Classy Trash: Recycled Paper Bale Colorado Home
(Page 3 of 4)
July/August 2002
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
To fill gaps around the window openings, Rich and his crew rolled up leftover bale scraps and paper roofing materials into “burritos” and stuffed them into the cavities. “The big thing was to have no air leakage and create rounded corners for the window and door openings,” he explains.
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To keep the envelope tight, he chose not to include a fireplace in the home. “Having so many ceiling intrusions—vents, can lights, plumbing stacks—in a house in snow country represents heat loss,” he says. “To me, it’s common sense to eliminate these things, but people won’t trade out their vaulted ceilings and their can lights for decreased energy consumption.”
The result is a house that’s tight and efficient; Rich and Ann’s monthly costs for electric heat in the 1,200-square-foot home average $60. “Because of the tight construction and high insulation, we don’t have any icicles or roof ice dams—unlike most houses here,” Rich says.
Grueling finish work
With the easiest (much to his surprise) part of his home-building odyssey now finished, Rich struggled to find someone willing to stucco the structure; most of the bidders who came out to look at the raggedy walls said forget about it. Stuccoing was the most expensive part of the process; it took the plasterer three weeks to hand-trowel the interior and exterior with two coats of concrete and a final colored coat of elastomeric finish. “He was real happy to see that project over with,” Rich says. “And he suggested that, next time, we trim the loose ends with a weed whacker—just give it a crew cut to make the stucco work easier.”
Rich and Ann had carefully timed the construction so that the tile floors could be laid while they were at a wedding on the East Coast. The first load of tile fell off the truck and smashed, thwarting those plans. The next two loads came from different dye lots and didn’t match up, so they had to abandon their best laid plans. After his trip, Rich and a friend did the tiling themselves, and that was the most excruciating part of the process. “The tile had to be cut to fit the lumpy exterior walls and angled interior walls—there were few straight cuts,” he says.
On a more positive note, Rich found that many subcontractors, including the plumber and the electrician, were more than willing to fit his project into their schedule, even though his house was going up during a building boom. “They did it because it was interesting, compared with normal jobs,” he believes.
In fact, after community members overcame their initial anxiety, they turned out to help at most stages. Neighbors and friends became concrete workers and swung hammers when extra hands were needed. Several people even gave tours when Rich and Ann were not on-site.