When my husband and I bought a vacant lot near Charlotte Street ten months ago, only considered a material for the exterior, as we prepare to build a house: poplar bark shingles. We used to see 100-year-old chestnut bark houses a little further up the mountain, and wanted the same type of resistance-not keeping our house in Asheville again.
Apparently, not many Asheville residents are accustomed to seeing all the houses in the cortex, however, because the work has been stopping traffic from the bark came in the fall.
Today, the brown bark is no longer available as a plague wiped out all the trees. However, the poplar bark shingles are a worthy substitute, and because I was writing a book about shingles cortex poplar, which he felt reservations about such material. My co-author, Chris McCurry, is one of the owners of the Artisans of the mountain, the company in Spruce Pine, NC North, which causes shingles.
Poplar bark is a material recovered from the forests that would otherwise be the mulch, burned as industrial fuel, or rotting in the ground after commercial timber operations. Instead, the square by hand, then kiln dried and carefully wrapped up the installation, shingles provide a tough exterior coating that never needs paint or stain.
Poplar bark shingles are used not only for homes throughout United States, but also for commercial applications. The tiles range from ½ "to 1 ½" thick, depending on the grade and come in various lengths and widths. They require careful installation over a plywood subfloor and a layer of roofing felt, but once nailed in place according to the guidelines of Manufacturer remain flat and stable for decades.
Our small size of Lot – 3.900 square feet or .09 acre – gave a small building footprint, in this case 30 'x 32'. This includes a 24 'X 24' two story heated space core linked by a staircase of 8 'bump-out 8' X, with covered porches upstairs and downstairs in the bungalow style Asheville.
Builder Frank Wilson, Candler has oversight of construction, with the hand of David Carpenter Asheville McCaslin making the porch stairs and railings of the poles of the lobster. Cabinets Carl Hankins, owner of Kitchen Concepts of Asheville (cabinet55@charter.net) looks like fine furniture rather than just closets.
The ground floor consists of a large room with kitchen and living room, flanked by a guest suite with bath, Upstairs there is an office and a spacious master bedroom. The house has an energy saving water heater on demand and only under counter refrigerator, and porches covered should reduce the need for air conditioning.
One observer said: "It seems that rose from the ground." That's exactly the feeling that the poplar bark shingles to a building. A squirrel ran to the back of the house once it was in the cortex.
First book Nan Chase, Asheville: A History, just published by McFarland and his book House of bark Style: Sustainable Design of nature, with Chris McCurry, was published in June 2008 by Gibbs Smith.
The House that Wows You
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