We are incredibly passionate about eco-friendly, sustainable building methods at JME Consultants. We were lucky enough to be invited to undertake the structural design and detail of a hempcrete residential building in Harome, North Yorkshire. A hempcrete building is constructed using a timber load bearing frame infilled with hemp in either a putty form built up in layers or infilled with dried hemp blocks. As this is quite an unusual / new type of construction method, it proved to be quite tricky to get it approved and signed off by Building Control. However, we undertook extensive research into the building methods and, with close collaboration with the architect, were successful in achieving Building Control sign off. This meant that the building would be both insurable and therefore mortgageable in the years to come. This project was made even trickier by the presence of a large number of oak trees and a thick clay ground strata, the combination of these two things results in the foundations being subjected to high levels of ground heave and shrinkage which had to be carefully designed for.
If you are thinking of using hempcrete as part of your project and require the services of a structural engineer, we would love to hear from you!
