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wofati and earth berm

Hobbit House - could this be wofati?

Jocelyn Campbell

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Location: Carnation, WA (Western Washington State / Cascadia / Pacific NW)

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posted 12 years ago

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In my humble opinion (IMHO), this is BEAUTIFUL: http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm; though I can't quite tell if it's truly PSP. If this is what a PSP home could look like, well, what would you think then?

(Apologies for a new PSP thread, but this didn't quite seem to fit in any other PSP category.)

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Steve Nicolini

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posted 12 years ago

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That is beautiful. Wow. I love it.

As far as PSP (post, shoring, polyethylene) goes, I would say it is in part PSP, because the plastic sheeting on the roof. It seems the structure is a little more complex than Oehler's PSP designs.

It looks like that took a lot more time to build as well.

I would love to live in a house like that. To me, the aesthetics of this house blow the basic design PSP house's out of the water.

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 12 years ago

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Here is a side view drawing. So, not a PSP.

Although I think it comes close.

I think with some slight modifications, it could be a PSP.

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paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 12 years ago

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Did you see the gallery of other houses?

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posted 11 years ago

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Um, if its beautiful, easy to build, uses mainly local found materials and is comfortable to live in... Who CARES if its PSP or not?

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paul wheaton

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posted 11 years ago

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bdswagger wrote:
Um, if its beautiful, easy to build, uses mainly local found materials and is comfortable to live in... Who CARES if its PSP or not?

Leigh

Me! I care!

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jeremiah bailey

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posted 11 years ago

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I'm kind of new to the topic in general. I'm curious Paul, as to the advantages of PSP over this design. From my quick study of each design, this seems to take PSP and improve upon it. Your words indicate you think otherwise.

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Jeremiah Bailey
Central Indiana

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posted 11 years ago

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The best example of psp i have seen on TV had to be a bunker system built by the US military. Though i don't think they used plastic

paul wheaton

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posted 11 years ago

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If every speck of the roof goes downhill to the soil without ever touching something man made, then it gets blessed as PSP. Once blessed as PSP, your roofing costs can drop by a factor of 20 and your long term hassle factor can also drop by a factor of 20.

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jeremiah bailey

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posted 11 years ago

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It seems to me that this house's roof drops to ground level around the windows and doors. Full drainage is direct to the ground from the sod roof. That drawing includes the windows and looks like ventilation on the left.

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Jeremiah Bailey
Central Indiana

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posted 10 years ago

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I am new on this forum, so forgive me if I am overstepping any boundaries

ops: Paul, I am an aspiring natuarl builder and love the sound principles of WOFATI, however, you previously asked "how is this system not more popular?" Unfortunatly, the majority of people willing to go the unconventional route of building their house - "want to have their cake and eat it too" so to speak. From reading other forums discussing the SImon Dale house this 'look' is very popular with people (and I can see why, it's adorable) So.... you said with a few minor adjustments this could be considered a WOFATI or WOFATI hybrid. Could you give some furthur advice on how you would go about making this happen. And last but not least, when do you plan on building your WOFATI?

jeremiah bailey

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posted 10 years ago

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Ah, now that there is a wofati article, it is much clearer now.

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Jeremiah Bailey
Central Indiana

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posted 10 years ago

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I wonder if the vinyl they use for billboards would make a good barrier between the straw and the earth?

jeremiah bailey

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posted 10 years ago

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If it is impervious to water and durable, I suspect it'd be great.

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Jeremiah Bailey
Central Indiana

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 10 years ago

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My wofati: first, I need land where I can do it. I'm working on that.

How to make the simon dale house a wofati: I think there would be some modifications to the roof so that it can hold more soil and adhere to the principles of no drop of water encounters a man made edge.

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posted 10 years ago

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Hi (second post) I love the look and means.... but I've always wundered......... How do you keep the mice out?

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posted 10 years ago

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just like any other house --- keep crumbs accessable garbage to absolute minimum and cats

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posted 10 years ago

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the walls and cieling might be easy to seal off, but I can't imagine the mice not having ballroom dancing under those pallets. Maybe block them up high enough so the cat can have access

? Or.... (dare I say ?) some ESP instead of the straw?

jeremiah bailey

Posts: 343

posted 10 years ago

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I'm pretty familiar with conventional building. They're not as sealed as you might assume. If you leave the mice a reason (crumbs, accessible food, etc.) they will find a way into even the most sealed of houses. If you consider how much volume of a conventional house is "wasted space", attic, inside framed walls, crawl spaces, you will see that Simon Dale's house actually has very little "wasted space" for mice to live. The biggest factor in housing mice, as mentioned by strangeloop, is the food supply. I believe it was also mentioned that walls and foundations were coated in a lime render which pests apparently don't like to burrow through.

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Jeremiah Bailey
Central Indiana

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posted 10 years ago

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Guess I missed the Lime rendering...... sounds like something that could work. And your logic about crumbs and mice is the logic I used to have...... until I left suburbia and built a house out in the country. My findings are that mice tend to move into the great indoors in the spring and in the fall, when conditions in their natural habitat are not so lovely. No need for crumbs when warm and dry are a factor. I've even seen where they pack their wild grass seed in with them, or built nests where there was no chance of crumbs. But I can see where the lime could definitely be a deterent.

Joshua Chambers

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Location: the state of jefferson - zone 7

posted 10 years ago

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woodman wrote:
I wonder if the vinyl they use for billboards would make a good barrier between the straw and the earth?

We have repurposed old billboard tarps into a yurt cover and various tarps. They are fairly effective, though not quite as thick as a commercial yurt cover. It's way thicker than "visqueen" (or at least most of it), though not nearly what pond liner is. It's fairly heavy. You need a very fancy glue to glue it reliably, but it does work.

I bet it would work great for this usage, as it's worst trouble is the sun.

Walter Jeffries

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Location: Mountains of Vermont, USDA Zone 3

posted 10 years ago

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jeremiah bailey wrote:
Ah, now that there is a wofati article, it is much clearer now.

I have a concern with the up hill facing windows as shown and that is the mountain tends to slide downhill over time. I have seen this repeatedly. Old stone walls have a lot of dirt, all the way to their tops, on the up hill side. Eventually it spills over and buries the stone wall. With a house as shown in the WOFATI drawing I would want a large court yard, an atrium, between the windows and the uphill mountain and even more to catch the mountain before it fills the house with dirt (e.g., press up against the windows and then comes in).

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Devon Olsen

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Location: Central Wyoming -zone 4

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posted 8 years ago

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i think both these and wofati's are beautiful

but i'd love to see some kind of alternative for a place that doesn't have much wood to work with... THAT would also be cool.

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Bobby Smith

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posted 8 years ago

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Very interesting point about the mountain shifts. Would the Wofati have issues becoming basically a fancy bund over the years?

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