Inspirational Hemp Home in Quebec
Last Updated: Feb 1, 2025Three years ago, Mélany Fay and her husband, Antoine Mayer, bought three-and-a-half acres of land in Quebec province. Before they built their house, they constructed a small cabin from which they could explore the property and the weather conditions. "We wanted to learn how much rain and snow fell, what the winds were like, what the temperatures were, and where the sun landed," Fay says. Taking time to get to know the property enabled them to "site our future house in the best possible place." They also planted fruit trees, blueberry shrubs, and strawberry plants, "because they take years to give you fruit," she says.
Table of Contents
- Hemp vs. Marijuana
- Benefits of Hemp as Insulation
- Hemp: A Historic Building Material
- Growing Toward Self-Sufficiency
To learn about building a home that would live light on the land, Fay took an ecological home design class from Solution Era. Fay, other students, and their teacher experimented with a variety of building solutions and sustainable materials. She concluded that she wanted to build a hemp house. Not a home from hemp wood (a wood-like product made from hemp used for interior face building, furniture, and flooring); nor by using blocks of hempcrete (made from mixing lime and water with the woody core of the hemp plant).
Instead, Fay and her husband decided to use loose hemp. "It's cheaper," she says. "We build the box walls with wood, then push the hemp inside to insulate the walls. Then cover it with a mix of lime, sand, and water to create a kind of stucco." Fay hired an expert to show them how to pack the hemp. Then, they mixed the hemp with lime, water, and a bit of brick powder to bind it together. It took six weeks, but they had the help of six to eight people a day (including other students from her class who wanted to learn).
Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.
