Posted by FarmI on February 18, 2010, 8:26 pm
> FarmI wrote:
>> When I was a child, many decades ago, there were still a few
>> structures around on various farms that dated from the time of the
>> Depression and that were largely built out of a substance called
>> petrified hessian (hessian being what Americans call burlap).
>>
>> To build these structures, a wooden frame would be constructed and
>> then hessian (burlap) would nailed to the frame whilst being
>> stretched tight. The hessian would then be painted with a mixture
>> made up of water, alum, cement, salt and lime. After about 3-5 coats
>> of this mix, the structure would be weather proof and the walls stiff
>> and surprisingly durable (given that even I can remember them and I
>> wasn't born till after WWII). It was a very cheap form of putting up
>> shelter and seems to have been used for poultry sheds and similar
>> structures.
>> I was wondering if this form of building was used in other parts of
>> the world but google is surprisingly quiet about it even if I do use
>> burlap as a search term instead of hessian. Has anyone come across
>> it before?
> My grandfather was a plumber who worked on some of the first buildings in
> > Canberra, this would have been about 1915, and he took his new bride to
> live in such a structure on site. He described it as hessian covered with
> layers of whitewash but I think it was very likely the mix that you
> describe because whitewash alone would not have stayed weather proof for
> long.
> They lived in these "tents" because there were no houses to start with as
> Canberra was built on a sheep station. My eldest aunt was born there and
> grandma raised her in their tent while they were there. In winter the
> temperature can drop to -8C and frosty, or you can get howling winds
> behind rain at 6C. There only heating would have been wood fires but the
> tent would have had almost no insulation ability. In summer it gets up to
> 43C, obviously there was no aircon or domestic refrigeration for plumbers,
> my guess is they would have been lucky to get ice for an ice box and that
> would not have lasted long. They were tough in those days.
Ah! Your post brought back memories of some interesting research I've done
in the past. I lived in Canberra for a time and still visit it often. The
city in a sheep paddock. Sometimes I think it was a waste of a good sheep
paddock.
I have a few books on early Canberra so I instantly recognised what you
wrote about and even mentally pictured the areas where they may have had
their tent home. They wouldn't recognise it now, which is a pity.
Posted by <balvenieman on February 18, 2010, 8:36 am
>Has anyone come across it before?
I've lived for all of my life in the southeastern USA and date from
1945. Don't remember seeing or hearing about such siding. However, the
year-around high humidity and long wet summers may have inhibited its
use in my neck of the woods.
Hereabouts, so-called "tar paper" was commonly used as Depression
era exterior siding, often without sheathing of any kind. The modernday
equivalent is rolled roofing: Densely felted textile fibers impregnated
with asphalt and coated on the weather side with some unknown-to-me
crystalline mineral.
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>> When I was a child, many decades ago, there were still a few
>> structures around on various farms that dated from the time of the
>> Depression and that were largely built out of a substance called
>> petrified hessian (hessian being what Americans call burlap).
>>
>> To build these structures, a wooden frame would be constructed and
>> then hessian (burlap) would nailed to the frame whilst being
>> stretched tight. The hessian would then be painted with a mixture
>> made up of water, alum, cement, salt and lime. After about 3-5 coats
>> of this mix, the structure would be weather proof and the walls stiff
>> and surprisingly durable (given that even I can remember them and I
>> wasn't born till after WWII). It was a very cheap form of putting up
>> shelter and seems to have been used for poultry sheds and similar
>> structures.
>> I was wondering if this form of building was used in other parts of
>> the world but google is surprisingly quiet about it even if I do use
>> burlap as a search term instead of hessian. Has anyone come across
>> it before?
> My grandfather was a plumber who worked on some of the first buildings in
> > Canberra, this would have been about 1915, and he took his new bride to
> live in such a structure on site. He described it as hessian covered with
> layers of whitewash but I think it was very likely the mix that you
> describe because whitewash alone would not have stayed weather proof for
> long.
> They lived in these "tents" because there were no houses to start with as
> Canberra was built on a sheep station. My eldest aunt was born there and
> grandma raised her in their tent while they were there. In winter the
> temperature can drop to -8C and frosty, or you can get howling winds
> behind rain at 6C. There only heating would have been wood fires but the
> tent would have had almost no insulation ability. In summer it gets up to
> 43C, obviously there was no aircon or domestic refrigeration for plumbers,
> my guess is they would have been lucky to get ice for an ice box and that
> would not have lasted long. They were tough in those days.