Recycled timber and rammed earth eco home, Whangarei, Northland

What better way to use rustic timber accumulated over a lifetime than to incorporate it into a beautifully unique and eco-friendly forever home.

That was the desire of Shane and Jacqueline who came to Modern Earth Homes with a brief to build a warm, dry, cosy home that was functional and had flair. Our design team came up with a solution that perfectly blended their rustic, weathered posts into the rammed earth construction, and added a rich, warm elegance to the exterior with redwood cladding.

Inside, the clean lines of the painted gib ceilings and raking walls provide a contrast to the natural earth walls, accentuating their unique beauty. A functional kitchen was constructed with timber the clients had been saving, and the two bathrooms enjoy the same recycled timber treatment with custom made vanities.

Designed with sustainability in mind, the house features several smart systems to reduce running costs. These include a heat-pump hot water system, wool insulation in the ceilings, and hydronic underfloor heating in the polished concrete floor.  An impressive three bay rammed earth garage complements the main house beautifully.

“Everything went so smoothly – it is a dream come true”

“We started the process of looking at a new build in 2017, and after a lot of looking around at building methods, we chose to go with rammed earth. Sam invited us to come out and have a look at a build he was doing, and we instantly loved the aesthetics of the rammed earth. Within a few months, we had handed our draft design to an architect and away we went."

Although we started mid-winter 2018, we had an incredible run of weather and the earthworks, flooring and rammed earth walls proceeded without a hitch. In came the builders and what an incredible bunch of guys they were. Sam’s organisation with his men was second to none, and the sub-contractors were all professional, hard-working and punctual.

So many people had told us that building from new was very stressful and tiring. We found the opposite – everything went so smoothly and the timeline that Sam and Sandra had drawn up was right on target. We moved in after seven months of building with just the bare minimum to be done.

We are so happy with our new home. it is everything we hoped it would be – cool in the hot summer months with heaps of ventilation and really warm in the winter months. We would recommend Modern Earth Homes to build your new home – for us it is a dream come true.” – Shane & Jacqueline