Wooden wall

This is wooden sidig boards, natural materials. This product is imported from U.S.A, features are water and fire proof, wetherproof, anti-termite and so on.

Especially, in terms of fire proof, this product has excellent capability. This wood has been impregnated with fire-proof agent. This is only one product which is qualified as "semifireproof construction" under the Construction Standard Act.

This construction method is called "Yoroibari" in Japanese which finish of shape looks like armors, piling boards.
It's a troublesome work to do for carpenters.

This wooden product change the aspect of a house, more naturally. We have the problem of price. It's really expensive. I hope more reasonable products come into our market.

Anyway, you can see a cicada's pupa on the wall. Natural materials are always loved by people.

Work hours of architects

How long do you work for? The architects in Japan work long time, sometimes neally midnight. It might be fate, if you are an architect. When working towards a dedline, we often work long hours. Saturday is not a holiday. Only on Sunday, we could have a break, if customers do not claim or call us. It is necessary for us to correspond to established and potential customers as soon as possible. The customer is not only one.

The matter mentioned above is quite normal for the architects in Japan. After working till late at night, we have only one thing to do... sleep. Even though working efficiently, we can't go home easily because other people are still working. Holly shit! People in Japan really attach importance to "cooperation", you have to help if they can not finish their work.

Not only for co-workers, but also customers, we sacrifice ourselves. "Cooperation", "patience" and "sacrifice" are still virture, this way of thinking still remains in this country. I doubt it. That's too much. Work is not to sacrifice myself. When I do not have time or room, it is not possible to pay attention enough for others. The person won't be made anyone happy though we are not happy.

Neither this system nor the tradition will change easily. I'll just keep on trying to change, keep on learnig to make this situation better.

How long do you work everyday?

Exterior walls construction

You can see how the exterior walls construction is going as below. This material is an avarage ceramics and is made of minerals, mixing with fibers, we call it "special cement board".

Firstly, we put a sheet around a house, the sheet has moisture transmission and water proof capability. We then mount wooden bar, maybe furring strips in English. The bar also makes airway between sheets and wall to prevent the build-up of moisture in the wall.

After above, we put hooks on the bars to receive wall materials. We sometimes Knock in a nail to fix the walls, but nail mark is noticable. Better to use hooks.

Look at the space between the houses. How narrow! You can easily see like this case in Japan. It should not be easy work for the craftsmen.

Finally, sealing compound is mounted on the joints.

This is a typical wall material here in Japan. Our house used to be made of lime plaster, wooden board and local clay mineral or mud. I think lots of Japanese people prefer these natural materials to recent ceramic walls, but it costs a lot, we can't use it. The recent wall material is good at fire resistance to fire, strength and price.

We love natural wooden floors...

Among our customers, pure wood floor is getting popular. The price is higher than plywood product, but quality is totally different. Basically, Japanese people prefer natural materials to artificial items, in case we don’t think about the price.














This floor is a walnut. I thought the color is little too white, but after putting beeswax, it becomes nice. There are knots and uneven colors, but it means natural, becoming interesting color pattern.














You can see the orange and white colored items in the wall, they are insulators. Its main raw materials are blast furnace slag, basalt and other rocks. Once those materials are molten in the oven, then working of its liquid slag into fibers and molding it into a sheet. The rock wool and glass wool insulators are widely used all over Japan. I privately like pure wool insulator, but it is not used so widely due to its cost.

Fitoncide from a wooden house

The "phytoncide" is a coinage of Russian, it originally means, "Material that is released from the plant and kills other living things".














Cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are the main constituent of wood, but there are others like sap, liquid, odor which are low molecular substances. These extracts are generally called "phytoncide".

Basically, it works as immunity for plant to protect itself against insects or bacteria, some others who are the obstruct growth of the plant.

1,8-cineol and α-pinene are one of the components of extract from wood. These elements relaxe people, and promote comfortable sleep. That is why we can relax in the forest.














Most of the Japanese detached houses are made of wood. We can say the timbered house is in the environment of relaxation because of the extract from wood. One old carpenter said, "Every day, we work surrounded with trees, our emvironment is like forest relaxation. Most of the carpenters are calm, on the other hand, the workman of a concrete often gets irritated."

One of the part of wooden house is floor. It also has extracts which can control tick cause of atopy. The natural wooden floor also can relax people, but artificial plywood can not. The natural items are really expensive, but if you do not care about knotty wood, or having parti-color, the floor can be more reasonable.

There are a knot and color because it is natural. If there are patterns in the floor, ceiling should be simple, then atmosphere will be well-balanced.

Bar arrangement

I introduce you today, this is the site of bar arrangement before reinforced concrete construction. This is to make the foundation of wooden house.

These iron bars are arranged based on the regulation. The regulation provides that arrangement method, separation, joint lap length and diameter of bar.
The diameter of the bars is 10 - 13mm. The bars are reused iron from scrapped automobiles and others.



The inspectors do precise check like typical Japanese. Sometimes it's too much.
However, we follow the regulation and after the construction, Japan Inspection Organization who is authorized by Ministry of Land, inspects the conditions. We have to pass the inspection.

Recent years, most of the Japanese wooden houses have this type of concrete foundation. By the way, 70-80% of detached houses (for a family) are wooden in Japan. We still like the house made of wood.

We need a green!

Recently, we put around our customer's garden with lawn. The areas are about 100 ㎡.　 We bought the lawn mats below at the DIY store.



The kind of the grass is himekouraishiba which is native grass. The price is 600 USD in total including sandy soil for keeping moisture in the lawn mats . This mat is 5USD per square meter.

There aren't lots of lawn fields that much in Japan. Even though around 60% of our land is greenary, we mostly have asphalt, concrete and soil surface in the city. The schoolyard, parks and gardens of our house are soil, no green. The reason could be a problem of the cost and maintenance for Japanese people. Japanese people dislike its maintenance, and when
the people buying house want to reduce the construction cost of the house, firstly they reduce a plant or a garden.

However, maintenance is actually not so hard, just using a lown mower in a month in case of the himekouraishiba. It becomes a good excercise.

I do not understand why Japanese people do not attach importance to planting and scenery of green. There is no recognition that the garden and planting improve one's standard of living.

There is an advantage more than the disadvantage of cost and maintenance. For instance, it is various effect such as cooling, improving child's physical ability, relaxing and so on. Houses also look better from greenary.

This is the lawn mat. I would like to know how you put the lawn in your garden.

Cherry blossom & Rapeseed

Near our construction site, we could see cherry blossom and rapeseed located in Omuta city, Fukuoka. They are Japanese spring flowers. This conbination of pink and yellow colors are rare. It's worth to see it.

We can see this scenery for only a short time, because pink one are falling in a few week, yellow one will be fertilizer, we also eat this yellow. It's worth to see it.

In this season, Japanese people enjoy a picnic or BBQ under the cherry blossom, the most important thin is surely "Beer".

This below is called "Garyubai" which means "Lying down dragon". This name could come from its trunk shape like a dragon. Actually, it is a plum tree near this place.

We love these flowers because we could feel that spring is comming, and make us happy.

Floor materials

The carpenters is putting piece of lumber on the floor. The material is a solid material of Cherry blossoms. Our customers, recently many people in Japan as well, prefer to the natural materials, for instant, oak, chestnut, cypress, pine, cedar and you name it.






You can see white pieces of tape which is a spacer that stands between the floor board that the carpenter prepared. It is a string basically used for packing. The solid material shrinks and expands because wood absorbs and desorbs moisture. This causes creaking sound of the floor. To reduce the sound, the spacer gives space that solid wood can move and reduces creaking.




The carpenters know the character of wood and make good use of their wisdom like the above mentioned matter. I can learn lots of things from them.

Insulator

This is the site of installation of insulation. I took the photo from inside of our home which we are building at present. Between the pillars and braces, we fill the glass wool up. This glass wool is made of fiber glass, reusing waste glass. In Japan, we usually use glass wool, in other way, rock wool, real wool, urethane form can be used. Its performance must meet the specification of evergy saving standard.

In other part, we install the 50mm foamed polystyrene board underneath the roof. The part of white sheet has water-proof and moisture-penetration capability.




These insulators keep our home cool and warm through the year. Privately, I prefer nature materials to artificial items. What do we have? Wool, cellulose, hemp ..... I want to find something else.

Spirit of a carpenter.

Here comes our carpenter. He has got justice, courage, courtesy and sincerity like Bushido. He is not talkative of the old school of craftsmen, he is still young though.






He is a capable carpenter, always tidy up a construction site and gives us many ideas.



He gave me a Belgian chocolate as my birthday present today. I am really proud of you, not because of the chocolate. We are so proud of your spirit, skills and attitude.

Construction site of prefabricated bath

This is a construction site of a prefabricated bath. We, Japanese call it as "Unit bath", it should be Japanese English.

Its design is quite simple, but little boring. Privately, I prefer the traditional wooden bath to this one, but most of the Japanese bath is prefabricated bath due to its cost.

The bath is almost assembled.

Construction site of a Japanese wooden house

Hi! I have attached the video using "You Tube" to show you our construction site of custom-order, wodden Japanese house. I was embarrassed and nervous though. I mainly explain structure of the house. For instant, every wooden part, hardwares and a carpenter.



The orange color on the pillars is pesticide against termites. It has to be painted on pillars and basements compulsory here. White sheet on the wall is like tyvek which has a capability of waterproof and moisture penetration.

Lime plaster tile

Lime plaster is one of the traditional building material in Japan. This is used for wall, floor and mortar. In Japan, you can see this material in Japanese castles, old warehouse, Samurai houses and also modern houses.

Today I introduce you the tile of a long-established leading company of lime plaster. What is the difference from normal tiles. The tiles is basically baked by fire, but this one is not. The machine puts some tons of pressure per cm2 on tiles. After the tile becomes a product, it absorbs CO2 and strengdern the hardness year by year.

The strength is almost the same as marble, texture is softer but elegant. The price is lower. Functionally speaking, it is an incombustible material, antimicrobial, also controls humidity and absorbs odor or VOC because of its nano-sized porus structure.

The maker is starting to export this product overseas, I hope one day this is appreciated by people all over the world.