Natural building material

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wooden house with green roof , outer wall made of untreated larch wood in post construction . Thermal insulation made of blown wood shavings , interior walls made of clay plaster on reed panels . Heating and hot water through a ground stove and solar panels .

As Naturbaustoffe substances are designated, which according to the definitions for natural products and building materials can be described. They are naturally occurring substances that have only been processed manually, mechanically or by gravitational force, by dissolving in water, by steam distillation or by heating to remove water.

Natural building materials can be biotic or biogenic (derived from living nature), e.g. B. wood , sheep's wool , flax , hemp , rye , reeds , seagrass , meadow grass , straw , as well as abiogenic (derived from inanimate nature) substances such as earth building materials, perlite stones, pumice stones and the like. v. a. be.

definition

Single-family house in wood construction

There are no legal definitions for “natural building materials”, accordingly all building materials can be designated as natural building materials that are also natural materials. As a natural material 39 is under Art. 3 no. Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 (REACH), a "naturally-occurring substance as such, unprocessed or only manually, mechanically, or by gravitational force , by dissolution in water, by flotation , by Extraction with water, processed by steam distillation or heating to remove water or taken from the air by any means ”, defined. The legal term natural product does not converge with the scientific term, because natural products are described here.

As a result, all further definitions are to be regarded as preparations and products (products) and are therefore subject to various national and European directives and regulations, such as B. the preparation directive 1999/45 / EG or the product safety law (ProdSG) .

For building materials, the Building Products Directive (BPR) must also be observed, which regulates the approval and marketing of building products ("building materials"). Good or less good building products, or low-pollutant building products and very low-polluting building products cannot be regulated or differentiated with the addition of the term “nature”. It is mostly the additions and mixtures that can turn a building product into a problem product in the small-scale area, which can happen both with "natural building materials" and with purely synthetic building products. The restrictions, assignments and definitions are to be regulated in future in the Construction Products Directive No. 3 "Hygiene, Health and Environment".

The declaration and allocation of all raw materials used plays a decisive role in the corresponding evaluation / certification of "natural building materials". Substances of natural origin can also be hazardous and must be labeled in accordance with legal requirements. With the REACH regulation, a new set of rules was created that imposes more responsibility on both consumers and all actors along the supply chain with regard to the substances used and obliges them to substitute them. H. to recommend the substances and products that have a lower hazard potential.

Various " quality marks " give the consumer information on ecological and "health-relevant" properties of natural building materials - but only a few give "comprehensive" statements on life cycle assessment and emissions behavior, ingredients, specify these criteria transparently on their homepage and demand credible evidence from accredited specialist institutes.

Some manufacturers limit themselves to just naming their "ingredients" (full declaration); However, it is not possible for the consumer to check whether all ingredients are actually listed.

Application forms of natural building materials

Modern multi-storey wooden house ( E3 ) in Berlin

Building materials and, accordingly, natural building materials are used in different areas of construction. All raw materials, auxiliary materials or semi-finished products that are used to erect structures and buildings are called building materials. The spectrum ranges from building materials for elementary building construction (bricks, wooden beams, roof tiles, cement and mortar) to interior and exterior construction ( insulation materials , floors, wall cladding, stairs, door and window elements) to products for renovation and refurbishment (paints , Paints, wallpaper).

Building construction, wood and wood-based materials

The oldest building materials that humans use are wood , clay , lime, cereal straw , bricks and natural stones , which were mainly used for building construction. To this day, wood in particular represents a very important part of the raw materials in building construction, especially for the roof structure and for external cladding, walls, windows and interior fittings (floors such as parquet , stairs, wall cladding, etc.). In addition, many houses are still built today as wooden houses .

Straw and clay , mainly used in half-timbered construction , are now being used again in renovations, especially in the restoration sector and in the construction of straw bales .

In addition to these traditional building materials, bricks, lime and mortar as well as drywall panels can meet the requirements for natural building materials if, for example, they consist of 98% or more of untreated mineral or renewable raw materials and do not contain any fungicides or organohalogen compounds . Another large group of building materials for structural engineering are wood-based materials , which include chipboard and MDF , which are very common in the building industry . In order to be recognized as natural building materials, it must be ensured that these at least 85% wood-based building materials do not contain any wood preservatives , organohalogen compounds or synthetic-organic flame retardants .

Insulation materials

Insulation block made of hemp fibers

Natural insulation materials are made on the basis of various useful plants such as flax fiber (flax fiber), grain , hemp , wood , jute , cork , reed , sisal fiber , coconut , meadow grass . There are also natural insulation materials based on animal raw materials such as sheep's wool . Insulation materials made from recycled material are sometimes also referred to as natural insulation materials, provided they are made from biogenic raw materials (e.g. cellulose fibers from waste paper ). Expanded glass from waste glass recycling. Perlite, vermiculite and expanded clay are inorganic insulation materials.

As a rule, small amounts of additives are added to natural insulation materials to protect against pest and mold infestation and for fire protection and, in some cases, to improve the processing properties. The protective additives range from whey , boron salts , soda or cement for wood shavings or wood wool lightweight panels , to aluminum sulfate , paraffin or ammonium sulfate for wood fiber insulation panels . Most of the additives used are harmless during manufacture and use, but in some cases (for example synthetic fiber components in natural fiber mats) the additives impede chemical or biological degradability during disposal . In order to increase the dimensional stability, synthetic polyester fibers are used as support fibers in numerous natural insulation materials . Alternatively, coconut fibers , potato starch or water glass can be used.

Earth building materials

Since the earliest history of mankind, clay has been used in masonry and fortress construction, as infill in wooden structures, as ceiling and floor fillings, cavity fillings, as mortar, plaster , screed and in furnace construction. Plasters and monolithic clay mixtures with aggregates of expanded clay , foam glass , perlite , wood shavings or cork grit can be used as acoustic and insulating plaster with a layer thickness of up to 5 cm, and whole walls can also be tamped with it.

Other natural building materials

In addition to the construction building materials and insulation materials mentioned, there are a number of other building materials that can be designated as natural building materials. Above all, this includes various paints for coating and surface treatments - such as lime paints , glue paints, silicate paints , oil paints , natural resin oil paints , natural waxes. Also floor coverings, wall coverings, wallpapers made of natural materials that are used in interior design and renovation and, to a certain extent, auxiliary materials and additives , which mainly include natural adhesives and binders .

enforcement

The first building university , the Bauhaus University Weimar , created its own chair on the subject of "ecological building" in 1997

literature

  • Gerhard Holzmann, Matthias Wangelin: Natural and vegetable building materials. Raw materials - building physics - construction. Vieweg and Teubner, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8351-0153-1 .
  • Kora Kristof, Justus von Geibler: Future markets for building with wood. DRW-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2008, ISBN 978-3-87181-711-3 .
  • Bruckner / Schneider: Natural building materials . Werner Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-8041-4140-4 .
  • Kurt Schönburg: Natural substances in buildings. Properties, application. Ed .: Deutsches Institut für Normung eV -DIN-, Beuth Verlag, 2010, 280 pp., ISBN 978-3-410-17355-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ natureplus eV: Allocation guidelines for dry construction boards for the award of the natureplus quality mark for natural building materials ( Memento from December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 38 kB) , January 2005.
  2. ↑ natureplus eV: Allocation guidelines for wood and wood-based materials for the award of the natureplus quality mark for natural building materials ( Memento from December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 119 kB). January 2005.
  3. ^ Bauhaus University Weimar ( Memento from January 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )