[Greenbuilding] alive and wall

[JOHN SALMEN]

Coming in on this a bit late. I used 1/2" copper plumbing pipe (recycled of
course) with 't' and 'cross' fittings to make a lattice set away from a conc
wall (soldered). t fittings with a few inches of pipe formed the offset. Put
a few bolts into the conc. that sleeved into the t's secured with a bit of
mortar inside the copper sleeve. My lattice was for vines that didn't need
watering - but the copper could piping could form a watering system if
closed off and drilled with a few holes.

I haven't read back to see about soil but the structure could have cups or
trays soldered on (large copper end caps or funnels made out of thin copper
sheet)

JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
4465 UPHILL RD,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7
PH 250 748 7672 FAX 250 748 7612 CELL 250 246 8541
terrain at shaw.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Gennaro
Brooks-Church
Sent: February 5, 2011 8:25 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] alive and wall

Presuming I would ever allow the roots access to the bricks is
seriously underestimating my living wall skills.
What you all are forgetting to the great peril of the living wall is
that the North East is full of termites who leave their colony in the
soil to search for cellulose, their favorite being dead wood. A living
wall made out of soil and a supporting wood structure would be a
groundbreaking success in creating a living wall - full of living
termites that is. All you need is one swarming queen to land in the
soil, which happens every spring on my block.

Gennaro Brooks-Church

Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231




On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 11:13 PM, Clarke Olsen <colsen at fairpoint.net> wrote:
> 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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