[Greenbuilding] alive and wall

[Clarke Olsen]

RT is right: build with white oak, locust, or larch (tamarack), and  
it will last, if not the absolute 50 years, certainly until someone
tears it down. When fastening wood together in outdoor construction,  
insert a dry break between wood to wood contact.
Something on the order of a rubber patch (old inner-tube) where  
pieces overlap will reduce the speed of decomposition.
Encouraging  plants to grab onto masonry can be asking for trouble...  
a root cause of decay.
Clarke Olsen
373 route 203
Spencertown, NY 12165
USA
518-392-4640
colsen at fairpoint.net


> On Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:52:41 -0500, Gennaro Brooks-Church
> <info at ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm building a 35*20 foot exterior living wall that needs to hold  
>> most of
>> its weight and is attached to a brick brownstone facade. I am  
>> looking for
>> long lasting (50 plus?) materials to form the structure.
>
> ..........................
>
> It appears that Gennaro is simply wanting to hang a trellis for some
> greenery to climb on ?
>
> But if a construction of some sort is absolutely necessary, it  
> seems bizarre that an aspiring "Green" builder would opt for high  
> embodied-energy aluminum or stainless steel framing components or  
> cable. It seems akin to trying to shave with a tub grinder.
> ............................
> For a "serious" trellis, White oak lumber (which I know is so  
> plentiful in the NE states that people hack up good sized trees and  
> burn it for firewood ) would be a good choice I would think. I have  
> no doubt that it would easily last for the 50 year time frame  
> Gennaro specifies.
>
> -- 
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a >
> manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply"
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