Building a Sawdust Concrete Home

By O. A. Fitzgerald
Published on January 1, 1978
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Photo By Fotolia/Lev
Learn about building a sawdust concrete home.

An article about building a sawdust concrete home and and how that house has held up, thirty years later.

Building a Sawdust Concrete Home

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.

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 follow-up — MOTHER has tackled the project.

Here, then, is the original Popular Mechanics story from 30 years ago . . . and MOTHER’s update on Wait Friberg’s sawdust/concrete home, as it looks and performs today.

Reprinted by permission from Popular Mechanics, copyright© 1948 by H.H. Windsor.

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