On the connection between housing and health
Unfortunately, modern housing construction pays little attention to the basic principles of home hygiene. Perhaps this happens for one simple reason: most craftsmen and architects do not build for themselves.
In America, the concept of “housing syndrome” – the general name of a number of serious human health disorders associated with the impact of building materials, from which the house is built. Violations occur due to human contact with gases and poisonous substances contained in these materials. These substances can be released in the form of gas, dust, and their impact on human health can be seen only if it manifests itself strongly and quickly, to trace how the health of a person changes during twenty, thirty, forty years of life in the house, in the construction of which were used certain building materials, is almost impossible.
In the pursuit of cheaper building materials and construction technologies, we often forget that we will have to live in this house for decades. Your home should be longer than you – let your great-grandchildren remember the great-grandfathers with a kind word, living in the house built by you.
You’d be surprised: is it possible? What’s going on? In our time, wooden houses built in the century before, more than a hundred years ago, are preserved. But then there were no strong and durable building materials, people did not know about modern construction technologies.
The house of the affluent Old-fashioned Puyov family, built in the 1st third of the 9th century
(Small Korely Museum of Wooden Architecture, Arkhangelsk, Russia):
At the same time, many of today’s buildings begin to collapse after a decade. Why is this so? It’s very simple: it’s not just what you build a house from, it’s how you build it. Nowadays, the ability to choose time for different stages of construction and distinguish good places from bad places is almost forgotten.
It is necessary to revive the art of construction, because without it the development of the ecology of construction is inhibited, and in addition, our efforts to improve ourselves on their own will fail. However, if you learn at least a few of its basic rules, you will take a significant step towards turning your home into a place of rest and accumulation of forces.
The transition to so-called healthy construction is gradual, sometimes almost imperceptible. It will be a long time before on each roof there will be solar installations, we will learn to heat their homes with natural warmth of the Sun, to use in their everyday life only those substances that decompose in the natural environment without a trace.
Manufacturers of consumer goods will not soon put the focus not on the cheapness and practicality of the product, but its environmental characteristics.
Already, many products have labels “environmentally friendly” and “harmless.” Even clothing manufacturers try to produce fabrics from natural components more often, and in construction and interior development it has become fashionable to use natural wood.
The revolution in tastes is produced by each individual by choosing what clothes to wear, in what house to live in and what air to breathe. Trust your intuition, your inner feeling. What materials are more pleasant to you? After all, the ability to choose directly depend on peace, peace and comfort of your home.
You and your builders
Some issues, which are usually solved by invited builders and architects, will have to deal with themselves. Visit a building goods store and choose environmentally less harmful paints and varnishes, heat insulator for walls, heating system and building materials. It won’t take you long. Make a schedule of individual construction works according to the lunar calendar.
Some people are afraid to interfere in construction, entrusting all work to civil specialists: “They know better.” Not at all. You are a customer, so any of your offers are the law, because you and your family will live in this house.
Believe me, some builders already use in their work the knowledge gleaned from the lunar calendar.
Start a folder with materials related to the construction time. Some days are especially favorable for this or that type of work, some are less favorable, and on other days it is better to postpone the work.
You can copy the lunar calendar for the whole year and note in different colors the most and least favorable days for construction. Select on a separate sheet for each workflow.
With these tables, you can carefully plan the construction phases. If you can’t use the days that are most suitable for the next stage of work (for example, because of the weather, which also plays a role), you can transfer it to neutral days, avoiding the adverse ones.
The selection of building materials
Is cheaper and more practical, but environmentally harmful linoleum better than parquet made of natural wood? Is a house made of concrete more comfortable than a house made of natural wood?
photo from the site of http://srubimdom.com
However, many builders avoid using natural building materials because of their less durability. After a few years, the builder may find that the rafters have been slethered and the wood is destroyed. How can you not disbelieve and not to despair!
It also happens that wood and natural materials (for example, in the facade finish), which the builders have tried to leave in kind, eventually still have to be processed and impregnated. Seeing how raw and rotting wooden structures, builders often refuse to continue using natural building materials.
Does the destruction of the tree mean the wrong choice of material? Not at all! This only suggests that the work was carried out on days in which this type of work is not recommended by the lunar calendar.
This knowledge can be particularly useful for construction firms, as well as for manufacturers of building materials and wood products: their products (furniture, various types of construction wood, thermal insulation) would become much stronger, the cost of storage, repair and protection of wood would be reduced.