He Built a Home of Sawdust/Concrete
An article reprinted from Popular Mechanics, and an update on how that house has held up, thirty years later.
January/February 1978
by O. A. Fitzgerald
Thirty years ago—just after World War II, when so many exciting human-scale things were still being done in so many fields—a fellow out in Idaho built a house of sawdust and concrete. And Popular Mechanics, among other publications, reported on the construction of that house. Good for Popular Mechanics.
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The only trouble is ... we've been waiting ever since for a follow-up report that would tell us how well this unusual building has stood the test of time. And—since it doesn't seem that anyone else is interested in doing that followup—MOTHER has tackled the project.
Here, then, is the original PM story from 30 years ago ... and MOTHER's update on Wait Friberg's sawdust/concrate home, as it looks and performs today.
Reprinted by permission from POPULAR MECHANICS, copyright© 1948 by H.H. Windsor.
Anyone experiencing a revival of the old desire to use sawdust and shavings in place of sand and gravel to get a lighter and cheaper concrete should get acquainted with the tiny diatom—nature's wonder plant—and how Walt Friberg used it to cut costs in his new home at Moscow, Idaho.
Walls, floors, and roof of the house are made of this sawdust-and-shavings concrete. By teaming up wood waste and diatomaceous earth, every cubic inch of which contains millions of nature's microscopic wonder plants, Friberg cut in two the cost of these parts of his house and got superior insulation.
When he returned to the Agricultural Engineering faculty of the University of Idaho, Friberg, a veteran of the Army Engineers, found himself house-hunting.
He saw sawdust and shavings being burned as waste by mills in his locality. Building a house out of wood waste was an old, old dream, he realized. Most engineers long ago gave up hope of getting a satisfactory wood-waste concrete. When the mix was lean, to take advantage of the cheap wood waste, the resulting concrete was not strong and would burn almost as rapidly as wood. When the mix was rich enough to be fireproof, the extra cement used wiped out much of the savings over sand and gravel and also destroyed much of the insulating value of the wood.
But during the war Friberg had learned something about the diatom that gave him courage to reopen the old question. Diatomaceous earth was used in industry as an insulator and fireproofer. He had seen how the magic material, added to the concrete mix in building giant reclamation dams in California, had greatly increased its workability. Perhaps diatomaceous earth would solve the sawdust-concrete problem. That hunch paid off and the diatom is in the building spotlight today.
Deposits of the diatom are widely distributed in the United States. Some of the largest deposits are in Oregon, California, Nevada, and Washington. Because of its strategic value during the war there was an intensive search for new deposits. Many were found. While most of the new ones are too small or not of sufficient purity for manufacturing use, they are suitable for sawdust-and-shavings concrete.
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