TIMELAPSE - 2 guys build a Hempcrete house in UK

[@stephenjamesdean1]

Unbelievable work from the two of you! Massive congratulations. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the interior

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Cheers Steve, thanks for watching 🍻😁

[@TheRainbow-us9wx]

Amazing, love seeing it all happen!

[@thelowcarbonproject]

:-) Thanks for watching

[@JohnnyMotel99]

You were so lucky to have a friendly land owner/neighbour.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Ha yeah, the neighbour actually used to own the plot. It was his garden and extension that got removed.

[@user-mp7mv2tj5v]

Love it great job. Wish i could get involved in a hempcrete house build so i actually experience working with the material before doing some smaller builds.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

🍻 if you're in Europe, Steve Allin is running a 5 day course in Ireland. Looks pretty good! hempbuilding.com/courses/

[@dyak237]

Class - even more enjoyable to watch in timelapse :) ...I want to rewatch the episodes now!!

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Do it, do it now ;-P

[@elenikalifatidi1992]

Unbelievable work!!!! Great job guys!!!

[@thelowcarbonproject]

😊 Thanks very much

[@eduardoma4034]

enhorabuena por el trabajo!

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Muchas Gracias!!!

[@alexthompson8307]

I’m looking to do my extension with hempcrete. Great video.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Ahh nice, you going to do it yourself?

[@alexthompson8307]

Yes I am aiming to do the work myself.

[@georgewalters297]

Awesome video, what a great project

[@thelowcarbonproject]

☺Cheers George

[@user-bz2wu4re9w]

Brilliant! Inspiring stuff.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Thanks very much 🍻

[@beverleyyoung5844]

brilliant , love it

[@thelowcarbonproject]

☺ Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it.

[@lucipherj]

Is this an affordable option compared to traditional brick and mortar? Inspiring stuff though! Cheers for sharing

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Hi, we looked at that for our AMA episode and seems that for materials, it was half the price, and because this is a self build, it saved a lot on labour. If you were to pay someone to do it, it will likely be similar pricing to bricks and mortar. This will be a much healthier house than bricks though, breathable and natural products inside etc...

[@lucipherj]

@@thelowcarbonproject I’m working my way through your videos and haven’t watched that one yet. ☺️ will give it a watch and see. Cheers for the reply though. All the best.

[@royalred920]

I believe most of the time it’s at least slightly, up to 20%+, more than traditional siding/OSB/bat insulation/drywall layers (that’s what hempcrete and lime plaster are replacing). However, that’s based on the majority of hempcrete builds in the U.S. where the hemp hurd had to be imported from Europe or Canada. Now that growing hemp has been legalized in the U.S. that should help the price to significantly come down. Also it’s quite labor intensive and time consuming which are factors as well. It takes over a month to dry so that affects the whole build. Hopefully, and there are a lot of positive signs, there will be pre manufactured and dried panels that will fit better within mainstream building models. That will greatly reduce the cost. IMO it’s inevitable though. Hempcrete is an amazing building material, not just for the planet, but for the residents and workers. I’ve yet to find anything that has the kind of properties it has. And it’s beautiful!

[@lucipherj]

@@royalred920 thank you, it’s really helpful. I’d love to build with it. We are bricks and mortar in the uk so a move towards something like this isn’t too different.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

@royalred920 Great comment! We thought the drying time might effect the build which is why we used the wood wool board as permanent shuttering. It turns out it wasn't really necessary as it had dried by the time we finished the roof, weather is obviously a big factor in that. The placing of the hemp took us about 5 weeks (with a few rain delays) but there was only 2 of us using a small mixer, we think it could be done much faster with a team of 4 and pan mixer.

[@AshleighPeacock]

Really enjoyed the video. One question, how come you didn't install solar panels while you had all the scaffolding up and roof off etc? In roof solar seems to be popular when doing new builds these days as you save on tiles needed.

[@thelowcarbonproject]

Hi, that's a good question with quite a few answers. Cost was a big factor as well as the restrictions around installing solar ourselves, we have rules about who can do it called MCS certification which also bumps the price up. In roof panels also aren't as efficient as on the roof because of air flow and the rules and subsidies are always changing but we are hopeful a new government here next year will help with that. We are likely going to be going with batteries and solar will be revisited next year. The main focus was getting the thing built first and worst comes to the worst, we will just get a temp scaffold to install solar at a later date.

[@AshleighPeacock]

@@thelowcarbonproject that makes sense. We had solar and battery installed this year. You only need the MCS registration to get paid for your export to the grid, and octopus were actually trialing the removal of this requirement I believe (as there's big debate about what MCS actually do!). The current gov schemes mean you get the equipment VAT free(MCS installer required), however if you pick up second hand panels I'd imagine it would be far cheaper anyway. If you want to continue down this road of alternatives, I would look at people reusing old car (Nissan leaf etc) batteries as home batteries. You can get a lot of storage for your money, although I'm sure there are some downsides such as warranties and old battery technology etc.

[@nottelling41]

​Thanks for the helpful information. New solar panels are cheap now thanks to Chinese investments and technology improvements the price has dropped by 90% over the last decade. Similarly, Lithium Iron phosphate batteries are much cheaper and safer than old car batteries and should last over 5000 cycles before capacity loses over 25%. Solar panels don't need to go on a roof now they are so much cheaper and can be used to make awnings, garage and shed roofing etc. If you have an electric bike, car or separate loads panel, you might be able to avoid must expensive regulations entirely using the grid for Winter and nightly top ups @@AshleighPeacock