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.