I frequently find myself researching micro-parts of the home in hopes I can custom build my own when I am 50 or so. The one I live in is nice, but I mostly bought it for the property. For example, I have 6 tabs open on wooden bathtubs and 3 on cellular vs quilted blinds.
I've already gone down the rocket mass heater and compost toilet rabbit hole long ago.
What are some other often ignored parts of the home that home owners just go with the default imported or plastic laden materials? #asknostr
Plumbing. So much plastic in fixtures, pex, pumps, the rubber hoses that are rubber anymore, shower heads, toilet seats, filter housing, filtration media itself, drain pipes, seals, etc.
Insulation is disgusting. Rockwool is about the only bat type stuff I'll ever use. Foam is awful, even the soy-based ones. Better to use thickness of stone or brick than use most modern insulation. My plan is to use hempcrete for all the exterior walls. Three ingredients. DIY friendly. Then plaster over it with simple, undyed lime plaster.
Flooring is all sorts of awful.
Siding. I'll avoid it entirely.
Venting/fans.
Lighting. (LEDs use a lot of cheap plastics.)
Laminates.
House wrap.
Asphalt shingles.
Coatings on things like steel roofs can sometimes be plastics.
For insulation, I've been hip on hemp since high school. Problem there is the drug laws artificially inflate the price. Otherwise Missouri and Kentucky would probably just replace all corn with hemp fields.
Plumbing, the idea is just go back to copper right?
Siding, the idea is to instead use plaster over hemp right?
Copper for supply, yes. Still easy to get. I'm good at soldering.
Drains are the issue. I'm likely going to have to spend a minor fortune on stainless and weld it.
I could try to find clay pipe. It's still made. Not as prevalent, but still fairly cheap if you can get it.
Copper drains aren't a thing?
Flooring. All "durable" products are plastics based. I've fallen in the trap myself. If like to build a wofati with sealed dirt floors personally but I don't think my wife is on board with that idea yet.
Story of my life. Yes. My goal is to build the first wofati to code
Same. Can't wait
