The Hempcrete Book: Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime (Sustainable Building), reviewed

A new emerging building technique which is growing in popularity, building on some ancient building materials, blended with modern day building insights. See more about the book and the authors on their website here. 

Co-written by UK Hempcrete director Alex Sparrow, this book was published in October 2014 and has been widely acknowledged as the definitive guide to this extraordinary “better-than-zero-carbon” natural construction material.

Its 3 sections

Background information and key concepts to understand
Complete practical construction manual
Design and detailing for building designers
provide architects, contractors and self-builders with everything they need to know to get started building with hempcrete.

You can download sample pages from the book, or

BUY the book from online sellers:  UK    USA    CA    AUS    NZ

Customers worldwide can also purchase the book from the publisher’s website.

The Hempcrete Book: Designing and Building with Hemp-Lime (Sustainable Building), reviewed

Sometimes it can seem like two steps forward, and then several backwards, before we realise the best ways to do things. Hempcrete, as you may have guessed is the use of hemp as a construction material. It has several very positive properties as it is fireproof, highly insulating, and breathable.

After many decades of people using ‘modern’ building materials to renovate old,  stone, vernacular houses, they have come to realise that creating a non-breathable membrane which negates all the positive properties of traditional, breathable materials. A good metaphor we came across was the comparison to the first rain jackets that were completely impervious to water.

For those old enough and unfortunate to have worn these, they did keep the rain out, but unfortunately they did not allow your own body to breathe. Consequently you then got wet on the inside. The evolution of goretex and other breathable outdoors clothes was a godsend. Similarly with the evolution of hempcrete, there is now a breathable building material that can ensure those living in pre WW1 houses can be comfortable and warm, without creating damp, unbreathable homes.

This book is well structured, detailed and aims to walk you through all key aspects of designing and building using this material. It is written in a positive but realistic way, aiming to clearly outline what is and is not possible, and key pitfalls to ignore. The version of the book we sourced was published in 2014, and, in what seems like a fast moving industry it would not be a surprise if there is a revised version coming out soon.

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