Can You Actually Build a House with Recycled Tyres
When
it comes to cars, there are always devotees keen on customizing their rides and
taking on DIY modifications. It’s no surprise, then, that their love of all
things wheels can spill over into other areas.To
many motorists, this may begin and end with a car tyre swing for their
kids in the backyard - but some take it to another level entirely.
You
might not have known before reading this piece that it was even possible to
build a house with recycled car tyres. In fact, it’s been done for many
years now. Here’s a look at what you can do when you find you’ve got a lot of
spare tyres hanging around, and are keen on building a holiday house that’s
sure to be very unique.
Where
the idea began?
The
possibility of building a home with tyres really captured the imagination of
Australians with the story of the Earth ship. For those learning of this for
the first time, David Alder, an Australian from New South Wales, decided to
pioneer the next step in Australian inventions (after the Hills Hoist and boxed
wine).
Alder
built a homemade of tyres - and while it may have been done a bit tongue in
cheek, it also came at an important time, as interest in building homes with
new and more environmentally-friendly materials was growing substantially.
It’s
also important to note, since the trend is shifting, that recent statistics
show that 50% of Australians own property. This means Australians still have a
lot of interest in buying and owning their own homes, and so maximizing
affordability in this area is vital.
Why
tyres?
Even
if you’re confident your next house should be made of recycled tyres, many
people might be thinking “Why?” Sure, the idea sounds pretty amazing - but just
like those cool concept cars that sound great on paper but are disasters when
brought to life, the reality might not be as great as the concept.
However,
instead of being just a thought bubble, the idea of a home made of recycled
tyres actually has a number of things going for it, especially because old
tyres are used in new ways all the time.
It’s
not news that we live in a world where the need to recycle and be more
sustainable is growing. It might not seem like the auto world is an obvious
starting point for making things more sustainable since billions of us use cars
on a daily basis, but any small improvement in efficiency can be scaled into
something really huge. Recycling tyres is a great way to achieve this.
Building
homes with alternative materials is also important to other aspects of
Australian life. With housing prices in many Australian cities among the most
expensive in the world, many home buyers are understandably seeking out ways to
maximize bang for their buck, and look for new solutions to help make housing
more affordable.
For
first-time home or investment property buyers, building with sustainable
materials can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and can mean the
difference between being able to buy a property today or at some time in the
very distant future.
So
what’s stopping us?
While
Australia is a great country for the overall freedoms we enjoy every day,
anybody who has ever tried to get a building permit from the local council
knows that making a change to your property can be really hard.
Even
getting approval for a chubby house or simple alteration to your fence can
sometimes be a lengthy process. While most of the time you can manage to get
through the process pretty well, it’s fairly likely that anybody looking to
build a house made of old car
tyres will win the local authorities’ ire.
To
some degree, the approval process can just be an annoyance and the result of
outdated red tape, but actually it also deals with a number of more complex
factors.
With
relatively few houses being built with non-traditional materials in Australia,
it might take a while before builders and home buyers shift their thinking to
accepting homes made of tyres and other recycled materials. Just think about
how long it took for power steering and air conditioning to become the norm in
cars.
Design
challenges
While
it seems like building a home with recycled tyres would be much cheaper than
doing so with other materials, the need to source, mold, and treat the
materials also adds to the cost. This latter point in particular is important.
While nobody wants to see any house on fire, a tyre home fire could be
especially dangerous, with all the tar and rubber involved.
There
is also the problem of maintenance and repair. While you may not be delighted
to pay a tidy sum to call your tradesman to fix something in your home, at
least you know you are calling someone with expert knowledge to fix the issue.
The problem with homes built out of tyres is similar to the problem of
servicing an electric car - while a few mechanics can do it , and do it very
well, the rarity of their existence is a big problem. With a tyre home, it’s
very likely you’ll have to make all repairs yourself - or not at all.
The
building blocks of a home
While
you may be unlikely to see a new home on your street built out of old Dunlap's
or Michelin's anytime soon, David Alder’s Earth ship did create a new debate in
Australia surrounding how we build our homes.
While
car tyres might seem a bit too futuristic at the moment, it must be
remembered that we’ve seen big changes over time in Australia. For example,
traditional brick houses have transitioned to weatherboard and other materials.
It
may be hard to imagine now, but one thing is certain: more homes will be built
using recycled materials in the future, and it stands to reason that some of
those materials might be old tyres.
In
the meantime, though, if you find you have a lot of spare tyres laying around
and you don’t want to try building with them, look instead to make a really
great car tyre swing
or one of the other amazing things you can make with recycled tyres.
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