Gary in New York Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Thank you to the Admins for letting me post to your group. I am building a house in New York with Wienerberger's Climamur 36 (365mm thick) Porotherm insulated clay blocks. So far as I know, this will be the first house in North America built with these. The person helping me that has built many projects with Porotherm is French, and has worked mainly in Panama. Many things that he assumed were common and would be easily gotten in the US, it turns out don't exist here. Yesterday my wife was in a shouting match with our architect (over the phone thank goodness) and I think that if I were better informed of the issues with building a monolithic envelope house from these blocks we'd be much better off. Also, I am NOT a builder, just a retired photo studio manager who did many complicated renovations, but nothing involving the issues confronted when constructing a home. And because all the builders in my rural area are more than busy enough building the stick frame homes they are familiar with, I am left doing this by myself, hiring subs and helpers as I can. I don't know how it is in England, but it seems no one in America wants to work, or at least no one is available. Well, that's my introduction. I'll post my questions to the forums where clay block construction has been mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfun Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Welcome! Sounds like a challenge and I look forward to reading about your journey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Welcome. This sounds .. er .. interesting 🙂. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Welcome. You like a challenge! Good for you. Things are similar here in the UK. Everyone is busy and booked up based on my experience so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Welcome to THE forum for people like us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Welcome, what stage of the build are you at? Similar situation in Ireland. Labour is tight in construction. There's plenty of jobs in industry that are far safer, better paid etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 Welcome. My experience of working in the USA was you can easily buy a truck full of something, but not a single tin of it. Is there a reason for using Porotherm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary in New York Posted September 22, 2022 Author Share Posted September 22, 2022 Porotherm because it's what my wife wants. Besides that, for the attributes they claim. We've lived for 20+ years in a 170 year old wood farmhouse that always needs painting or rotting wood replaced. The old clapboard no longer holds paint well- generally, too much maintenance with the wood. My wife's relatives have self built homes in Germany with the Climamur blocks. They're comfortable, require minimal heating and cooling, regulate humidity well, and presumably will last 100+ years. So I said I'd give it a go. Yesterday we received our first delivery of the blocks and today will start putting up walls for the garage. A tremendous thunder and lightening storm passed by earlier this morning, just before sunrise. Not sure if that's a good omen or bad. 49 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Is there a reason for using Porotherm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 9 minutes ago, Gary in New York said: tremendous thunder and lightening storm passed by earlier this morning, just before sunrise. Not sure if that's a good omen or bad. Not a snow storm, so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 38 minutes ago, Gary in New York said: Porotherm because it's what my wife wants. Besides that, for the attributes they claim. We've lived for 20+ years in a 170 year old wood farmhouse that always needs painting or rotting wood replaced. The old clapboard no longer holds paint well- generally, too much maintenance with the wood. My wife's relatives have self built homes in Germany with the Climamur blocks. They're comfortable, require minimal heating and cooling, regulate humidity well, and presumably will last 100+ years. So I said I'd give it a go. Yesterday we received our first delivery of the blocks and today will start putting up walls for the garage. A tremendous thunder and lightening storm passed by earlier this morning, just before sunrise. Not sure if that's a good omen or bad. You might enjoy the online vids I'm subscribed to by a channel called "Black Forest Family" - who are an American couple living in Germany, who have self-built there - and do a lot of observations about culture etc from a fairly neutral viewpoint. Here:https://www.youtube.com/c/BlackForestFamily/featured Would I be correct to think that in NY dealing with variable climate is one of your key challenges ? (I recall listening to an historic Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, where he discussed what changed in NY with the widespread introduction of air conditioning.) F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now