The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding Solar * Straw Bale * Cob * Adobe * Earth Plaster * & More (A Natural Home Book) (Paperback)

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Product Description

From Lark Books and Natural Home magazine—which has a circulation of 200,000—comes an illustrated, unique guide to building an earth-friendly home.

To create a dwelling that’s both ecologically sustainable and attractive, Natural Home magazine is the place to go. With this exquisitely illustrated guide, packed with 400 photos and illustrations, anyone can put environmentally friendly ideas into beautiful practice. Here’s an intelligent look at how a home is supposed to function and a variety of different building approaches. What’s important is finding the right solution to fit your individual needs, local climate, and natural resources. The broad range of topics covered include choosing a site; selecting materials; building with straw bale, cob, adobe, or rammed earth; and plugging into alternative home power systems. Interviews with six homeowners, and photos of the dream homes they built, provide invaluable insight.

About the Author

Clarke Snell is a builder with experience using a wide variety of materials and techniques, both conventional and alternative. The construction project closest to his heart is his own partially bermed, passive solar house, which he built in the mountains of western North Carolina.

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Product Details Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Lark Books (April 28, 2004) Language: English ISBN-10: 1579902812 ISBN-13: 978-1579902810 Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #266,286 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #32 in  Books > Home & Garden > Sustainable Living > Energy Efficiency

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	77% buy the item featured on this page: The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding Solar * Straw Bale * Cob * Adobe * Earth Plaster * & More (A Natural Home Book) 5.0 out of 5 stars (8) $13.57
	8% buy Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs 4.5 out of 5 stars (15) $19.77
	6% buy The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book 4.8 out of 5 stars (27) $23.10
	5% buy Building Green, New Edition: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs (Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative) 5.0 out of 5 stars (3) $22.05

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews 5 star:  (8) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars extremely useful, April 24, 2004 By A Customer I've seen all of the other eco-house books (really!) after months of reading. This is the best I've seen. I could have missed the philosophy lesson in the first half easily, but the second half of the book more than made up for it. The author gives good detail on foundations, building types and solar gain, as well as other practical aspects to a green house. My favorite part of the book was the in-depth interviews and descriptions of alternative home builders and their houses. The answers to the question: "What was your greatest mistake?" was in every case eye-opening. This book goes far beyond the usual "naive couple building a straw-bale" kind of book. Every useful kind of alternative construction is discussed from a builder's point of view. The photos are wonderful and appropriate. You might not want to live in their houses, but it gives you an idea of what has been done and why it worked and ways it could be improved. 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview to Alternative Building, April 25, 2004 By  John McDonald (CA United States) - See all my reviews The Good House Book is a loaded surprise: it is loaded full of the beauty of human efforts to create structures that keep us alive and comfortable on this planet; and a welcome surprise for the great depth to which it explores its subject of shelter. It is as attractively presented as a coffee table book, but covers a broad spectrum of building possibilities from general theory to specific applications, both historical and contemporary. An initial visual foray into the book reveals beautiful photographic illustrations throughout, often arranged in thought-provoking patterns of juxtaposition: traditional structures versus modern versus alternative. This is not a how-to, step-by-step book, but a book of ideas and underlying principles, supported by specific examples. In a chapter on Materials, we learn that ancient Roman concrete was pounded into place rather than poured wet, creating a material free of weak pockets, so strong that it did not rely on internal reinforcing, and allowing the creation of such enduring structures as the Coliseum in Rome. On a facing page concrete spews from a hose into a footing laced with reinforcing bar. This photo is annotated by a guest essay exploring modern concrete, which among other things explains why modern builders often pour it so wet (it flows easily into the forms and flows around the reinforcing bar), why too wet might not be such a good idea (pouring too wet can create small air pockets that lead to water infiltration and early failure), and examples when we pack it much drier still today (for example, when building a dam that needs to be very strong and justifies the extra effort). I have always been taught to mix and place concrete as dry as possible, but after reading these two pages I have a much better idea of why I would want to do so, and I am better aware that there is a continuum of options to choose from, each with benefits and consequences. The central thread to The Good House Book is the rhetorical question of "What is a good building." The short answer, supplied by the author, is that a good building is specific: moving deftly from generalities to specifics makes this book not only entertaining, but practical. Buildings can do more than last a long time and provide shelter. They also affect our spirit. Here is an example of one question explored by The Good House Book: Why does being in one space make you feel you feel good (monastery), while being in another makes you feel otherwise (modern shopping mall). One of my favorite chapters is Applications, which interviews a number of owner/builders about their homes-concept, design, structure, relationship to and protection from the environment, lessons learned, and advice to aspiring builders. The Good House Book will surely appeal to those interested in building their own alternative house. Beyond that, it will thoughtfully engage anyone interested in what makes a good house good, and any house better. The Good House Book is thoughtful and thorough, a very good book indeed. 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Likeable, Readable and Profound, June 7, 2004 By  Eileen Mandle (Asheville, N.C.) - See all my reviews Okay - so I've never thought about the actual mechanics of building a house nor about the choices that allow us to enjoy the beauty of the planet without doing it harm. My concerns have usually been of the strict ly visual - I am an artist . This book is almost startlingly good - Clarke Snell has managed to stimulate even the most laissez-faire amongst us to pay attention to laws respect ing our environment and combine them with our desires for beauty and comfort not only for the past but indeed for the future.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars BEST green building book out there - read this one FIRST! I swear Clarke Snell wrote this book for me - or at least for people like me!! - non construction folks, but handy with a hammer. Read more Published 22 months ago by Beth 5.0 out of 5 stars Informative This is a great book to introduce the topic of building strawbale, cob etc. homes. The wonderful point about it is that it details the pros and cons of each building style and... Read more Published on April 29, 2006 by naturopathicnd 5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book about Good Houses Isn't it nice to dream of being able to build your own home...especially an environmentally "friendly" one!? Read more Published on December 21, 2005 by L. Murphy 5.0 out of 5 stars Among the best of books Superlative well-balanced, insightful, entertaining, stimulative text, superlative graphics/layout with an abundant and marvelous and beautiful and very effective array of... Read more Published on November 20, 2005 by cozplay 5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous book Very comprehensive book which expertly and clearly details the differences between natural/sustainable methods and ideas versus conventional methods. Read more Published on May 19, 2005 by Michael J. Stroh Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (April 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579902812
• ISBN-13: 978-1579902810
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #266,286 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #32 in

  Books > Home & Garden > Sustainable Living > Energy Efficiency

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars extremely useful, April 24, 2004

By A Customer

I've seen all of the other eco-house books (really!) after months of reading. This is the best I've seen. I could have missed the philosophy lesson in the first half easily, but the second half of the book more than made up for it. The author gives good detail on foundations, building types and solar gain, as well as other practical aspects to a green house. My favorite part of the book was the in-depth interviews and descriptions of alternative home builders and their houses. The answers to the question: "What was your greatest mistake?" was in every case eye-opening. This book goes far beyond the usual "naive couple building a straw-bale" kind of book. Every useful kind of alternative construction is discussed from a builder's point of view. The photos are wonderful and appropriate. You might not want to live in their houses, but it gives you an idea of what has been done and why it worked and ways it could be improved.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview to Alternative Building, April 25, 2004

By	John McDonald (CA United States) - See all my reviews

The Good House Book is a loaded surprise: it is loaded full of the beauty of human efforts to create structures that keep us alive and comfortable on this planet; and a welcome surprise for the great depth to which it explores its subject of shelter. It is as attractively presented as a coffee table book, but covers a broad spectrum of building possibilities from general theory to specific applications, both historical and contemporary.

An initial visual foray into the book reveals beautiful photographic illustrations throughout, often arranged in thought-provoking patterns of juxtaposition: traditional structures versus modern versus alternative. This is not a how-to, step-by-step book, but a book of ideas and underlying principles, supported by specific examples.

In a chapter on Materials, we learn that ancient Roman concrete was pounded into place rather than poured wet, creating a material free of weak pockets, so strong that it did not rely on internal reinforcing, and allowing the creation of such enduring structures as the Coliseum in Rome. On a facing page concrete spews from a hose into a footing laced with reinforcing bar. This photo is annotated by a guest essay exploring modern concrete, which among other things explains why modern builders often pour it so wet (it flows easily into the forms and flows around the reinforcing bar), why too wet might not be such a good idea (pouring too wet can create small air pockets that lead to water infiltration and early failure), and examples when we pack it much drier still today (for example, when building a dam that needs to be very strong and justifies the extra effort). I have always been taught to mix and place concrete as dry as possible, but after reading these two pages I have a much better idea of why I would want to do so, and I am better aware that there is a continuum of options to choose from, each with benefits and consequences.

The central thread to The Good House Book is the rhetorical question of "What is a good building." The short answer, supplied by the author, is that a good building is specific: moving deftly from generalities to specifics makes this book not only entertaining, but practical.

Buildings can do more than last a long time and provide shelter. They also affect our spirit. Here is an example of one question explored by The Good House Book: Why does being in one space make you feel you feel good (monastery), while being in another makes you feel otherwise (modern shopping mall).

One of my favorite chapters is Applications, which interviews a number of owner/builders about their homes-concept, design, structure, relationship to and protection from the environment, lessons learned, and advice to aspiring builders.

The Good House Book will surely appeal to those interested in building their own alternative house. Beyond that, it will thoughtfully engage anyone interested in what makes a good house good, and any house better. The Good House Book is thoughtful and thorough, a very good book indeed.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Likeable, Readable and Profound, June 7, 2004

By	Eileen Mandle (Asheville, N.C.) - See all my reviews

Okay - so I've never thought about the actual mechanics of building a house nor about the choices that allow us to enjoy the beauty of the planet without doing it harm. My concerns have usually been of the strict ly visual - I am an artist . This book is almost startlingly good - Clarke Snell has managed to stimulate even the most laissez-faire amongst us to pay attention to laws respect ing our environment and combine them with our desires for beauty and comfort not only for the past but indeed for the future.