We have made sure to be environmentally friendly in the construction of this house, we put rainwater catchment systems in place & built only 3 bathrooms to minimise ongoing water usage, (1 bathroom on each floor is plenty!!)
We chose to construct the house of environmentally friendly materials...
The walls of our house are made of poured in place adobe...
This means only approx 1/6 cement & 5/6 tepetate (silty earth)was mixed together with a binder & poured between forms to create the walls.
The usual method of construction in this region in Mexico is small red bricks which are then plastered...Although these bricks are a cheaper method of construction they have very little thermic value, ie they do not retain heat & so houses constructed with these bricks are cold in winter & hot in summer...Also during the construction process of these bricks the kilns are fired with garbage so the resulting pollution is bad for the environment . As well, to lay these red bricks a lot more cement mortar is required.
We have purposely reduced our consumption of cement, since the production process of cement is a big CO2 baddie...
The reverse is the case with our house, adobe enables heat transfer & retention - result - our house is warm in winter & cool in summer...
Plus the outer walls are 12inches thick & the inner walls are 8 inches thick, all n all a sturdier building material, resulting in a superior finish & product.
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