[Greenbuilding] alive and wall

[Kathy Cochran]

When researching what wood to use to build long-lasting raised garden beds,
I have discovered that the "professional" raised garden beds producers use
cedar.  I checked with my local hardware/lumber store, and they said that it
would last way longer than redwood  -  probably at least 40 years - and that
is with direct contact with soil, water, etc. AND  - it is way cheaper too!
I don't know if it would have the strength to handle the requirements of
Gennaro's wall, but it might be worth looking into.  

 

I think the idea of rubber patches between wood is excellent.  When  my deck
was built, they covered all the stringers with bituthane (sp?) so that wood
would not be rubbing against wood, (no squeaking!) and also water from above
would not damage the sub-structure.  One of the more intelligent things that
were done........

 

 

Kathy Cochran

PO Box 117

San Andreas, California 95249

(209) 754-4201

Kathys_old_house at goldrush.com



 

 

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Clarke
Olsen
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 8:14 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] alive and wall

 

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"
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection 
> aroundhttp://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Greenbuilding mailing list
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/
> greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org


_______________________________________________
Greenbuilding mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org

to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioener
gylists.org

  _____  

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3425 - Release Date: 02/05/11

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20110205/b46732f3/attachment.html>