House of Sticks’ - Construction
It is vitally important to understand exactly how the ordinary American home is built before the GreenFire Global SuperHome’s technological advancements can be understood. Virtually all homes in the World are built of cut lumber or sticks (hence the term ‘House of Sticks.’) The picture above is a computer generated CAD illustration of the wooden framework of a typical ‘House of Sticks’ home. For illustration purposes, this basic home has been kept simple – 2000 sf on a concrete stem wall, 3 BR, 2 B, a 2 car garage, and a very simple gabled roof. However, even with such a simple home, ‘House of Sticks’ construction is very complicated and difficult to see clearly and the interior walls and the standard roof truss system - which would have doubled the lumber - has been eliminated. From this graphic, is easy to see why it is estimated that 5 to 10 acres of forest somewhere in the World needs to be cut down in order to build one ‘House of Sticks’ home.
Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Storm Surge, And Floods.
For many years FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has warned that wooden frame homes would not survive more than a moderate Category 3 hurricane. For many years these warnings went unheeded. The hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 ended the apathy of homeowners and caused billions of dollars in damage to homes. Because of the dangerous weakness of wooden homes, FEMA had no choice but to force the evacuation of 5 million people in 2004 alone. And the wind was only the first blow. Rain, floodwaters, and storm surge soaked the wooden, fiberglass filled walls of many homes opening the door to widespread and extensive mold & mildew problems. This meant expensive repair to interior and exterior walls or, more likely, the complete demolition of the wooden home.
Very Poor Thermal Efficiency.
Without a doubt, ‘House of Sticks’ construction is the worst possible building system for thermal efficiency. From the illustration above, it is easy to see that the wooden home starts out as mostly holes. Air can enter through the wall, around the door & window frames, at the floor/wall interface, and at the roof/wall interface allowing air to more or less freely blow though the structure. Even a possible solution – using certain plastic house wraps – is against most building codes as it promotes condensation in fiberglass filled walls leading to mildew/mold problems. Finally, these hollow chambers when filled with fiberglass allow air to circulate freely in the wall chambers. This means that the outside air temperature can be easily transmitted to the inside across this gap. Fiberglass (the poorest of all insulation used in modern homes) does little to stop this transfer. The truss system and peaked roofs of these homes (see illustration) leak energy in massive amounts because attics are usually not properly sealed.
Short Life Expectancy.
Wooden homes are subject to decay and deterioration from rot, mold, and insects. Hence, the life expectancy of ‘House of Sticks’ homes is usually only 30 to 40 years. Throughout America, neighborhoods and entire sections of cities have declined into decay and eventually into ghettoes because of the short life expectancy of ‘House of Sticks’ construction.
The Environmental Impact to America and the World
The structural lumber (2x4’s, 2x4’s, etc.) needed by wooden homes have caused the clear cutting of vast sections of forests. Here in America, there are no old growth forests left except in National Parks. By most estimates, 95%of these majestic trees have been cut to the ground, destroying not only the trees, but the entire ecosystem, including the wildlife that depended on the forest. Now, with home builders continuing to build wooden homes, the lumber is imported from other parts of the world. In other words, American home buyers, having destroyed our own forests, are continuing to cause the destruction of forests somewhere else in the world.
The building of wooden homes also has an even greater Global Warming impact. Trees are tremendous carbon reservoirs, taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as cellulose for hundreds of years. Cutting trees for wooden houses removes an important carbon capture system and is thus one of the contributing factors to Global Warming.
‘House of Sticks’ Developments and the Environmental Impact
‘House of Sticks’ developments or PUD’s usually cause extensive and permanent damage to the natural environment for several reasons. First, the American home buyer has been demanding large yards clear cut of all native vegetation. While there is some movement toward ‘xeriscaping’,‘House of Sticks’ developers still tend to destroy most of the native habitat in the process of building their PUD communities. Second, American homes tend to be single story requiring large footprints. Third, such homes require that outdoor living areas (patios & yards) be on the ground level. For the protection of the family, potentially dangerous wildlife in surrounding areas must be controlled or eliminated, thus adding to the overall environmental impact. Finally, most housing developments mandate either sewers or septic systems. Human sewage is by far and away the most significant cause of nutrient pollution in lakes, rivers, and our coastal waters as well as the cause of pollution in our sources of drinking water – both above ground and subsurface.
