Recycled materials village overview, earthship-inspired village, tire construction, recycled building, eco-living

Recycled Materials Village Materials & Costs

This page is the open source and free-shared Recycled Materials Village (Pod 6) construction materials costs page. It will constantly update with increasingly more accurate information as we open source project-launch blueprint the complete One Community Recycled Materials Village. The goal of this page is to provide precise materials needs and costs for every component of the Recycled Materials Village. We discuss this with the following sections:

OUR CURRENT FOCUS IS ON THE EARTHBAG VILLAGE
(CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE EARTHBAG VILLAGE).
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP WITH THAT VILLAGE MODEL
OR THIS ONE:

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RECYCLED MATERIALS VILLAGE
MATERIALS & COSTS

recycled materials Village Materials Cost Analysis, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials building, recycled materials hotel, recycled materials eco-resort, recycled materials living, recycled materials house, recycled materials home, recycled materials dwelling, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials living, recycled materials community, recycled materials village, One Community, One Community Global, earthbag materials costs, recycled materials materials costs, eco-materials, green materials, building materials, where to get materials, construction materials, earthship materials, sustainable materials, subterranean construction materials, architecture materials, eco-materials, tree-house materials, earthblock materials, earth block materials, building with earth, building with straw, sustainable materials, Highest Good materials, sourcing materials, buying materialsConstruction with recycled materials can be significantly more affordable than traditional construction. As part of our global transformation approach to Highest Good housing, this page shares our cost analysis for using this building method to construct a commercial-sized Recycled Materials Village capable of housing up to 150 people and hosting 100s more. As we go through the process of constructing this village, we will also be adding here complete details for where and how to buy materials, what to buy, what to look for, what to look out for, and more.

 

WHY OPEN SOURCE RECYCLED
VILLAGE MATERIALS & COSTS

recycled materials Village Materials Cost Analysis, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials building, recycled materials hotel, recycled materials eco-resort, recycled materials living, recycled materials house, recycled materials home, recycled materials dwelling, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials living, recycled materials community, recycled materials village, One Community, One Community Global, earthbag materials costs, recycled materials materials costs, eco-materials, green materials, building materials, where to get materials, construction materials, earthship materials, sustainable materials, subterranean construction materials, architecture materials, eco-materials, tree-house materials, earthblock materials, earth block materials, building with earth, building with straw, sustainable materials, Highest Good materials, sourcing materials, buying materialsOne Community’s goal is using open source construction to demonstrate sustainable building for personal and commercial use as easy, affordable, and beautiful. We are first refining and demonstrating the open source strategy and detail of our open source approach with the 3-dome cluster crowdfunding campaign, we’ll then expand this process as we open source the complete Earthbag Village (Pod 1) and Duplicable City Center®, and then we’ll do the same for this village and the other 5 villages.

Open sourcing the cost analysis for this village and all others is purposed to help people better understand the cost savings that are possible through sustainable building and creation of collaborative and open source teacher/demonstration hubs. In so doing, we hope to make recycled materials construction easier to understand and implement, more affordable, and more mainstream-popular.

 

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CONSULTANTS ON THIS COMPONENT OF ONE COMMUNITY

Jagannathan Shankar Mahadevan: Mechanical Engineer

 

RECYCLED MATERIALS VILLAGE
COST ANALYSIS DETAILS

Highest Good society, fulfilled living, enriched life, enriching life, living to live, how to live an enriched life, keeping it all running, sustainable living, social architecture, fulfilled living, thriving, thrivability, emotional sustainability, the good life, a new way to liveAccurately creating the cost analysis for the Recycled Materials Village was a process of applying traditional cost analysis protocols and then researching the areas where these approaches needed to be adjusted to account for the differences when building with recycled materials. We discuss here the complete Recycled Materials Village cost analysis process and conclusions with the following sections:

 

IDENTIFYING PRIMARY AREAS CONTRIBUTING TO COSTS

As per commercial standards (PDF), a rough estimate for the entire project is predicted in the primary cost analysis. An overview of the Recycled Materials Village plan (see Plans Page) aids in segregating the useful 245,000 ft2 total area (45,000 ft2 building footprint) into 12 different areas based on each area’s purpose and location inside the village. The 12 segregated areas are listed below and clicking each link will lead to the spreadsheet tab for cost analysis for each area.

  1. Living Spaces and Storage Units Spreadsheet
  2. Kitchen
  3. Dining Room
  4. Public Restrooms
  5. Dance Studio
  6. Yoga Studio
  7. Music Studio
  8. Multi-use Social/Recreation Space
  9. Gym
  10. Game Room
  11. Library
  12. Art Studio
  13. Landscaping

Here is the summary of these costs by area:

Recycled Materials Village cost analysis

Recycled Village Cost Analysis Breakdown by Area – Click for the open source spreadsheet with the most current data

It is noteworthy to observe that the Recycled Materials Village is comprised of approximately 200,000 ft2 of landscaped area in the front of the structure. This amounts to approximately 82% of the total footprint, leaving only 18% for the indoor areas. This landscaped area will be created almost entirely with recycled materials, the exception being the ≈43,000 ft2 of concrete basketball court and skate park – which make up 23% of the total landscape costs (see Cell B22) when building as described in the Making it all More Sustainable section below.

 

IDENTIFYING PRIMARY COST CONTRIBUTORS WITHIN EACH AREA

For convenience in computations and for more accurate calculations, the following 6 independent units are assumed to have significant contribution to each of the 13 areas’ costs:

  1. Electrical
  2. Plumbing
  3. HVAC
  4. Material
  5. Carpentry/Furniture/Electronics
  6. Landscaping

Each of these unit costs have been predicted across all the 13 areas using the following approaches:

ELECTRICAL

The electrical unit consists of elements responsible for powering an area. A general summary on how a residential electrical system is constructed is described here. The electrical footage cost (base cost) inclusive of wiring, labor, and overhead (a variable cost based on locality) can be obtained from here. For the current locality, the base cost is found to be an approximate $8.67/ft2. The cost for various power consuming equipment (useful devices like fans, ceiling lights, etc) are not included in the base cost and are accounted for independently.

PLUMBING

The plumbing unit is generally responsible for an area’s water supply and sewer management system (here’s a resource about this). Area-specific labor and overhead can be input in this web program to get an estimate of the plumbing footage. An approximate $11.42/ft2 base cost which includes the cost for piping, location-specific labor and overhead is used for the Recycled Materials Village model. Additional plumbing equipment such as water sinks, bathtubs, toilets, etc., have significant impact on the total plumbing cost and have been accounted for separately.

HVAC – HEATING AND COOLING

The HVAC unit primarily maintains the temperature and humidity of an enclosed area to provide a comfortable living environment. Unlike the electrical and plumbing units, we were unable to obtain commercial and standard base-cost data for the HVAC unit. Consequently, we have used the approximate sq. ft cost of $12.51 as derived in the Straw Bale HVAC Cost Analysis section.

MATERIALS

The cost of building a structure primarily depends on setting the frames for support. This resource article (link) presents all significant parameters to consider while approximating an estimate for building a structure. With reference to this literature (link), a base cost of $40/ft2 (inclusive of materials and labor) over a useful area of 45,000 ft2 (useful area is the actual build area for the village model excluding outdoor areas) results in $1.8M for building materials for the structure as per commercial practices.

CARPENTRY/FURNITURE/ELECTRONICS

This unit includes area-specific furniture and electronics cost, a part of which can be customized per occupant’s preferences.

LANDSCAPING

These costs generally include the costs for design and construction of hardscapes, preparing soil as per locality, and planning and developing a good irrigation system. Commercially (resource link), it is a good practice to allocate 15% of total project cost for landscaping. An alternate approach is to use the cost per sq. foot analysis with $4.34-$17.83/ft2. For this village, we used the latter approach and assumed the base cost for landscaping as $11/ft2 based on this article for accuracy. We added to this the outdoor skatepark and the basketball court (total of 42,792 sq. ft of area) because they have significant amounts of concrete. The corresponding cost for this additional concrete is calculated and included resulting in a total landscaping cost of $1.9M.

 

ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE CONSIDERATIONS

The Highest Good Energy plan for power generation and transmission uses grid-tied and open source Wind and Solar to create a net-zero 100% sustainable energy plan. These costs continue to evolve on the Highest Good Energy hub and related open source pages. These costs are not included in the total village cost because:

 

COST SUMMARY AS PER COMMERCIAL STANDARDS

To create the final Commercial Cost Analysis for this structure, all of the details above plus 15% was added. The additional 15% of the total cost was further considered to account for any and all approximations in determining the estimate for this project. With all this accounted for, the total project as per commercial standard approximates up to $6.9M as shown below.

Recycled Materials Village Commercial Cost Analysis

Recycled Materials Village Commercial Cost Analysis – Click for the spreadsheet with the most current data

Here is a graphic showing what percentage each area contributes to the total cost:

Recycled Materials Village commercial cost breakdown image, Recycled Materials Village cost analysis, Recycled Materials construction electrical costs, Recycled Materials construction plumbing costs, Recycled Materials construction HVAC costs, Recycled Materials construction building materials costs, Recycled Materials construction carpentry and furniture costs, Recycled Materials construction landscaping costs
 

ADJUSTED COST SUMMARY
MAKING IT ALL MORE SUSTAINABLE

Highest Good society, fulfilled living, enriched life, enriching life, living to live, how to live an enriched life, keeping it all running, sustainable living, social architecture, fulfilled living, thriving, thrivability, emotional sustainability, the good life, a new way to liveAfter calculating the costs for the complete Recycled Materials Village as described above and with standard commercial materials and practices, we then calculated our actual costs by incorporating sustainable practices and materials. This led to the revised costs that incorporate and include consideration of the following factors:

  1. Materials Savings
  2. Volunteer Labor
  3. Landscaping
  4. Direct and Replicable Materials Purchasing

 

MATERIALS SAVINGS

According to the National Association of Home Builders (Link), it is seen that the cost for initial survey, foundation and framing (which accounts for 35.2% of total cost, approx $32/sq. ft) almost remains the same irrespective of the build material used. An advantage of using tires as recycled materials is that these framing costs associated with construction could be significantly reduced since tires as a whole are structurally rigid and durable. In addition, we plan to import waste/scrap tires from various tire dealers to build this village model. Most of the tire dealers have to deal with a tire-disposal fee each time their scrap need to be disposed. Considering the win-win situation we would bring to these tire-dealers by using their scrap tires, we have come up with a “worst-case” scenario while analyzing materials cost by assuming that material’s cost would be approximately $2/ft2. This includes the cost of transporting the tire, but in reality we expect to either get them for free or at a much cheaper rate as discussed in this resource link.

Current designs include using tires for over 50% of the structural walls, so we assuming a safe guess of $16/sq. ft for framing (50% savings over commercial estimate) plus the above-mentioned additional $2/ft2 for materials. This brings the sustainable materials’ cost results to $793,855 for this village model.

 

VOLUNTEER LABOR

As per commercial practice, the base cost for electrical, plumbing and building is inclusive of labor. One Community’s open source project launch-blueprinting model for showcasing sustainability in action includes open source and DIY approaches and tutorials that will cover these areas and more. This labor and these tutorials will be created by our all-volunteer team of qualified professionals. To account for this, we’ve approximated the variable labor costs we’ll save (depending on location) to 20% of the total cost of the project.

 

LANDSCAPING

Because of the size and scope of the One Community project and our extensive construction plans for the first 5 years, it makes sense to own (vs. rent) our earth moving and landscaping machines. Although the principal cost incurred for this equipment is fairly high, it can be seen as working to our advantage as this equipment would ultimately be retained, resulting in significant cost savings in total landscaping and construction for successive villages.

For the Recycled Materials Village, we estimate the sustainable landscaping cost to be just 30% of the commercial landscaping due to retainable machinery and the extensive use of recycled materials. Concrete costs for the skate park and basketball court were calculated separately (see Cell B5) and remain the same. The total sustainable landscaping cost therefore sums up to $682,418 – a net reduction of 64%.

 

DIRECT AND REPLICABLE MATERIALS PURCHASING

For large-scale constructions, the majority of the products that are designed and manufactured by suppliers are commonly marketed and sold through a retailer. It is often easy to under appreciate the intangible costs processed in the supplier-retailer relationship. As part of our strategy to make sustainability easier, more affordable, and more attractive, we will be developing purchasing relationships directly with suppliers that we expect to increase their profit margins while reducing consumer costs when building teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and hubs using our plans. This will also reduce our total project cost while further increasing business for the recommended supplier.

We will add here the resources and contacts for all direct purchasing options as these options are identified, used by us, and proven reliable.

 

ADJUSTED COSTS CONCLUSIONS, CHARTS, AND GRAPHS

The following adjusted cost analysis incorporates the building materials savings and volunteer labor savings discussed above to produce a total project estimated cost of $3.6M. This cost is further expected to reduce once the savings resulting from direct-supplier purchasing can be accounted for.

Recycled Materials Village Cost Analysis Integrating Open Source Sustainability – Click for the open source spreadsheet with the most current data

Here is a chart showing the difference in cost between the conventional and sustainable models:

Recycled Materials Village commercial vs sustainability cost breakdown image, Recycled Materials Village cost analysis, Recycled Materials construction electrical costs, Recycled Materials construction plumbing costs, Recycled Materials construction HVAC costs, Recycled Materials construction building materials costs, Recycled Materials construction carpentry and furniture costs, Recycled Materials construction landscaping costs

Overall, it is seen that the cost of sustainable construction is significantly less than commercial construction – about 3.2M less. We can also observe a small fraction of the commercial costs for labor when applying our open source sustainability model. This is due to the use of volunteer labor. The labor cost for the commercial estimate is 20% of the total project cost. Also, the materials and landscaping cost for open source sustainability is assumed to be approximately 30% of the commercial costs. An additional 15% is added to the final total to adjust for details we may have missed.

Summing up, the sustainable village model results in 52% savings for the overall construction over commercial estimates ($3.6M vs $6.9M). Here is a graphic showing the adjusted contribution of each each area to the total cost:

Recycled Materials Village sustainable cost breakdown image, Recycled Materials Village cost analysis, Recycled Materials construction electrical costs, Recycled Materials construction plumbing costs, Recycled Materials construction HVAC costs, Recycled Materials construction building materials costs, Recycled Materials construction carpentry and furniture costs, Recycled Materials construction landscaping costs
 

RESOURCES

 

SUMMARY

recycled materials Village Materials Cost Analysis, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials building, recycled materials hotel, recycled materials eco-resort, recycled materials living, recycled materials house, recycled materials home, recycled materials dwelling, recycled materials construction, recycled materials architecture, recycled materials living, recycled materials community, recycled materials village, One Community, One Community Global, earthbag materials costs, recycled materials materials costs, eco-materials, green materials, building materials, where to get materials, construction materials, earthship materials, sustainable materials, subterranean construction materials, architecture materials, eco-materials, tree-house materials, earthblock materials, earth block materials, building with earth, building with straw, sustainable materials, Highest Good materials, sourcing materials, buying materialsConstruction with recycled materials can be significantly more affordable than traditional construction. As part of our global transformation approach to Highest Good housing, we are open source sharing our cost analysis for using this building method to construct a commercial-sized Recycled Materials Village capable of housing up to 120 people and hosting 100s more. By open sourcing the cost analysis for this village and all others, we desire to help people better understand the cost savings that are possible through sustainable building and creation of collaborative and open source teacher/demonstration hubs. These savings, when calculated for this structure as compared to the same structure built with conventional means, are estimated to reduce the cost by about 52%.

 

FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS

Q: Where can I get more information about the Recycled Materials Village, benefits and challenges of building with recycled materials, etc.?

Please visit the Recycled Materials Village open source hub.

Q: When do you anticipate starting construction on the Recycled Materials Village?

We are first refining and demonstrating the open source strategy and detail of our open source approach with the 3-dome cluster crowdfunding campaign, we’ll then expand this process as we open source the complete Earthbag Village (Pod 1) and Duplicable City Center®, and then we’ll do the same for this village and the other 5 villages.

Q: Where can I get more information about your philosophies for world change?

Please take a look at each of these additional pages: (click icons)

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Q: How do you intend to pay for construction of the Recycled Materials Village?

One Community is projected to easily generate sufficient revenue to construct this village and the other 5 villages once the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) and Duplicable City Center® are operational. Visit the One Community Highest Good Economics page for details on our revenue streams, rental revenue projections, and other open source revenue-generation details related to this and all other aspects of One Community.

 

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