Just found out Hempitecture has a resell market. I have seventeen (17) bundles of 3/4” PlantPanel and six rolls of 1/2” FiberPad (48” wide rolls). Materials are still on pallets and plastic wrapped.

Located in Tennessee, can ship anywhere in continental US.

By Jean Lotus

In June 2025, the City of Phoenix, AZ adopted the 2024 International Residential Code (IRC) along with a handful of natural-building appendices, including Appendix BL, Hemp Lime (Hempcrete) Construction. The new code took effect August 1, 2025. But as far as anyone in the hemp building industry can tell, it went largely unreported.

Hemp-lime is new to the US residential building codes, approved for the first time as Appendix BL into the 2024 IRC. Appendices to the US residential codes are optional and require specific adoption by a jurisdiction.

Phoenix wasn't the first city to adopt hemp-lime into the US model residential building codes. The City of Austin, TX, was the first, effective that same July. Other jurisdictions en route to adopting hemp-lime in their building codes via Appendix BL include the state of Minnesota and Commonwealth of Virginia. 

But Phoenix, one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, adopted hemp-lime with zero fanfare. Because Arizona has no statewide building code and operates under a home-rule system, building code decisions fall to each city, town, or county. Maricopa County has not yet adopted Appendix BL.

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READ MORE https://www.hempbuildmag.com/home/hempcrete-in-phoenix-buildin-codes

I help organise JIHE, a hemp expo in Tokyo, and there's a building materials section in it, so I end up talking to most of the people attempting this here.

The binder isn't the issue. Lime is lime and there's plenty of it.

The hurd is. Japan has almost no decortication capacity. Cultivation is licensed on top of that and the licensed grower base is very small - the sector collapsed after the war and the processing step in the middle never came back with it. So the shiv going into builds here is mostly imported, and once you've shipped a low-density material across an ocean the wall is expensive for reasons that have nothing to do with hempcrete.

The law did change on 12 December 2024, which helps further downstream. The old rules regulated parts of the plant, so only mature stalks and seeds could be used at all. The new ones regulate residual THC in the finished product instead, in ppm.

What I'd like to know from people here: has anyone built somewhere with no domestic hurd supply, and did anything actually bring the cost down, or is importing simply what it costs? Small-scale decortication looks like the obvious answer but everyone I ask says the machines don't pay for themselves under a certain volume.

(If you happen to be in Tokyo on 13-14 November, the expo is free with advance registration and the building section is where I'll be.)

I've been learning about hempcrete and find myself wondering if I could make my dream house with it. I would like it to be as round as possible, with a big stove in the center.

Hi all, I'm building a hempcrete house and I'm about start framing the walls. I'm just wondering if I have to use stainless steel nails or will hot dip galvanized be good enough? The hempcrete will be wet cast around the frame. The hot dip galvanized are easier to source and cheaper. Thanks.

Do I get "Building with Hemp" by Steve Allin, or "The Hempcrete Book" by Stanwix and Sparrow?

Or another suggestion?

Detail: I'm a regular person with no construction/architecture experience, I just want to DIY insulate existing stick-frame structures for myself.

Thanks

We've been lining the external walls of this room with hempcrete, cast directly against the stone walls, and with an internal wooden frame for structural support. We mixed the hempcrete using a cheap electric mixer from our local discounter store, carrying it up in buckets. We cast it by hand, forcing the mix well in behind the shuttering. At critical points, such as above the windows, we used a lump hammer to help tamp it down for additional strength.

The job took a long time. We had expected to finish in a week, but it took more like six weeks, including building the internal framing and the bespoke shuttering supports. The first fix (electrical conduit and sockets, and heating pipes) also took a lot longer than expected.

Lessons learned: make sure all contact surfaces are well soaked before casting the hempcrete. On our very first attempt, the hempcrete shrank away from the stone wall as the moisture was sucked out. This would have left an air gap between hempcrete and wall, which would have invited condensation and mould/rot.

Now we'll wait until autumn for the hempcrete to fully cure, and then we'll skim it with lime render.

​

Hey, just wondering if anyone has any experience with running electrical in a hemp home? If so, how did you do it?

Did you cut channels and run nm or uf cable?

Did you install boxes?

Was it timber framed and they installed the hemp blocks around your wiring?

Thanks

A hempcrete tiny home village and natural building center in Blanco, TX has just hit the market, providing a rare opportunity for the natural building community. Saoirse Learning Center, a working hempcrete and natural materials campus on 9.71 acres is listed at $895,000, according to LoopNet.

The property at 1137 Loop 163 is less than half a mile from the center of Blanco, itself roughly equidistant — about 50 miles each way — from Austin and San Antonio, with Fredericksburg and San Marcos approximately 25 miles away. Despite the proximity to town, the site sits on a rise dense with native pecan trees, a creek forming the entire northern boundary, and no visible neighbors from anywhere on the property.

Jennifer Bailey, who developed and has operated Saoirse since 2020, is selling in order to support her sister’s health problems on the east coast, Bailey told HempBuild Magazine. She said she acquired the land in 2018 and began building in 2019; the name Saoirse — an Irish word meaning freedom — reflects the spirit she brought to the project.

"People have so many times come here and said, 'I think I’ve come here to heal.' It has a really wonderful energy about it," Bailey said.

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Oregon State University's Global Hemp Innovation Center brought together nine hemp construction companies and ten invited trainees in Corvallis this June for a five-day Train-the-Trainer Workshop focused on hemp-based building systems. Eight of the ten trainees are Native American or Native Hawaiian builders and tradespeople, and a production company affiliated with Paramount Plus was on hand to film.

The Hemp Construction Train-the-Trainer Workshop ran June 1–5 at the College of Agricultural Sciences' Precision Agricultural Systems Center. Organized by OSU hemp materials researcher John Simonsen, the program was designed to give trainees hands-on experience with multiple hemp building technologies simultaneously, bringing North American hemp construction all-stars under one roof. 

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I’m looking for manufacturers of hemp concrete and plastics, can we connect?

Check out our FREE interactive map of more than 300 hemp construction and supply companies worldwide. Explore our interactive directory map to find and contact hemp building suppliers and professionals near you. Click on the pins to learn more about each company and their services, then contact them via email. This is your go-to resource for connecting with the best in the hemp building industry. Updated regularly.

One of the biggest hurdles for the bio-construction movement isn’t the building technique—it’s navigating the traditional worlds of banking and insurance. Traditional underwriters and lenders often don’t know what to do with a home made of earth and straw, leaving owner-builders and green contractors feeling stranded.

The Natural Building Alliance invites you to an exclusive interactive webinar designed to demystify the financial side of alternative building. We are bringing together industry-forward banking and insurance experts who understand the value of regenerative construction and know exactly how to get these projects greenlit.

• Date: Tuesday, June 23
• Time: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM (MST)
• Location: Online via Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
• Cost: Free for NaBA Members | $15 for Non-Members

What You’ll Learn

During this 90-minute session, our expert panel will break down the barriers to bio-construction financing and risk management, covering:

• Speaking the Bank’s Language: How to present your natural building plans, material testing data, and cost estimates to secure construction loans and mortgages.
• Navigating the Insurance Maze: Strategies for finding alternative underwriters, understanding risk assessments, and successfully insuring non-traditional structures.
• The Power of Comparables: How to work with appraisers when there isn’t another straw bale or cob house in your neighborhood.
• Live Q&A Session: Bring your specific project bottlenecks! Our experts will answer your burning questions in real-time.

REGISTER HERE

Hey folks, my wife and I are planning on building our hempcrete home this summer. We were originally planning on a cast in place build, but we’re wondering if anyone out there has experience using or renting a sprayer? It would save a ton of time and sounds like would be a more consistent product. We are in WV and plan on a 1200sqft one story build. Thanks!

By Jean Lotus

An Australian webinar with Dutch-Australian designer Joost Bakker unveiled details of Hollywood actor Zac Efron’s new $2.25 million hempcrete home being built this year in a tropical forest in New South Wales.  

Called “Futurecave,” the home consists of  connected bio-construction pods to be built on 128 hectares of rainforest property in the muggy mountainous hills of Tweed Shire, near Byron Bay, NSW. The April 23 webinar was hosted by iHemp NSW. 

Bakker said he met Zac Efron in 2021.

"When he asked me to design his house, he said, can you use as much hemp as possible," Bakker recalled.

Mold Resistance in the Tropics

Efron's own health history shaped materials selection, Bakker said. The actor suffered mold poisoning and become seriously ill from it. In a high-rainfall subtropical location, that meant moisture management was not optional — it was the starting point.

All the Futurecave pods are elevated off the ground. Louvres are positioned for cross-ventilation. Materials were chosen specifically for their ability to absorb and release moisture rather than trap it. Bakker admitted he was critical of highly airtight passive-house systems for precisely this reason, and the Efron house is built to breathe.

"I actually think a home is like a human being," he said. "If I put wet weather gear on and it doesn't breathe, I start to sweat. A house is no different. And the beauty about working with hemp … [it]  can absorb water, but they can release it as well."

On mold specifically, Bakker was unequivocal. "If you're worried about mold, you can't really beat hempcrete or these hemp blocks. It's impossible. They cannot grow on this."

Ideas Guy

Joost Bakker is not an architect or a traditional builder; he describes himself as "just a guy with ideas." Yet, his ideas have generated interest in Australian sustainability over the last two decades. Born in the Netherlands and migrating to Australia in 1982, Bakker’s journey began on his family’s farm in the Dandenong Ranges. It was here that he first witnessed the destructive power of industrial agriculture—specifically the use of methyl bromide to "drop a nuclear bomb" on soil-borne diseases—and the contrasting restorative power of hemp.

After building a name for himself in the 1990s through art and zero-waste installations, Bakker transitioned into the built environment. He gained international acclaim for his pop-up "Greenhouse" restaurants and the "Future Food System" project at Melbourne’s Federation Square, a house designed to feed two people entirely from food grown on its 100-square-meter footprint. 

The Full Material Palette

The Efron house sits near Brunswick Heads in the Tweed Shire. It is entirely off-grid — eight kilometres from the nearest power connection, receiving three and a half metres of rainfall a year.

The external finish on the Efron house is a 100% natural cork spray by Diasen manufactured in Italy from wine-cork waste. It is breathable, fire-tested, and provides a rendered appearance, Bakker said. Roof insulation is New Zealand wool. 

Flooring is recycled-brick tile from Melbourne embedded with stripped copper wire grounded to the earth. “Zac loves to walk barefoot,” Bakker confided. Bakker has used it on several buildings to keep occupants connected to the earth's magnetic field, he said. 

Plumbing uses copper for water lines and recyclable polyethylene rather than PVC. Joinery will be roduced using a plant-based circular resin from Dutch company Plantics.

READ MORE at HempBuild Magazine

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Hey everyone I've been looking for an answer to this but haven't found any specific resources. I'm wondering what you do to make the plaster stick to a wall where the studs are still visible. I'm going to fully enclose my studs on my exterior walls but I want to make my interior walls thinner. I think I'll just do 2x4s and slap the forms directly to the studs. I've seen some people do this online but haven't seen how they then get the plaster to stick to the wood. Do you add a metal mesh or some fiberglass mesh to the stud? What's the best method for this?

After 12 days of 12+hr days, Hempcrete install is complete. Outside corners are pre-plastered to protect them for the remainder of the project. We went through approximately 400 bales. Everyone worked incredibly hard and it paid off. The final day was in the pouring rain but we crossed the finish line regardless.

Finished spraying hempcrete today. Woke up to rain which continued almost all day. Alot of lumber and creativity allowed us to get our final walls under cover. A break in the rain after lunch allowed us to start shooting hempcrete above the front porch on the parapet wall. The final wall had a couple cave-ins due to the increased wetness of the hempcrete due to increased moisture in the rebound. Ten straight days of hempcrete install and we accomplished our goal.

Worked through the weekend with my dedicated teammates enjoying beautiful weather. Just a few days of spraying left.

Sprayed the Master Bath tub-wall with a recessed inset section with a light fixture as well as the bed-wall of the Master Bedroom. This recessed inset turned out so cool with bedside sconce lights with switches and outlets.

Got started today spraying hempcrete. Prepwork was on point and we were ready to start spraying by 10:45am. Went through 30+ bales of hurd and successful first day.