Chat to David Brian at his site or head along to the Learning Hub to hear more about using hemp for building.
The popularity of hemp houses continues to gain momentum around the country as home owners seek out more energy-efficient, comfortable and sustainable housing options.
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During the past five years, many of the people making the switch to hemp first learned about it at the Seymour expo.
“The expo has been a great platform to be able to fully explain the process and benefits of building a hemp home,” David Brian from Southern Hemp, based in northern Victoria, said.
With the continuing increase in energy costs combined with the increasing pressure to do things more sustainably, hemp houses tick all the boxes — saving up to 80 per cent on energy costs, it has a high fire rating, is breathable and is a great way to lock up carbon.
“The great thing for the builders is the building process for a hemp house is mostly similar to building a brick veneer,” David said.
“Builders have quickly understood it and embraced the process.”
The hemp and natural lime mix is placed in formwork each side of the timber frame and lightly tamped down. When the formwork is removed the timber frame is left encased within the 300mm hemp wall ready for rendering.
“The design and creativity of a hemp house is as flexible as you want to make your formwork,” David said.
One hectare of hemp is enough to build the average house and many farmers are now embarking on growing hemp in Victoria and southern NSW for the housing market, as well as numerous other new and emerging markets.
Hemp crops grown for their stalk are sown in late September/early October and harvested in February/March when about four metres in height.
David is available to discuss hemp growing with interested farmers and will also be doing ‘Hemp Farming’ talks each day at midday in the Learning Hub.
He will also do two hemp building demonstrations at 10.30am and 2pm each day.
The Southern Hemp display covering hemp building and hemp farming is at site T47.
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