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Our wall held up pretty well to our water test. There were no leaks through the window opening and the other moisture-proofing measures (sarking, flashing) kept everything else nice and dry. I did get a bit wet from the hose overshooting the roof, but the wall held up just fine.

Detailing the wall was interesting. Because the BCA makes no reference to a cavity with reverse brick construction, it is possible to design a wall that is either fairly thin (as narrow as 90mm for studs + 110 for the bricks, if you specify a thin cladding to the exterior and add no plasterboard to the interior) or quite thick. In the end, we built our wall with a 20mm cavity, but with the thickness of the cladding (salvaged from pallets), the window had quite a deep reveal. We thought this was quite a nice feature and complemented the mass of an inteior brick wall nicely.

Almost all of the materials were salvaged and reused. The main structural components were made of pallets, which helped in terms of minimising waste, as most elements were already the correct size. The roofing and some of the timber was found at the Outlook shop, offcuts from other projects. In the end, the new materials we used amounted to a handful of nails and a few metres of aluminium foil.

We also limited the use of power tools. On the first day, everything was dismantled, cut, nailed and screwed by hand. I had a go at using tinsnips to cut the roofing to size (one sheet had to be cut in half), but soon abandoned that and resorted to the angle grinder on day 2. We also had a bit of help from a cordless drill and power saw.

It was a really interesting exercise following the wall through from research to design to construction. I think we all learned a lot , particularly about what works on paper but not when it comes to construction, which will be valuable in the future when designing. Plus, it was kinda fun.

Our wall ended up being a bit over-engineered and very sturdy and we are now on the hunt for a new home for it, rather than consigning it to landfill.

So, if anyone is in the market for 1/4 of a cubby...

ESD reverse brick video

Stage 2 Photos

Here are some images from our final day of building and testing.


All the materials in our window are reused - plastic packaging for glazing, aluminium railing for the frame and tip shop sources chipboard for the reveal:


We also used the plastic packaging for flashing:

Fitting the window and wrapping the sarking over the flashing:


We reused old pallets from the Enviro Shop for most of the timber in our wall. Here we are finishing off the cladding:


The timber for the roof truss was found at the Outlook Shop at Reservoir tip:


The wall is insulated between the studs. We used an old pillow:


Glenn found an old section of steel angle to use as a lintel over our window for the bricks:


Here's our finished wall! The roofing is from the tip shop, and we had a great time using the angle grinder to cut the sheet in half.


There are a few more images from our day of construction in our Twitter feed in the side bar. Stand by for some more images and the video of out final test.

Materials-Claddings

Vinyl Cladding – Vinyl cladding is a chlorine based plastic cladding system

Website - http://www.austech.com.au/products/DuratuffSelectVinylCladding.aspx- http://www.projectlink.com.au/directory/austech/News/vinyl-cladding-is-the-environmentally-sustainable-wall-cladding-system.html

Embodied energy – The environmental production cost of Vinyl cladding is supposed to be around half of an equivalently sized solid brick wall. Vinyl consists of around 60% chlorine which is extracted from salt (NaCl sodium chloride)

Recyclability – most elements of vinyl can be recycled and reused in the manufacturing process. In America, more than 1 billion pounds of vinyl was recycled in the last year. This said, large amounts of plastics are not recycled, heavily contributing to landfill. The time taken for plastic to biodegrade has not yet been determined.

Here’s an interesting video on recycling plastic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Lg_kvLaAM&feature=related

Labour costs – vinyl cladding is constructed in much the same way a regular timbre shiplap building would be built. However, unlike timbre it never needs to be repainted, reducing the labour in upkeep and the environmental cost of repainting.

Insulation qualities - vinyl cladding is usually used in conjunction with a 3^rd party insulator

Durability – vinyl cladding comes with a 50 year warrantee

Shiplap timbre

Website – http://www.shiplap.com.au/ - http://www.weathertex.com.au/

Embodied energy – if sourced from a plantation, timbre is a highly sustainable material, only consuming energy in its transportation and general upkeep of the timbre. Also during the time from planting to felling, the manufacture of timbre is essentially a temporary eco system.

Recyclability – provided that the timbre is not altered by chemicals, it can be returned to the environment where it will be broken down by bacteria, enriching the soil. Timbre can also be reformed into different wood based products such as MDF.

Labour costs – the initial labour cost of timbre is fairly standard for a cladding material, however, the upkeep of timbre is fairly intensive, requiring constant work to ensure the timbre lasts.

Insulation qualities – timbre cladding is usually used in conjunction with a 3^rd party insulator

Durability – if you upkeep your external timbre annually it can last 80-90 years without any major alterations.

Fibre cement sheeting(Eco-cladding)

Website – http://www.ecohousing.com/pages/eco-cladding.html

Embodied energy – the manufacturing plant is designed to be mobile, drastically reducing transport costs by making the material closer to the site and sourcing materials locally. However fibre cement sheeting is a concrete based material, causing it to largely contribute to green house gas emissions in its curing process.

Recyclability – if kept in expectable condition fibre cement sheeting can be used in new builds, otherwise it will contribute to landfill

Labour costs – Ecocladding is aimed at the “do it yourself” market, this implies a level of “ease of use”, requiring glue and screws to fix the cladding to existing walls or framing via metal top-hats. Ecocladding is also light weight, reducing transportation costs, and easy to work with, only requiring basic tools to be used.

Insulation qualities – 60mm R3.01, 80mm R4.02, 52mm R 2.7 and 64mm R 3.3

Durability - fibre cement sheeting should last around 80 years, requiring repainting fairly regularly depending on the quality of paint used.

Alucobond – Alucabond consists of a two 5mm aluminium sheets with a polyethene core

Website – http://www.alucobond.com.au/html/s01_home/home.asp

Embodied energy – the creation of aluminium uses vast amounts of energy compared to other material like timbre. However, recycling aluminium uses only around 10% of the energy required to manufacture it in the first place.

Recyclability – recycled aluminium uses on 10% of the energy used to create new aluminium

Labour costs – the labour costs are similar to most cladding materials, requiring the material to be fixed to a series of top-hats

Insulation qualities – Alucobond is usually coupled with 3^rd party insulators

Durability – alocubond should last around 80 – 90 years

Zincalume steel cladding

Website – http://www.zincalume.com.au/

Embodied energy – although not as high as aluminium, the production and manipulation of steel is consumes large amounts of energy.

Recyclability – zincalume steel, if not corroded can be either melted down and reformed or re-used on another build

Labour costs – steel cladding is relatively easy to work with, it’s light weight implying easy manoeuvrability around a building sight and can be fixed either to the outside of the studwork (in a horizontal situation) or to a series of top-hats (in a vertical situation).

Insulation qualities – zincalume steel cladding is very thin and fluctuates greatly with exterior temperatures, insulation within studwork is vital.

Durability – bluescope steel offer a warranty of 15 years

One Point Four Hectares

http://onepointfourhectares.blogspot.com/p/about-house_31.html

This is an interesting blog explaining the ongoing developments of an “eco-house” along the central coast of NSW. If you want to see an actual project using reverse brick veneer this blog has been fairly thorough with photo documentation from July 2010- now. By looking at these you get a good outlook of the overall construction method of reverse brick veneer. (To see the RBV wall, check out the east wall on their January 2011 post).

The idea behind this project is to take 1.4 hectare piece of land that is overrun by non-native plants and build a house with a native rainforest garden that respects its context. Although not yet completed this building will utilize reverse brick veneer walls along with a concrete slab as a thermal mass to regulate the interior temperature. This, in conjunction with a plethora of other sustainable and ecologically friendly design solutions, evocative formwork and clever use of large amounts glazing accentuate the way that sustainable living can be allied with contemporary ideals of “indoor out door” living and “harmony with the natural landscape”.

“The internal temperature of the house will be controlled using the principles of passive thermal design. This has resulted in the north facade of the house being almost fully glazed. The thermal mass is provided by a concrete floor and reverse brick veneer walls. A wood burner will also be installed that will be used to provide direct heat into thelounge and fan forced warm air in the main bedrooms”

Finlay-Torquay beach house

http://www.farnanfindlay.com.au/residential/ >click on beach house Torquay

In this project, reverse brick veneer was used as an extension onto an old 1950’s fibro structure.Not only has the architect (Farnan Findlay) adapted a 1950’s structure to accommodate 21^stcentury way of living, he has established a level of positive interaction with existing building and a reverential air to its Australian context by using Spotted Gum to clad the main extension as well as splashing it through the various alterations of the 1950’s beach shack. Interestingly Findlay has opted to leave the interior skin of the reverse brick veneer wall unplastered, and instead has covered it with a thick layer of white paint

“The construction is reverse brick veneer. It has greater thermal performance than conventional brick veneer or double brick and gives the lightweight structure some valuable thermal mass”.