The Path to Passive House: Making the Decision
Living Craft Co-founder Frank Wetenkamp recently spoke at the Passive House Network Rocky Mountains chapter meeting about our upcoming Passive House Certified project in Golden, CO with Ewers Architecture. The focus of the presentation was on how the clients, architect, contractor, passive house consultants, and subcontractors all navigate the early planning process when a sustainable …
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Straw Construction in the Media!
The Build Well project, a project of the Ecological Building Network, has produced a stunning new video, featuring long time straw bale construction advocate and structural engineer, Bruce King, as the host and narrator. Well worth a watch, this short documentary talks about the history of straw bale construction and the use of straw as …
Passive House Rebuild Elements
Now that we have discussed why we are building passive homes in the Marshall Fire community, lets get into the details of what makes a home meet this standard, and how our company’s values have determined what methods we use to achieve it. Climate, Solar Orientation, and Energy Use Passive houses take into account site …
About Passive House Design/Build
Residential construction is undergoing a transformative shift towards energy efficiency and carbon reduction. The Passive House design standard, coupled with low carbon building materials, is at the forefront of this revolution. Living Craft is building two new homes in the Marshall fire burn area in Louisville, CO to the passive house standard. We have partnered …
Kitchen/Home Remodel Before and Afters
This remodel involved moving a staircase and eliminating a trip hazard landing to open up the flow in the main level, and make it easier for aging in place. We relocated the kitchen from a cramped corner and added an island for quick meals and gathering. We also added a second prep sink, right by …
A Beyond Green Approach to Remodeling
How do we approach the ever changing world of green building and green remodeling? Is something green because its the newest product on the market? Because its being hyped on magazines and websites and social media? When I interned at an organic farm in Moab, they called themselves Beyond Organic. In addition to meeting all …
The Importance of Energy Auditing
An energy audit is sort of like a physical check up for your home. This is especially important in the case of an older home which may have been built before the updated building code called for a certain level of insulation and air tightness. An energy audit is a great way to find out …
Building and Remodeling with Hemp
There’s a lot of information out there now about hemp construction. Since the recent passing of the 2018 Farm Bill in congress, which legalizes the growing of industrial hemp on a federal level, the hempcrete building technique has gained media attention. But what do you need to know if you are thinking about your new …
Moroccan Tadelakt Photo Gallery
Living Craft co-owner Ben recently returned from a trip to Morocco. In addition to being a very cool vacation destination, Morocco is also the homeland of tadelakt plaster. This is the polished lime plaster that we use in showers, sinks, kitchen and bathroom backsplashes, and windowsills. Our mentor, Ryan, learned his skill in Morocco, and …
How to Build in the Face of Climate Change
Currently the conventional construction industry contributes heavily to climate change. That cannot be debated. What if it could be changed? Welcome to the modern world of increasing carbon emissions. No matter the exact numbers, we know that creating buildings from new materials that have been manufactured and then shipped long distances, using machinery that consumes …
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7 Reasons to Keep Your Old Plaster or Plaster New Walls
You could say that lime plaster forms the foundation of our company, or at least of our origin story. The three of us met on a big lime plaster job in the mountains west of Boulder, CO. We each contacted our mentor, Ryan Chivers, because we had heard of his reputation in the natural building community …
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Our Lime Plasters Featured in Modern in Denver Magazine
Living Craft's work at The Bindery Restaurant in Denver was recently featured in an article in Modern in Denver magazine. The focus is on the sustainable and cultural elements that the owner, Linda, brought to her new business venture. Our custom traditional lime plasters are one component of the sustainability practices that they prioritized during …
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Case Study: Healthy Basement
We were approached by a family that was hoping to have their currently unfinished basement built out to include a bedroom, bathroom, storage, living area, and home office/meditation space. This extra space will accommodate a family with up-and-coming teenagers. Design Our clients already had a design for the new space and emptied the basement of …
The Hemp Clay Experience
We're working in a home where we used a hemp and clay mixture between timbers to add insulation and thermal mass. Why did we choose this, and how is it different from the hemp-lime or hempcrete building processes? Typical Hempcrete Hempcrete, or hemp-lime, as you may know, is a popular form of wall infill that's …
Green and Low Carbon Building Interview
Frank participated in a brief interview on green building in Colorado with Boulder, CO radio station KGNU. Both Living Craft and Rodwin Architecture were represented after our joint presentation at The Eco-Social Solutions 2018 conference at CU Boulder. Click below to give it a listen, and be sure to read the whole article at KGNU’s …
What is “Building Science”?
We use the term building science a lot. For those who may have never heard the term, or fully explored it, here is a quick debrief. Building Science Taking into account experiences of architects, engineers, and builders, building science explores the way that a building responds over time to environmental factors and natural phenomena. Or, …
Bioneers Event
Frank will be speaking on a panel about natural and ecological building, and ways to revamp the green construction industry to serve the needs of the people, place, and economy, at the Front Range EcoSocial Solutions Conference, a.k.a. Bioneers, this year. Add it to your calendar because it’s coming up soon: February 9-10, 2018. Located …
The Story of the Truth Window
When you're new to straw bale building, one of the first things you may notice or hear about is the "truth window." What exactly is this feature? It seems to me like a fun little joke within the community of straw bale builders and/or homeowners, where a small part of the wall (interior or exterior) …
RMNBC 2017 Recap
Living Craft owners were recently proud to be speakers, sponsors, planners, and attendees of the 2017 Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference, co-hosted by the Colorado Straw Bale Association and Common Earth. It’s been a fun and exhausting process through which we learned a lot, both about hosting a conference, as well as all the learning …
CR Alumni Feature
Living Craft co-owner Cheryl was recently featured on Community Rebuilds alumni blog. She interned with them in 2010, on the first home ever built. This organization has now built or been part of over 20 new straw bale homes for low and very low income families and individuals. Check out Cheryl's profile over at their …
The Philosophy of Natural Building
What is Natural Building? This is a hard question to answer, and has been the topic of many classroom and late night bonfire discussions. For us, it breaks down to a few basic principles: Local We try to use materials that are found or produced locally and have as little embodied energy as possible. We want …
Understanding Materials: Clay
We applied a lot of lime plaster in 2016. But we’re just as amped about clay and clay plasters. Curious about why? Clay is a fascinating material with many unique properties. Clay is made of very tiny particles of rock which have been broken down over millennia. Because of the small particle size of clay, …
8 Steps to Improve Indoor Air Quality
The EPA considers indoor air quality (IAQ) to be one of the top threats to public health. Today, most people living in industrialized societies will spend up to 90% of their time indoors. Improving indoor air quality is one of the most important things we can do to increase our health and wellness in the …
Case Study: A Straw-Cell Addition
Living Craft Design has been working on a straw bale addition to our friends’ home in Boulder. This family is already well-versed in the benefits of natural building, so their addition incorporates passive solar heating with large, south-facing windows and a concrete slab floor to hold all that sun-generated heat. The addition has the high …
Passive Solar Design Basics
In the sunny Front Range of Colorado, we see solar panels on a daily basis. But harnessing the power of the sun for your home is not limited to this high tech solution. People have used the sun in myriad ways in the past, and we can continue to make use of low tech, design …
Case Study: Repairing a Strawbale Home
Our clients for this project had finished building their own straw-bale home in the mountains west of Boulder about a decade ago. However, the harsh mountain climate and some details of the design and material selection had led to failures in areas of plaster, particularly around windows and in places where the roof drainage lacked adequate …
The Hurdles of Tiny Houses
In case you missed it, Tiny Houses have grown immensely popular over the past few years. Between multiple television shows and what is soon to be code adoption on a national level in the 2018 International Residential Code, it appears that Tiny Homes are here to stay. We recently worked on a Tiny House on Wheels …
Interview with Remodeling Magazine
Co-owner, Ben Waldman, of Living Craft was recently interviewed by Remodeling Magazine regarding his prior disaster relief work. Recovering from Disaster: A Lesson in Patience Two companies offer advice on how they helped communities recover, based on their own experiences. By Helena Okolicsanyi AP Feed/Getty Images From the recent floods in Louisianaand the wildfires raging …
Bathroom Remodel Before and Afters
We tackled a big project earlier this year with the complete remodel of a bathroom in Denver. The bathroom had been updated back in the 1990s, and it definitely looked a little dated. More problematic, there were moisture issues which resulted in peeling wallpaper, water stains in the foyer below, and the potential for greater …
Update on Regulation 86: Graywater Reuse
In the Spring of 2013, Governor Hickenlooper signed into law House Bill 13-1044 (HB13) which paved the way for graywater reuse. Graywater (as the name suggests) is somewhere between potable drinking water and blackwater, water containing fecal matter. In your home the water you use in your shower, bathroom sink, laundry machine, and other sinks …
Controlling Humidity in Your Home
We live in an incredibly dry climate along the Colorado Front Range. Â The lack of humidity has both positive and negative benefits for the comfort of your home throughout the year. One advantage to our dry climate is that homeowners need to worry much less about rotting framing members and mold growth. The dry heat …