We recently finished building our tool shed! As far as I know we’ve built the first roof in modern day Costa Rica that’s entirely made of wood and uses a traditional natural building method with ceder shingles. Here’s what it looks like today:
Not a drop of cement, no metal rods, no plastic… Just local ceder wood (mainly salvaged), 5 small guachipelin posts for the bases, and fairly simple tools. Good geometry, some simple math, and a whole lot of craftsmanship in between. Here’s how it came about:
At RDS we spend most of our time working outdoors on natural building projects of various sizes, and on integrative farming. Over time, we’ve accumulated a whole lot of tools and the need for a tool shed eventually became too urgent to postpone any longer. So I set out to design and build an adequate space to keep the tools.
After thinking through the details of the building and sketching everything out we picked the location that seemed the most appropriate not only in terms of natural building considerations (such as site drainage, natural topography, surrounding trees, etc) but also in terms of integration with the overall flow of the work and life here. A lot of thought and careful attention is always put into considering these things. When carrying out a building project, no matter how small, it’s very important to not rush this preliminary decision-making phase. Always remember the aim of the project and the reasons that set you forth in carrying it through. The role the building plays in your larger vision. Once decisions are made, get to work immediately and keep your aim in mind throughout the whole process.
We dug 5 holes in which to put the bases – we used guachipelin which is a local hard wood that will remain rot-free in a well-drained soil for a good 40 years. Always measure everything 20 times so that you can cut just once! Especially in the beginning. If everything is perfectly square and level from the ground up, building the structure is fun, rewarding, and efficient. Otherwise you’ll spend a whole lot of time error-fixing over the course of the project and your work will never be as harmonious.
For this particular natural building project, we built the floor right in the beginning:
Vince making and setting wood pegs as the floor is coming together.
Jimmy and Noam getting the floor ready for the frame.
The tool shed was conceived to fulfill its function so shelves were built into the design. Here’s what it looked like after we raised the 2 bents:
2 bents raised on the tool shed.
We built the shelves, the walls, and started working on the roof. Here’s some more pictures of the progress:
Here you can see the roof’s preliminary rafters as well as the supporting structure inside. The idea of any building is to redirect the load of the roof to the foundation through a rigid frame. There’s a lot of room for creativity. Good structures provide a lot of space while economizing the amount of wood and structural elements that are required (posts, beams, etc).
Some time and 2 broken cameras later, here’s what the structure looked like as we worked on the wooden shingles roof:
Making roofs with wooden shingles is a traditional natural building method that’s been used for centuries. There are buildings throughout the world with roofs made out of wooden shingles that are hundreds of years old and still standing. If done right, and with the correct wood, a wooden shingle roof can last up to 70 years with some minor repairs along the way. As far as I know this is the first roof in modern day Costa Rica that’s made entirely out of wooden shingles – the traditional way. There is no sheathing underneath, no metal or plastic parts anywhere. Not even at the very top.
For the most part, the knowledge to build such roofs out of readily available local and natural materials seems to be largely lost. And like all traditional natural building methods there is a big gap between the mere information on how to build such roofs, information that can be found in books for example, and the actual practical application. That gap is that of craftsmanship, experience, skills, and creativity and adaptation. Stuff that can’t really be taught but has to be experienced. Here’s the finished roof:
A few days after we finished the roof we had a typical tropical night with strong torrential rains. It was incredible to see how not a drop went through! Skeptics turned into fans and admirers and so far the roof has proven to work perfectly. It’s always fresh and dry inside the tool shed – no matter how hot the sun may be outside or how hard it may rain.
Entire books can be written on the topic of making wooden shingle roofs, and I’m sure countless have been written and published, but I’ll only mention here that unlike conventional building methods which aim for tight and perfect waterproofing, one of the basic ideas of natural building is to use natural materials that are readily available locally in a way that leverages their natural properties. So for example ceder wood is very porous. It absorbs water. At the same time it dries easily and has a very long rot-free life span if it is allowed to breath well. When building a wooden shingle roof these properties are leveraged. For example if there are some holes or cracks that appear in the wood with time, rain will make the wood of the shingles swell immediately (if the roof is done correctly) and that will close up these openings and keep the roof waterproof. As the wood dries, it shrinks – allowing the roof and the building to breathe. If it’s very hot outside it’s correspondingly fresh and cool inside, and vice-versa. Using any kind of conventional sealant or paint on the wood would defeat the purpose and significantly diminish its effectiveness and longevity. Paint doesn’t breathe with the wood, so with time the forces acting on the weathered wood create tiny cracks in the layer of paint, letting humidity penetrate into the wood through those cracks. That humidity is then trapped inside since the wood isn’t allowed to breathe, and that makes it rot quickly. Again entire books can be written (and have been I’m sure) on how natural materials and building methods can’t coexist with conventional modern methods of constructions and the materials they use. That’s just an example.
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The tool shed is so beautiful! Good work! Can’t wait to come back. Much love being sent.
Wonderful, precise work, beautiful result. i can almost smell the cedar !! In India where i live, people still use wood-pegs for joints, occasionally – they work wonderfully. We can’t use wood much in building here because of the monsoon, and the termites – unless it’s in high altitude… (no termites above7000 ‘ alt).
i particularly appreciate your tips about the wood breathing, absorbing water, expanding, retracting etc… i never realized it was a mistake to paint wood exposed to the elements. Thanks for explaining.
i always thought that Canadian style cabins were the most earthquake- proof houses… i figured their crisscrossing at the corner would allow them to move a bit, but not break, in an earthquake.. What do you think about that ? (we live in lower himalaya, earthquake-prone region).. Do you have any tips about canadian-style cabins ?
All best wishes,
Florence.
hey florence – thanks for your comment. it isn’t necessarily a mistake to paint or treat exposed wood. There are plenty of natural options that don’t use conventional modern products which don’t do well in a natural building project. for example, many types of oils and waxes can be adequate (since these will follow the wood’s “breathing”). but when it comes to a wood shingle roof, it is more efficient to leave it entirely untreated.
as for earthquake-proof building – there are many factors to consider and tons of details. costa rica is also an area with many earthquakes and we have some small ones fairly regularly. as a general guideline i would say that the most important is a rigid frame so that when there is an earthquake, the entire structure moves together as one unit to minimize any possible generation of momentum. especially for tall buildings, or buildings that are on slopes and thus have an elevation difference. for the same reasons, if using stilts for foundations (which are considered amongst the best methods for earthquake-safe building), you’d want to make them wider rather than too deep. in short, you want to allow for some movement and avoid stiffness but you want to make sure that when the structure moves, all its parts move together as one unit. so you need a rigid frame.
there are of course many other questions to address. if you’re using nails or screws for example you’ll need to think about their flexibility vs strength. etc…
as for termites – they’re a plague for wood builders across the world but good building practices can entirely prevent the problem.
where exactly do you live in the himalayas?