Eucalyptus for roundwood building?

Hi all

We're in Portugal getting slowly setup, sorted and learning.

At the moment I'm dreaming of a Simon Dale-esque roundwood framed, earth sheltered house and I'm wondering about the possibility of using eucalyptus to build with (our location in Central Portugal is covered in the stuff). Does anyone know if eucalyptus is viable for something like this? I'm having trouble finding the info.

Thanks

Andy

What species of euc do you have?

I'm pretty sure that it's Eucalyptus Globulus.... its grown here for the paper industry

That's what we have here. Funny, I was just today talking to the guacho who runs the ranch near here and he said what they do is (after the tree has just been cut down) chop off the outer soft wood and use the heart or core. They soak them in water for a few weeks and he says they become really hard and "impenetrable". They use them for "anything" he says. Fence posts, for example.

We have treated euc roundwood for the roof beams of our house (we didn't build it). Very common in Uruguay.

Hi Andrew, and welcome to Permies!

I'm in Portugal too, and the main beams in our roof seem to be home-grown eucalyptus trunks. Not sure if or how they were treated, but it seems to be a fairly common way of roofing in the more 'rustic' areas. I'll try to take a couple of photos.

I just asked my other half and he says that he thinks you have to cut the tree, get the bark of and treat it somehow to keep the insects out, but he's not sure what 'treatment' they use or is appropriate.

Thanks for the info... love the name burra maluca

A Portuguese friend of mine told me a couple of days ago that he can source sweet chestnut and oak here too, which is probably preferable. Don't know about the difference in cost though, I imagine it could become quite costly...