Why You Should Avoid Hiring General Contractors And Contruction Companies To Build Your Home

I’ve been doing work as a carpenter and construction worker for over ten years now, and I’ve seen how poor the industry is. First of all, construction workers have a shortened lifespan due to the toxicity of the materials being used. I would do certain jobs and spend the next week clearing my lungs out. Its unnatural. And if its bad for the workers, its bad for you. The materials are also weak. The sheetrock and drywall they used can easily be punched through or broken with your hands, which isn’t something you want when you’re building a home.

Its expensive. If you want wood framing, the trees have to be cut down by one company, which will send them to another company to be milled, which will send it to a store or supplier who will in turn sell it to a contractor (who usually ups the price on the materials to make money) and by the time it gets to you, it cost much more than it did when it left the first hands. Even with all of that, a contractor might only spend $20,000-50,000 in materials to build a normal home, but you’ll pay $300,000-$400,000, not including interest on a mortgage. There’s also the recurring monthly bills that come along with a house. Electric, insurance, gas… you get it. You can put up a high quality home with all of your needs and wants for $5000-$20,000 and cut out all of the extra fees and upcharges.

Todays companies use poor building techniques. The way they fit things together, its only made to last a short time before you have to do expensive work on it to get it fixed. And you never know which companies you can trust. A lot of workers are putting out faulty jobs and getting away with it. They’re also low in skill compared to some of the craftsmen you can find who will build you a home that’s both beautiful and functional. There are homes you can build that will be way more efficient than the homes we’re used to. The list of reasons goes on and on… Here are some examples of eco-friendly, efficient homes.

Buidling Materials

The materials that are typically used to build are unhealthy and they fall apart easily. Houses normally don’t last more than 20-30 years before they need regular maintenance. If ancient civilizations could build homes that are still standing today, then there’s no reason why we should use these low-quality products. There are materials that you can use that are easier to build with, stronger, and will last much, much longer.

Stone: Stacked stone is one option. Walls and foundations that are stacked right will stay up for a long time and will look natural and aesthetically pleasing.

Stone and mortar is another way you can use that adds a bonding agent into the mix for extra strength and water sealing. You see this method used for fireplaces all the time. With all stone methods, cutting the stones to form blocks is a good way to fit them together so that the wall will be stronger and tighter. Here’s one of the ancient stone walls in Peru…

Wood: It looks nice, smells nice and is strong and flexible. With the right tools and skill, you can get some great architecture out of this material. Wood structures can be built with or without attachments and bonding agents, like stone.

Adobe: Its usually made out of mud, or a combination of mud, clay and sand to get a compound that will dry out and harden over time. It will also regulate temperature naturally since it absorbs and radiates both the cold and hot weather. You can find adobe houses that are hundreds of years old.

Strawbale: Straw has insulating abilities as well as strength when use right. Its often used in conjunction with clay or adobe to make thick-walled structures that need little heating and cooling. Strawbale homes typically go up very quickly.

Hempcrete: There’s a new product out called hempcrete that is breathable, cheap and easy to make and very strong. Its made with a mix of hemp and lime to get something that absorbs CO2 from the air and gets harder as time goes on. So basically, the older the house, the stronger it is.

Shelter Building

Since wilderness survival is a part of what I’m doing, I want to include shelter building as a part of the learning process. Remember that animals don’t have to build shelters (some of them do anyway) because nature automatically makes places to stay that are comfortable and warm. That includes caves, fallen trees, bushes, and all of the other little pockets that are created. These alone are enough to protect you from the elements and shield you so you can sleep or rest. Since you’re going to be doing this for a temporary spot, you aren’t going to want to spend a lot of time building it. These are shelters that you can put up in a matter of hours or less. Sticks, grasses, leaves and branches are great for this. Here are some pictures of shelters built with these materials:

You can also dig holes in the ground and use the same materials as a cover or a door. If you’re going to be staying for a little while and you want something a little more homey, you can go with something like this:

When its snowing, you might not have the same options for building shelters, but you can build igloos. All you have to do is dig yourself a nice sized hole, making sure the snow walls are thick enough that they won’t cave on you. As long as the weather stays cold enough, and if you did the job right, the walls should get harder and stronger over time. If you need something soft to lay and walk on, small twigs, leave, and pine needles are great (more comfortable than a bed in my opinion). Or, if you’re feeling lazy just go crash in one of those natural shelters I talked about earlier.

Providing Power

Its a well-known fact that energy exists everywhere in different forms, all you have to do is harness it. There are multiple ways to do it. One way were all familiar with is the use of movement. Motors and other other axle driven machines use this. There are steam motors that use the rising water vapor to turn a turbine. Any of the many ways you can use to get movement will work. We get energy through alchemical reactions in batteries and through fusion in nuclear power plants. Since I’m working with efficient, clean methods, I want to avoid burning fuel or using most of the popular methods of generating electricity. Staying green isn’t the only reason for doing this. The electricity that we have running through our appliances and devices is unnatural and our bodies don’t react well to it.

If your starting with an off the grid base, you’re gonna want to use cheap or free methods for getting electricity. Back in the day, things like water wheels, hydro generators and windmills were popular. You can build water wheels using only the natural materials you find around you and link it to things in your home to get them going. If you’re going to link what you build up to a motor, you can find good ones easily in the $100-200 range. Batteries for storage are also pretty inexpensive. Solar panels have also dropped into the affordable range, so you can link those up to inverters and batteries to keep your home lit up. If you want to do some research you can even find out how to make them. If you want to buy a gas generator for backup and easy use, they’re a classic form of energy production.

What I’m moving towards with this project is free energy and aether technology, which will provide energy output with little to no input. There are a lot of magnet motors being invented that use the natural polarity of magnets to create movement and electricity. There are examples of these all over youtube. I recommend looking up the inventor of this century (Nikola Tesla) just to learn about all of his work with electricity and his ideas for free energy. When he died mysteriously, he was working on providing free wireless energy everywhere in the world by using technology and the earth itself as the source. The pyramids did this on a smaller scale by channeling and radiating energy from the earth. Remember that energy exists everywhere, so anytime you can just harness it and move it to where its needed, you’re gonna save yourself some time and effort.

In order to set this kind of thing up, it’ll take some experimenting and inventing. Geometry alone has many energetic benefits, if you know how to use different shapes and materials to get the effect that you want. Metals, stone, earth and crystals are all great conductors of electricity that will last a long, long time. Once we can set up this level of technology, we’ll have infinite, perpetual, clean energy at our disposal and all of the benefits that come along with it.