfoster96 11y agoIf he says he's from Australia then he'd have to be somewhere along the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland - that's about the only place you'd find that sort of rainforest.
- shalmanese 11y agoNorthern Queensland, Australia
- pauletienney 11y agoDo you know any other good video about that kind survival / low tech buildings ? I would love to watch more. Thx
- jqm 11y agoHow does he vent smoke from the lighting fire/torch inside the house? The under floor heating is cool, but I would have made a fireplace w/ a chimney.
- DanAndersen 11y agoIn an earlier video (linked elsewhere in the comments), he built a fireplace with chimney. I think his goal is to make sure he's showing something new with each video.
- aet 11y agoIf you like this, you will also like the documentary "Alone in the Wilderness" -- see http://www.dickproenneke.com http://www.dickproenneke.com
- bengali3 11y agodont miss the preview clip. https://youtu.be/z7jxFbscIJY https://youtu.be/z7jxFbscIJY
- aet 11y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss
- ak1394 11y agoThere is a somewhat similar russian documentary about people leaving in the small settlements in Siberia: Happy People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA
- OldSchoolJohnny 11y agoYou can't use green wood to build anything you expect to last and you certainly can't just shove it into the ground and expect it not to rot. It's interesting intellectually but completely impractical.
- logfromblammo 11y agoYou use that to build the shelter that you stay in while you're building your real house. Then you use it as a storage shed until it falls down. Temporary structures do have practical value. That's why we have scaffolding. Architectural soundness may take some additional time, and you may not want to sleep in the mud surrounded by bugs for the entire duration.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoIt is a bit more nuanced than that. I agree you have to understand how your building materials will age but it doesn't necessarily make things impractical. In a rain forest, green wood lasts a lot longer than you might expect. There are villages in the Amazonian rain forest with similar construction (not tile but mud and thatch) which have lasted for a while. In part because the wood cures slowly, and in part because things like the roof are typically replaced periodically. It would probably be worthwhile for him to watch his materials over time and adjust as needed in terms of prep but I expect his 'hut' would certainly last the season and maybe two or three. Given that he has his kiln set up, he is now in a position to actually build bricks for a more permanent structure, presumably that is his next video if he is working through the Big Bad Wolf hand book (hut made of sticks, hut made of mud, hut made of bricks :-)
- sklogic 11y agoDepends on a wood. The traditional Caucasian huts are made of the fresh, wet willow, sand and the fresh goat dung. Once this hellish mixture settles it stands for centuries.
- thomasfoster96 11y agoThings like this really make me wish we were still hunter-gatherers. Then I remember I'm on my phone and I'm actually far happier not having to hunt for dinner every night and constantly maintain my leaky hut.
- kragen 11y agoI've enjoyed this guy's videos a great deal. I haven't watched this one yet, but the blog post is excellent. It might make you wonder why people have historically been so poor. So here are a few points to think about: 1. This hut took a highly skilled polymath 102 workdays to build, using a little capital he'd previously built up (the celt.). The opportunity cost in the modern economy is about US$60 000. How long does it take you to save up US$60 000? Now, consider what kind of house you could build with US$60 000 by means of the economy, or with 102 days building with robots. 2. The vast majority of people in human history have been systematically excluded from access to both the knowledge and the material resources needed to carry out this project. If you had the knowledge, you could always build a hut like this — but the neighbors, who are organized into an effective violent force with a hierarchy of coercion, would be likely to raid you and take it away, even though most of them are low in the hierarchy and are therefore not allowed to live in a luxury house like this themselves. Most people still live like that. Now we call the people who do most of the raiding "police", and they have bulldozers. 3. And yeah, food is expensive when you have to plant it, and historically speaking, groups that have planted food can support denser populations with greater productive capital (mills, houses, tools) and more stratified social orders, all three of which make them militarily stronger, so they gradually pushed the groups that just gather it into the poorest and least fertile territories. This seems like a terrible situation. How can we fix it?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- bcheung 11y agoHe did it as a challenge though and didn't use any modern tools. With modern tools and knowledge it would be extremely quick, easy, and cheap. I built a 2 story building with 4 rooms and even a cantilevered walkway for about $3500 and about 120 man hours (combined time of myself and 1 other person working on it). Probably would have been closer to 80 if I had a nail gun but I was poor at the time and didn't want to spend the money so I just used a hammer. Of course it wasn't legal but it worked well and was super sturdy. If I had to built it to code and follow all the regulations I wouldn't have even bothered and it would probably have cost me over $100,000 and taken over a year to build. I bought a book from Home Depot on framing for about $20. It wasn't hard nor expensive to acquire the knowledge. Buckminster Fuller proposed that homes should be built from pre-made components that can be assembled. I believe he (or maybe someone else referencing him) used the analogy if we built cars the same way we built homes, you would have to order all the parts from separate suppliers. You would have to hire an engineer to come up with the plans. Then you would have to hire workers to build it. And at several stages throughout the process you would have to pay the local government money to approve your plan and get permission to build it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIXcIQtHvc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIXcIQtHvc Technology has made things incredibly cheap, it's a lot of the building codes and regulations that are making it more expensive.
- IgorPartola 11y agoMy family once built something like this. We used ready-made roofing materials, but the rest was branches and small tree trunks, dried grass, and clay. The process went something like this: dig a hole until you hit clay. Put four posts for the corners such that the hole is in the middle. Put up a basic slanted roof and put straight branches over it, nailing it all together. Put grass and mud mixture on top of that and let dry, then cover with roofing material. Now you have a shady place to work! Keep digging clay out of the center hole and store it. Put more posts where walls will go. They don't have to be super close: 1-2 inches apart is just fine. Mix clay with water and grass again to make mud. Fling it against the newly created walls and smooth it out with a board. Wait to dry. Repeat form the inside and out until you have a solid 6-8 inch wall and none of the wood is exposed. The door was another ready-made item but technically didn't have to be. Once the four walls are up and the door is installed, create a floor and a hatch into your new cellar. We then expanded this one room, adding three more. We built a wood burning stove in one of them using clay bricks and another stove outside. Once you can stay at a place like this work goes much faster. There is a huge advantage to using clay as the main material too: it keeps the inside very cool, and it is very cheap and easy to work with. Then we got even crazier and bought a bunch of bricks. We laid the foundation of a brick house around the mud hut, then built up walls around the mud hut. Once the walls and the roof was up, the sledge hammer took care of the mud hut and the materials were carried out the front door. Edit: oh, and we had no power at this location, so we did all of this using only hammers, manual saws, screw drivers, and a manual drill. Almost all the nails and screws were salvaged.
- dennyabraham 11y agoIt sounds like a fun project. How did it hold up against rain?
- IgorPartola 11y agoIt held up great. The clay cured enough in the sun to not be bothered by it. It stood for 3 or 4 years IIRC. After that we built the brick house around it. The reason we built this was because we got a plot of land to farm, but it was a ways away from where we lived, so we needed some shelter to stay there during the summers. Another requirement was that it had to be resistant to people trying to break in to steal stuff (it was).
- bcheung 11y agoIf you guys find this video interesting you might want to check out the MMORPG called "A Tale in the Desert". It involves building up the entire world from small primitives.
- SagelyGuru 11y agoGreat video! You can see that this guy is not at all work-shy. It is only because I am absolutely on his side that I say this: he should have considered making angled edge roofing tiles as well. The sides of his roof look like the tiles will just fly off at the first significant blow of the wind.
- spking 11y agoThis is like real-life Minecraft in survival mode.