A Teulon woman’s dream home became a reality by incorporating aspects that are both esthetically and environmentally appealing.
For the past five months, Donna Royer has been enjoying life in her brand new hempcrete home, built by Elm Natural Builders just outside of Teulon.
The 1,000-square-foot bungalow stands out from conventional builds for multiple reasons. To start, the hand-sculpted home is insulated with hempcrete, a natural mixture made by combining lime with the core of the hemp plant, also known as the herd.
Francesco Zurzolo of Elm Natural Builders explained the benefits of working with hempcrete.
“It’s different from a typical home in the construction materials, but the form is the same. We have a foundation, a wood-framed super structure and roof trusses, but the walls themselves are hempcrete,” he said.
“Basically, it’s solid hemp-lime insulation all the way through, 12 inches thick cast around the stud so there’s no sheathing. There’s no vapour barrier or air barrier. Everything is directly applied to the hempcrete.”
With vapour permeability, hempcrete is a breathable material that regulates humidity in the air, thereby making it mould-resistant.
“It makes for a much more integrated wall system. You don’t have places for condensation to occur on different building layers,” Zurzolo said.
“The whole wall is vapour-open but air-tight so you get a very comfortable indoor environment. You’re not using plastic, and all the hemp is from Manitoba.”
At the same time, hempcrete provides thermal mass. It can absorb, store and release heat to keep the space cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
“The environmental impact is what draws people to consider this,” he said. “But they’re pleased when they learn that they’re going to have R-50 walls and they can heat their home with a fraction of the energy of a regular house. The longevity is there to outlast pretty much all standard building materials.”
The building material is also carbon-negative and fully compostable since hempcrete sequesters more carbon than is emitted from its processing and installation.
Adding to the appeal, most of the interior finishes use clay- and lime-based materials, including the walls, ceilings, floors and countertops. The waterproof surfaces in the bathroom are finished with a traditional Moroccan lime plaster technique known as “tadelakt.”
“The home has in-floor hydronic heat, so hot water is heating in the clay-based floor. Clay, sand and flax fibre are the only ingredients in the floor, and then we seal it with linseed oil from Saskatchewan. Our walls can be fully wet. In fact, in the construction, we spray them down with a hose regularly. If that were drywall, you’d have mould,” Zurzolo said.
“It’s a way more durable way of constructing — and all the walls and the hempcrete can be tilled back into the ground and they will degrade over time. When you move in, there’s no ‘new house’ smell. The only VOCs (volatile organic compounds) would be linseed oil curing, which is not harmful to your health. That’s a significant benefit for people who have sensitivities.”
As another benefit, the home is naturally fire-resistant and pest-resistant. In addition, it qualified for Efficiency Manitoba’s performance building program, thanks to the natural building materials, high-efficiency windows and solar panels.
Beyond the environmental considerations, the new hempcrete home features an esthetic that’s entirely different from standard homes.
“It’s beautiful. Every layer gets hand-applied, so every surface has had our hands on it probably five or six times, at least. It’s hard work, but it’s also nice to be the person doing all the work,” Zurzolo said.
“With us, we do 90 per cent or more of the work ourselves. We do everything except plumbing and electrical, and we really like that. We like having the control, responsibility and ability to design on the fly. You don’t have that flexibility when you’re dealing with many different people. We enjoy having that level of intimacy with the home.”
As for Royer, she couldn’t be more pleased with her new home.
“It has exceeded all of my expectations to the positive. It’s all I dreamed of and then some. It’s been great,” she said.
“I love the fact that it reflects my personality. It’s handcrafted, and I love the organic movement in it. I love the fact that I know the people who built it, and I got to help build it. I know all the blessings that friends wrote on the walls underneath the plaster. All of those things are important to me.”
Before moving to her Teulon-area home, Royer lived in Winnipeg’s Wolseley neighbourhood.
“I’ve been interested in alternative building for a long time — tiny houses, yurts, van life. When we got to the point where I was going to have a house built, I came up with a list of some things that were important to me,” she said.
“The ecological sustainability of the build was important, as was a small dwelling. But if I was going to invest in this, I also needed someplace where I could age in place and I needed it to meet legality. So I began to look at having a custom house.”
Initially, she was considering a straw-bale structure. Then a friend put her in touch with Zurzolo, who suggested a hempcrete home.
“I very quickly found that it was going to be the best solution to address the issues that I wanted to focus on. The hemp was available in Manitoba. Francesco had used hempcrete before, so he had worked with the city and other municipalities around how to meet code requirements, which was important. It let us move forward,” Royer said.
“I really love the fact that the materials were available locally. It was something that we could physically make on site, and it was going to give me a massive thermal mass. In the summer, my house didn’t get above 22 degrees inside on the hottest day with no air conditioning. In the winter, I’ll have the heat on, but it will heat up the building as opposed to the air in the building. Once I began to understand those properties and mechanisms, I kind of fell in love.”
At the same time, Royer also enjoyed the hands-on approach of Elm Natural Builders.
“Francesco and two employees built it and I was able to work alongside them every day. It’s a very different construction material and it allowed us to put organic shapes into it, which has been a real gift to me. It’s a different feel. My walls have a curve that goes into the ceiling, so there isn’t a 90-degree joint there. My floors come up onto the walls ever so slightly to form a baseboard, so there isn’t a 90-degree turn there. When I sweep my floors, it’s a whole lot easier,” she said.
“I have a built-in niche that is hand-formed and I have really deep windowsills. It really has suited me beautifully. They are definitely artisans and professionals who understand the material, which allows things that just aren’t possible with traditional building materials. They cared about it and wanted to teach me about it. They have made this a very doable project and became my friends in the process. It’s been great.”
Elm Natural Builders completed Royer’s home on schedule within two per cent of the estimated costs, ringing in at about $415,000 (excluding the well, septic system and solar panels).
“I honestly can’t name any part that I regret, which is really nice. When plans needed to change, we could talk about them. They gave their ideas, and I could change my mind at appropriate spots in the build. There were a number of changes that really improved the house — some of them at their suggestion,” Royer said.
“I didn’t need to have everything nailed down right from beginning, and that was really nice too. It made a big difference in terms of the usability because I designed the space. All of those pieces have been important and made a huge difference to me.”
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