# Wall alternatives to Gypsum board



## hopeful-steader (Mar 3, 2011)

Hey all,
I'm a 21 year old college kid and am admittedly a ways away from building my own home. I'm hoping that it will be sooner rather then later though, and have started planning it out already to occupy my time. I Found a design I love and am thinking about the rest of the details. One detail that I can't totally figure out is the walls. 

I want to build my own house with as many natural, healthy, local materials as possible. This rules out gypsum board/sheet rock for a number of reasons from the environmentally degrading mining practices, to the distance from point of production and outgassing problems. 

So for the question, do folks have any alternative materials/ideas? I am considering wood, but will probably have wood floor and wood ceilings. I feel like wood walls added to that would just be overwhelming. Have folks found ways of breaking up the overly homogenous look of wood all around while still using wood? 

Thanks for any suggestions!
-Erik


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

A nearly all wood interior is not all bad, especially if its broken up between several species of wood and decorated with the right stuff to break up the monotony.


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## hopeful-steader (Mar 3, 2011)

Thanks YH!
That's the kind of inspiration I was looking for. It's hard to imagine things with out having seen it done like that before. I'm also not to thrilled to put carpeting in for similar reasons as to the sheet rock. However, those images did show that with different species and different orientation it can break it up nicely.
-Erik


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

You could also use masonary rock walls inside, or brick for some walls, we have had walls that were just styrofoam covered in a fire proof kind of interior stuco. Might not meet some of your goals for being green but you have to insulate with something. Strawbale and plaster come to mind too, but againyou're back to a gypsum like operation. Undoubtably you will have to choose the lesser evil for material at times. Got any sources for outgassing drywall, I've not heard of that problem. Another thought for wood is a stacked cordwood wall. Basically you use cord wood stacked as if it were in a pile but mortered together.


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## countryboy84 (Dec 8, 2010)

hopeful-steader there are so many options for this that it i scrazy. The ones mentioned her are good ones but I have seen glass bottle walls and cork walls. I have seen sheet steal wall covering which was way to shiny for me but was told that cleaning was super simple. Paneling is an option which can be much less evil in the green side of things many types are now made out of recycled stuff. If strawbale is sonthing that you are looking at you could use earthen plaster and only a light coat of stucco to green it up even more. Heck I have even seen walls in homes that had beer bottle caps and beer cans put up in a lime plaster. Was kinda cool and was told easy and cheap since it was like getting a 2 for 1 since they drank the booze then built with the remains. Like I said so many options for covering walls other then the standard dry wall/sheet rock, the sky is the limit as long as you make sure the load bearing walls are build strong to hold thing up you can cover them with pretty much what ever you want.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

My cabin is all natural materials because of health reasons. Wood, rock, brick, stone, concrete. I was very careful with paint also but I like the look of beadboard painted. Even wood finishes have to be looked at. I used a lot of recycled materials, barn boards, old metal roofing. Just look around with an open mind but watch the finishes as closly as the material....James


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

There are some commercial solar heated straw bale buildings not too far from here that use cob for the walls inside and out. Google HUGS in Pine River MN.

That gives you the option of not having laser straight walls.


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## oz in SC V2.0 (Dec 19, 2008)

We have used all wood upstairs and in the mudroom and bathroom.


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## hopeful-steader (Mar 3, 2011)

Thanks for the thoughts guys I've been thinking of building cordwood sauna but never that of doing that for interior walls, I like that idea a lot.

Ross, just found this article on google:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/...ll-pose-risks-health-property-lawsuits-claim/

That's not the article that alerted me to it, but I can't remember where I read it as it was a few months back. 
-Erik


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## shawnlee (Apr 13, 2010)

The possibilities are only limited to the imagination.......

The house across the street used to have license plates as the exterior covering....old fella got them free or cheap at the junkyard back in the 30s and they held up pretty good untill 2008 when they tore it down to build a new house.


I salvaged a few hundred of them......sold some of the desirable years to people for hotrods and plan on selling the rest of them...only kept a few for myself.

Anything you like or imagined can be used on the inside over the wood to decorate it up if it does not suit you.

Some things to look at are...

Straw bale construction...
Rammed earth...
Stacked block no mortar
Earthships

There are many more natural green styles out there too.....

Those should spark the imagination and lead to some of the other alternative styles of building.


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## mtnmenagerie (Jun 16, 2007)

We used a LOT of wood in our open loft, cabin type home. One of my favorite things to do, to brighten up my kitchen, was white wash the wood ceiling. The wood grain still came through but it broke up all of my wood colors. I get lots of compliments on it too!
just a thought


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I'm planning on using wood when we rebuild the guest house. Plywood ceiling, paneling or thin plywood on the walls. I want to use bamboo for the flooring but that remains to be decided. We're in the process of replacing the paneling in this house. Already tore the sheet rock off one wall and put up birch paneling.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I was building a straw bale house some years back. For the interior walls I put up a standard stud wall then fastened poultry netting across it and stuffed it with straw. Then I applied an adobe plaster like I did over the straw bales. It turned out real nice.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Thanks for the link Erik, as I read it I remember the situation, we didn't get much Chinese dry wall here if any so it wasn't the concern you bring up here. I gotta say this is a terrific thread, with some amazing replies.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

My last house was built kinda on the cheap, and the original owner had faced the inside of one of the exterior walls with T-111 siding. Goes up quick, and no mudding or finishing like drywall. It didn't look bad painted.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Ok I thought of using wood but was thinking if I was to have a Fire,Gypsum board/Sheet Rock would help slow it down.

Am I wrong,Thoughts?

big rockpile


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

"I want to build my own house with as many natural, healthy, local materials as possible. This rules out gypsum board/sheet rock for a number of reasons from the environmentally degrading mining practices, to the distance from point of production and outgassing problems."

Ahh, the innocence of youth. Place the words "natural, healthy, local" in the popular media and watch the search for those items become popular. DeBeers did the same thing with diamonds, creating a market for a clear rock by touting the aspects of it that would appeal to the public.

Helen and Scott Nearing did the "natural, healthy, local" routine to excess and gained a following even though their lifestyle was merely a subset of the possibilities of existence, and ultimately depended on the free labor of followers.

People who have worked extensively with wood, cutting, sanding, and shaping it, know that a dust mask is vital. Wood may be natural and local, but working with it unprotected is not always healthy. Some woodworkers develop allergies to the woods they work with. NOT healthy.

Stone. I happen to like granite, and grew up around it, but I've known since I was a kid that it was mildly radioactive. Porous stone can harbor molds., mosses, and other life.

Cob, adobe, and similar materials. Aside from soil organisms, it is possible for such materials to be a source of radon.

Wood, in particular, is no help in a house fire. A home made with sheet rock walls in a bedroom instead of wood might just make a house fire survivable. A sheet rock firewall between different areas of a home may help contain a fire into a small area.

Yes, sheet rock has its own problems. It simply cannot be allowed to get wet, since mold loves the paper when it is wet.

My point is not to discourage you from using "natural, healthy, local," but to suggest that you examine your preferences deeply and determine how much those preferences are REALLY YOURS and how much you have been influenced into thinking those choices are morally superior by people with hidden agendas. Rocks live an unexamined life. People don't have to do that.


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## RebelDigger (Aug 5, 2010)

I'm with ya! I hate drywall and everything about it, hanging, taping, mudding, esp. sanding, etc. Been really enjoying the demo in the old farmhouse cause I get to rip out drywall put up in the 1960's. ("Take that wicked rock product" she exlaims as she rips a chunk off the wall--LOL) I plan to go with the yellow pine wood walls under all the drywall, cleaned up and whitewashed-already there ya know but, gosh there are a million and one things you can do if you think outside the box. LOL I pulled down the wall out on the closed in back porch by the cistern the other day. Guess what the wall was made of? Cardboard LOL. Have seen walls made of old tin ceiling tiles, not even matching patterns but laid out in a pattern, that is to say, organzied, that was kind of cool. Did anyone mention glass bottles? Somewhere I saw one done with glass bottles laid on their sides in mortar so that the bottoms of the bottles were all that showed. That was kind of neat as well.


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## shawnlee (Apr 13, 2010)

big rockpile said:


> Ok I thought of using wood but was thinking if I was to have a Fire,Gypsum board/Sheet Rock would help slow it down.
> 
> Am I wrong,Thoughts?
> 
> big rockpile


Fire rated sheetrock will slow a fire way down...it`s also a good noise barrier in 3/4 inch is used.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

You can use lathe and plaster for walls. You'd probably have to learn how to do it yourself. I don't think anybody actually uses it any more. 

You could do wood plank for the walls and slate floors if you didn't want everything to be wood.

If you like modern, you could cover at least one wall in sheets of stainless steel. Or use corrugated metal.


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