Another wooden wall

It's been a long time to renewal this blog. I'll try to write something down from now on.

We have another construction site of a wooden house which has woodern walls. Looks pretty cool, I like this one. Its color will be changing year by year, but it's gonna be like a color of driftwoods lying on the shors. I like the changed color of natural deterioration. Stone, mud, wood, paper ... those natural materials have that nature.














Unfortunately we normaly use artificial and mass production of wood materials, sidings. Wooden wall materials are expensive. The articial one does not have that beauty of natural deterioration. When it becomes old, just old and durty.














Inside of the building house, plasteres, we call them as "Sakan", were painting mud on walls. This material is a primer coat. After this, they'll put a topcoat with diatomite. This material shows natural textures of earth and have properties of moisture control, odor control, absorbing VOC and so on. It's really good for our health compare to use chemical materials.

People here in Japan, tend to think about these natural materilas, but actually, most of people do not use it due to its cost. I hope that people realize how important we use natural materials one day, and producers try to reduce the cost.

I think the situation is changing a little bit.

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.