Thursday, June 24th, 2004
A good St-John the Baptist to all francophones and all Quebecois!
Another month has gone by, and to tell it all, many more will go by before the walls start rising. We have renewed our lease, and are still looking for a way to prove that walls made of earth packed into tires meet all the standards of the Building Code. I have talked to many architects and engineers without success. To date, nobody in Quebec is knowledgeable about this construction technique, and to acquire it would require too much time. They are all already very busy and do not see any interest in developing this new expertise.
A possible option would be to hire the architect who has signed the plans for 3 earthships in Ontario, including the Potter’s. We are hesitating to proceed this way for many reasons. There are obviously the costs. We would also have to ensure that the municipality would accept these plans before getting involved in expenses. We are still facing the question of the regulation making it compulsory to have foundations made of concrete, cement blocks or jointed stones… To make an amendment to the regulation, they must be able to define precisely the type of construction for which it would not be necessary to have these foundations. Furthermore, and it is my main objective, it must be seen whether others will be able to build using this technique without having an architect to sign the plans.
We turn again and again the pieces of this devilish puzzle in our poor heads, and we always end up dizzy and without a solution. We look for other avenues, and the clearing is no longer done on the lot but with the authorities. We would almost have to find how to get this type of construction accepted by the Quebec Building Board. We might turn ourselves into a living experiment? We want to go back to Recyc-Québec to see if it would be possible to get help since we reuse a lot of materials without having to transform them. Some of them even wind up in dumps for the next thousands of years… why not use them to build a house that would have an unbelievable life expectancy? Oh yes! It’s true, we live under capitalism and it can function only if we consume more and more. Disposable contraptions replace anything that lasts too long: cotton diapers by "Pampers", rags by "Swiffers" and paper towels... OK, I'll cool down and get back to the subject.
The mechanical shovel came as expected, and we discovered that all the big rocks that scared us were only on the surface. Once these monsters were moved, we found ourselves on moraine, which will be an excellent and very solid base for our walls. We had a width of about 60 feet cleared between enormous boulders that we will leave in place. If we want to enlarge, it will be done towards the back in trust bearing, rather than in width as we had first envisioned. Other excavation work will be required to make a drainage trench above the house. There is a spring higher on the lot and its natural flow ends up at the eastern limit of the plateau we dug into the side of the hill.
We now have a good idea of the location for the house. In fact, we even have the implantation plan. We needed the surveyors to put stakes along the entrance of chemin des Escargots, and we took this opportunity to do everything at the same time. Now that we know exactly where the road runs, Hydro-Quebec will be able to put up its posts for the construction of my brother’s summer cottage, and we will be able to sell the remaining lot near the entrance.