Lavish timbers, bountiful walls.

Byline: Don Robinson for special publications Photos by Collin Andrew

Eugene builder Dave Veldhuizen stands at an interesting intersection on the map of the construction industry.

He builds mainly conventional houses today. But his primary interest is "a very old style of building, well over 1,000 years old." It's called timber framing, one of several alternative construction technologies that intrigues this builder.

His heart "lies in the sculpture?world. In a perfect world, I would be a sculptor."

Veldhuizen doesn't say this with any sense of disappointment. On the contrary, he explains, "I am really lucky because I essentially am a sculptor. I get to work with definitions of space in three dimensions. It's not a sculpture sitting in a gallery, but in some ways I believe we have a more positive impact when we're creating spaces that people can live in."

This 47-year-old Colorado native, an English literature graduate of Whitworth University in Spokane, started building houses in Eugene about a dozen years ago. He formed his own company, Six Degrees Construction, in October 2001, and has four employees.

Veldhuizen learned timber framing on the East Coast. He is one of only 47 members in Oregon of the Timber Framers Guild of North America in Oregon.

Timber framing refers to a system of post-and-beam construction commonly associated with, say, a ski lodge. "The structure is entirely in the posts and beams," Veldhuizen says, "so you've got expanses between the posts that are non-structural, which opens it up to having the ability to enclose those walls with a variety of different systems."

Straw bales are one possibility. "Since none of the structure is sitting on the straw bales, you can fill the walls with (them) and it works beautifully."

Other materials can be used for the same purpose. Two of particular relevance to the Northwest are a mix of straw and clay and a mix of wood chips and clay.

Because of dry climate and abundant sunshine, homeowners in the Intermountain states have taken a keen interest in houses with pure straw bales in the wall cavities, says Veldhuizen. That interest laps over into Central and Eastern Oregon, too.

Only about a dozen straw-bale structures exist in the Eugene area, according to the city of Eugene's building department.

But Veldhuizen says he finds the mixtures of straw or wood chips with clay "really intriguing," particularly for the enclosures, or walls, of a timber-frame home.

"I am not an expert" on the subject, Veldhuizen acknowledges. "I'm a student." But he thinks the possibilities are great and he'd "love to" do some projects involving these technologies.

One obvious advantage of straw and wood chips as building components is that they are available locally. He says the clay-based mixture would be made right on site. "It comes out almost like an adobe wall. It's stuccoed on the outside and plastered inside, as thick as you want, probably a minimum of 6 inches, but usually 8 to 12."

He notes that while the clay-mixture walls have the advantage of being much thinner than straw-bale walls, they provide good insulation and are strongly fire resistant.

One disadvantage of either straw-bale or clay-mix construction is that "they are all pretty labor intensive," which raises costs. People who use earthen materials in walls try to offset the cost by rounding up help from friends and relatives. It can turn into kind of a modern version of a barn?raising.

Can you get a mortgage for a house using one of these alternative technologies? Veldhuizen's advice to anyone?who wants to try unconventional construction is to "bring in a mortgage person right away ... have a person?really early on."

Veldhuizen's booth at the Good Earth home show tomorrow through Sunday at the fairgrounds in Eugene will feature timber-frame construction by his company and others.

Don Robinson, retired editorial page editor of?The Register-Guard, is a freelance writer who lives in Eugene. He may be contacted by e-mail at [e-mail].