Your video-making skills levelled up very quickly. Early on you were already using establishing footage, B-roll, jump cuts, etc. Now you are even using drone footage.
I love your videos. My son has lived in Japan for seven years & hopes to buy an old traditional house & renovate it soon, he watches your channel too. The front of the house looks amazing now 👍
Thanks for posting these videos! My wife and I lived for many years out at the end of the Chūō Line in Western Tokyo, so we find them fascinating. Our house was built in 1975, so we had many of the same challenges you also face. With a new baby, we got serious about keeping comfortable. Things got better as we improved the house by doing the same things our neighbors did with their old houses. Upstairs was about 15 tatami-mat-units in 3 bedrooms, plus closets. Downstairs was an 8 tatami mat room, plus kitchen, genkon, and bath. Here is what we did/learned. 1. We added about 33cm of insulation to the attic. Also, the un-insulated backs and tops of interior (and exterior) closets of the house were insulated when we put in new cedar plywood. There was also no insulation above the bath, so condensation would drip on you when you had soaked for a while. Insulating above the bath helped. The open ceilings look great, but you would be more comfortable if you would put them back and insulate. Cainz or Joyful Honda will have the large bundles for about $100 each. I would guesstimate you would need 10-15 of these. After we did this, the upstairs was much nicer. 2. We put a basic 10 tatami-mat-unit Panasonic mini-split unit (AC/heat pump) upstairs, and one downstairs. Doing the math, the new units put out more heat per Yen on typical 5 degree days than kerosene, with better air quality inside and no carbon monoxide danger. You own that house, so you can ask the power company to run 220 volt power to your meter to allow for slightly larger 20 tatami-mat-units like you see in cafes or shimin centers. Dehumidification and summer air conditioning came as a bonus. They come with timers, so you can set them to warm or cool the house about an hour before you get home. 3. Small portable de-humidifiers are useful for drying laundry indoors when you have a string of rainy days. They also help in the fight against mold. The waste heat they produce helps on cold wet days. 4. Many of our neighbors plugged the foundation vents around their house with bubble-wrap when it was super cold to keep the crawl-space warmer. We had too much moisture under the house to allow this. 5. Curtains. The double rod kind were best for heat. You need them in the bedrooms anyway for the 4:00 AM early dawn light in summers. Lots of options! 6. Crazy cold = close the storm shutters at dusk. Listen for your old neighbors doing it. Your house is HUGE, so this is more of a challenge. Just doing the windward side helps. 7. Live under a jumbo kotatsu table. Hard-off stores have nice used ones cheap. 8. The older houses are really designed for the tatami mats to be part of the structure. If you ask your neighbors for a recommendation, there will be a local guy who will remove all of them and recover them all for $50-$100 each. This adds up, but it can be done in a few days while you clean under where the mats were. Afterwards, the house will smell wonderful. 9. If the closets are dirty and worn, replace the cedar plywood. Be sure to insulate the top and sides of each closet. 10. They sell wallpaper that can brighten up the rooms and cover the old plaster. There is also a local guy who can do this very quickly. 11. Renew the fusuma and shoji with fresh paper. There is also a local guy who can help with this, but I found it fun to do myself. 12. Cainz and Joyful Honda both sell modern pre-fab fiberglass bathrooms for $5-$10,000 that could be quickly installed. Our old house had a basic version of one of these. Again, this could happen very fast. 13. Your aluminum frame windows probably need to be cleaned and have new gaskets installed so they seal better. It is helpful if the bedroom also has shoji for noise and drafts. They make window shoji kits you can do yourself. A lot of the basic stuff above could be done quickly yourself, or contracted out to get you in the house ASAP. Good luck going forward!
Hey Ryan, thanks for all the great advice. It's true I am facing many of the things you faced. I still have a long way to go lol I have spent a short time in winter with only a small kerosene heater to keep me company... it was tough. But I have implemented some of the things you suggested since that fateful winter. Definitely curtains are in the short list of purchases... my houses faces west so the sun bakes the front of the house in the evening. As for the windows, great advice. I will look into your suggestions. They really are the source of cold in winter and heat in summer. Is the window shoji good for blocking sun much? My idea was to order blinds from the U.S. lol Would love to have mini blinds... but doesn't match the Japanese aesthetic lol Thanks again, I always appreciate advice from others who have experienced the same!
No need to order blinds from the USA. There should be a smaller home goods store in your area that will have what you need at a fair price. The best thing is to find this store and spend an hour or two slowly looking at all the displays to research what they have. Metal Venetian blinds should be available in the proper standard Japanese dimensions. Also notice some of your neighbors tape aluminum foil over windows as a cheap option.
The plastic Shoji kits are available at these stores. You will see a display with a miniature sample and larger sheets of window plastic and frames on offer. Again, I believe a local friendly neighbor can recommend someone to install the real paper shoji in any bedroom windows. We never tried this, but it should be possible by removing the aluminum frame window and changing the wood frame around it to add the shoji track. Using the local recommendations for help can make you a closer neighbor. It is like working super hard on posted clean-up days, sorting your trash correctly, or helping everyone with snow shoveling. When you do this you become part of their group and entitled to the benefits of that group despite being an outsider.
@@ryanfoster9863 I have a lot to consider about the windows... I haven't decided yet. The windows are permanently frosted and that has to go.... so it will be update them with new glass and seals or change them out completely. Might be a fall project... too hot to do now lol
I would recommend using a jig you can mount from the overhang of the roof to hold the gutters in place. I always build an extra set of “hands” to help me finish my projects.
I sat for days trying to figure out how I could suspend the gutters while I installed the mounts. I had thought ropes coming over the other side of the roof. Maybe I'll have to google some ideas for a jig setup.
I love what you did to the exposed outside. Looks awesome 👌 Wanted to say the other thing I really love is your appreciation and honor you give to the builders who went before, you pretty much do it every episode. When you poked into that beehive and the animated bee flew out i toppled off my chair🤣. You got me!
Hi, i really really enjoy seeing you DIY work the house into a better shape, i have discovered your channel today and binge watched all of the videos and i am really excited to see all the little progress being made from Video to Video, especially the outside being done showed how great big the difference is. I absolutely love seeing you pick apart all the little things from the house and show how they were done, like the walls being a mixture of hay, mud and some other stuff like the trusty old sea rock being put in there, it is really funny to see and gives the house a lot of character and a feel of people actually having lived in there. not to forget i also just absolutely love Japan and have beeing looking forward to going there and see rural Japan for myself, so seeing your Videos really excited me to go to rural Japan as well. as i said, i am really looking forward to the next Videos and to see the transformation of your house!
Hey Benedikt, thanks for the message! Glad you enjoyed the videos! Definitely if you visit Japan, spend some time in the countryside. It’ll give you a more authentic experience of old Japanese culture than the big cities. But it’s definitely disappearing fast.
Great advice! I have some outside walls on the first floor that will need the same treatment as the second floor! I’ll put your advice to good use then! Thanks!
The exterior wall you completed looks great! I like the contrast between the light gray plaster and the ‘darkness’ of the wood. The plaster became lighter in colour after drying. Nice job applying the new plaster. Was it a special, exterior Shikkui?
This type is meant for exterior according to the bucket. Can all of them be used outside... that's a good question. The plaster went on much darker... which I liked the dark color, but did end up drying much lighter. So you can't worry so much if it's dark at first.
@@DIYJapan As you may know Shikkui is traditionally made from all natural materials. Common basic ingredients are lime, seaweed glue and hemp or straw fibers. To increase water repellency for exterior use, soybean oil is added. Diatomaceous earth for example is added to increase water absorption from the air reducing interior humidity. Many other ingredients can also be used for different purposes. Kesodo is another natural product worth considering for interior use. I’m not sure what ingredients are used in many of the pre-mixed, ready-to-use buckets of Shikkui commonly sold for DIY’ers in Japan these days. I’d want a water repellent additive for exterior use. Sometimes finding exactly what you want is a challenge in the countryside. I’m planning on doing some interior Shikkui repair later this summer.
@@ShikokuFoodForest I've been applying shikkui in the interior for some time now. My videos are a little behind my current work's pace. A lot of good products out there and you can alway order them online. Sometimes I order the big buckets when I can't find them locally, heavy as they are, and have them delivered... to the dismay of my mail man lol
@@DIYJapan Thanks! There are many Home Centers in the city not too far from where I live. Sometimes, I ride my bike 1 hour to go there. I don’t mind the extra exercise. One question I have is in some areas, the clay and straw has crumbled away. So, I wonder if I should fill in those areas with new clay/straw mix first before troweling on the new Shikkui. Actually, many of my interior walls are thin layer of light gray mortar, rather than Shikkui. I’ve been trying to research exactly what it is, so it will match when doing my repair work. Ever seen this? Not sure whether to use light gray Shikkui or mortar??
@@ShikokuFoodForest The coating in the middle would be called 中塗土 or ( nakanuri) you can copy the Japanese and search it. You will come up with a lot of sites that sell it. You can add straw and rocks or what have you if you want a rough layer and then add another smooth layer of nakanuri over it to smooth it out. It'll take a good long while to dry so be prepared to wait. The outer layer is just a lime plaster like shikkui. As far as the thin layer or gray... is it mortar really? Some different grades of shikkui are harder than others... but it could be possible that they used mortar... just strange if they did lol
Wow what a wonderful house you have found in Japan. I have been following you as I clicked on episode one and have been impressed with the structural integrity of the house. What is this house an Akiya And what part of Japan is it located?.
It was an akiya. It wasn’t occupied for 30 years. But the family’s cousin lives a few houses down and did upkeep from time to time. Just basic things like bushes and grass. The town is called “Ine”. Small fishing town on the northern coast of Kyoto prefecture.
Got some good laughs and info out of this video! The guy who put up your gutters must have been related to the guy who nailed my sliding windows and kitchen door shut! They used huge nails that required the force of god to pull out! I feel your pain about the doing stuff alone part. Most of the people I see on YT doing old house renovations are couples or have helpers, but I do follow you and another couple of solo DIYers, like myself. The Japanese-style stucco you used -- is this the same stuff that can be used with a "new" wall of bamboo strips, criss-crossed inside the frame of a wall, or is something more needed? Also, how much does that large bucket cost? I noticed that the wood on the left side of your house is still brown -- are you planning to match it with the front? I think it would look really cool!
Yeah those nails are the worst. In the up-and-coming video I show some of the nails. They are huge! I used this material on that type of wall. All my interior walls are the sand wall with bamboo criss-crossed inside. This type is mixed with fibers so it's a little tougher than the smooth versions. It's specifically more for outdoors because of its chunky style. It's pretty expensive, as of writing this it's about 13,000 yen a bucket... yeah ouch. The plan is to restore the whole outside of the house exactly like the front portion I did. Just time is short and I have other projects inside that I want to focus on first. And summer wasn't exactly my favorite time of the year to do it. It's was unbearable doing it in summer :( I actually have all the material just sitting there lol
@@DIYJapan I wonder how on earth those nails even managed to stay straight when they were banged in! I have the same ones scattered here and there and I absolutely hate how long it takes to pull out just one. 12,000 a bucket isn't cheap, but how does that stand up to mixing it yourself? If you notice the terribly-damaged walls on the left side of my house, you can see that there are several posts, beams, sill plates, and walls that have to be replaced. I see people replacing the bamboo inside and redoing it the original way, but if you were faced with having to do this, would you follow the original method as well, or make some changes in your approach? It seems so time-consuming! I know it lasts for a long time, but I can't help but wonder if there's an easier way that's just as durable, if not more so. I have certain things to do before winter arrives because I plan to be in my house before the end of the year. I like that you used an expanding foam spray to fill the cracks! I didn't know if people were using this here, but it's definitely a common thing in the US. Is it very expensive? Thanks so much for all the info, it's really helping me out!
@@BrandonAEnglish I've never bothered mixing it myself. It's much much cheaper that way. But it's not easy by hand... dare I say near impossible. I eventually bought a mixing tool with enough torque to mix with... in future episodes lol I'm actually months ahead of my youtube channel now. Don't be fooled into thinking that a power drill with a mixing attachment will do... it won't have the power to mix it. I wouldn't be concerned in following the original methods. Few reasons: Cost, time, and difficulty. It'll take a lot of material, the method takes time, you have to put it in layers and each layer allowed to dry for long periods of time before the next layer goes on. Arakabe, the first layer needs to dry 1-2 months before the middle coat and finally outer coat is applied. It would be much quicker, cheaper and easier to install exterior sheetrock over the old walls and moisture protections and if you can, insulation. Unless you really wanna keep it traditional... and you like pain and suffering lol As for the foam, many carpenters actually use it to fill the shrinking gaps and then cover the walls up with boards and moisture paper. It's very common.
Regarding the foam to fill the cracks; right after I bought my Japan house I got spray foam and caulk to fill the gaps, but was told by the locals to not do it as the house needs to breathe, otherwise mold will form inside the house. I never did fill those cracks and also ended up putting in house recirculating fans to get more air flow. Even though my house is in the mountains, we still fight the mold every summer. I imagine it’s probably worse where you are.
A lot of people talk about old houses being designed to ''breath''. And I get it. Mold is a tough opponent and always lurking. But I think that mentality is old fashioned. There are many ways to fight mold without compromising energy efficiency. I have see many carpenters using it in my area. I've seen a few youtube videos in Japan about it too. They foam the heck out the old houses lol But I'm no expert lol I just don't like my house exposed to the elements and insects. Recirculating fans is definitely a good idea but it's tough to balance breathability and energy efficiency. Your neighbors are probably freezing in the winter and spending loads of cash on kerosene and passing out in the summer... there should be a better way to balance things... I'm still trying to find that balance myself lol
Your video-making skills levelled up very quickly. Early on you were already using establishing footage, B-roll, jump cuts, etc. Now you are even using drone footage.
Thanks! I'm constantly learning lol
I love your videos. My son has lived in Japan for seven years & hopes to buy an old traditional house & renovate it soon, he watches your channel too.
The front of the house looks amazing now 👍
I'm glad you're enjoying them! He'll enjoy the process I hope lol
Thanks for posting these videos! My wife and I lived for many years out at the end of the Chūō Line in Western Tokyo, so we find them fascinating. Our house was built in 1975, so we had many of the same challenges you also face. With a new baby, we got serious about keeping comfortable. Things got better as we improved the house by doing the same things our neighbors did with their old houses. Upstairs was about 15 tatami-mat-units in 3 bedrooms, plus closets. Downstairs was an 8 tatami mat room, plus kitchen, genkon, and bath. Here is what we did/learned.
1. We added about 33cm of insulation to the attic. Also, the un-insulated backs and tops of interior (and exterior) closets of the house were insulated when we put in new cedar plywood. There was also no insulation above the bath, so condensation would drip on you when you had soaked for a while. Insulating above the bath helped. The open ceilings look great, but you would be more comfortable if you would put them back and insulate. Cainz or Joyful Honda will have the large bundles for about $100 each. I would guesstimate you would need 10-15 of these. After we did this, the upstairs was much nicer.
2. We put a basic 10 tatami-mat-unit Panasonic mini-split unit (AC/heat pump) upstairs, and one downstairs. Doing the math, the new units put out more heat per Yen on typical 5 degree days than kerosene, with better air quality inside and no carbon monoxide danger. You own that house, so you can ask the power company to run 220 volt power to your meter to allow for slightly larger 20 tatami-mat-units like you see in cafes or shimin centers. Dehumidification and summer air conditioning came as a bonus. They come with timers, so you can set them to warm or cool the house about an hour before you get home.
3. Small portable de-humidifiers are useful for drying laundry indoors when you have a string of rainy days. They also help in the fight against mold. The waste heat they produce helps on cold wet days.
4. Many of our neighbors plugged the foundation vents around their house with bubble-wrap when it was super cold to keep the crawl-space warmer. We had too much moisture under the house to allow this.
5. Curtains. The double rod kind were best for heat. You need them in the bedrooms anyway for the 4:00 AM early dawn light in summers. Lots of options!
6. Crazy cold = close the storm shutters at dusk. Listen for your old neighbors doing it. Your house is HUGE, so this is more of a challenge. Just doing the windward side helps.
7. Live under a jumbo kotatsu table. Hard-off stores have nice used ones cheap.
8. The older houses are really designed for the tatami mats to be part of the structure. If you ask your neighbors for a recommendation, there will be a local guy who will remove all of them and recover them all for $50-$100 each. This adds up, but it can be done in a few days while you clean under where the mats were. Afterwards, the house will smell wonderful.
9. If the closets are dirty and worn, replace the cedar plywood. Be sure to insulate the top and sides of each closet.
10. They sell wallpaper that can brighten up the rooms and cover the old plaster. There is also a local guy who can do this very quickly.
11. Renew the fusuma and shoji with fresh paper. There is also a local guy who can help with this, but I found it fun to do myself.
12. Cainz and Joyful Honda both sell modern pre-fab fiberglass bathrooms for $5-$10,000 that could be quickly installed. Our old house had a basic version of one of these. Again, this could happen very fast.
13. Your aluminum frame windows probably need to be cleaned and have new gaskets installed so they seal better. It is helpful if the bedroom also has shoji for noise and drafts. They make window shoji kits you can do yourself.
A lot of the basic stuff above could be done quickly yourself, or contracted out to get you in the house ASAP. Good luck going forward!
Hey Ryan, thanks for all the great advice. It's true I am facing many of the things you faced. I still have a long way to go lol
I have spent a short time in winter with only a small kerosene heater to keep me company... it was tough. But I have implemented some of the things you suggested since that fateful winter.
Definitely curtains are in the short list of purchases... my houses faces west so the sun bakes the front of the house in the evening.
As for the windows, great advice. I will look into your suggestions. They really are the source of cold in winter and heat in summer.
Is the window shoji good for blocking sun much? My idea was to order blinds from the U.S. lol Would love to have mini blinds... but doesn't match the Japanese aesthetic lol
Thanks again, I always appreciate advice from others who have experienced the same!
No need to order blinds from the USA. There should be a smaller home goods store in your area that will have what you need at a fair price. The best thing is to find this store and spend an hour or two slowly looking at all the displays to research what they have. Metal Venetian blinds should be available in the proper standard Japanese dimensions. Also notice some of your neighbors tape aluminum foil over windows as a cheap option.
The plastic Shoji kits are available at these stores. You will see a display with a miniature sample and larger sheets of window plastic and frames on offer. Again, I believe a local friendly neighbor can recommend someone to install the real paper shoji in any bedroom windows. We never tried this, but it should be possible by removing the aluminum frame window and changing the wood frame around it to add the shoji track. Using the local recommendations for help can make you a closer neighbor. It is like working super hard on posted clean-up days, sorting your trash correctly, or helping everyone with snow shoveling. When you do this you become part of their group and entitled to the benefits of that group despite being an outsider.
@@ryanfoster9863 There are a few local places not too far way. I'll have to stop by, to their surprise I'm sure lol
@@ryanfoster9863 I have a lot to consider about the windows... I haven't decided yet. The windows are permanently frosted and that has to go.... so it will be update them with new glass and seals or change them out completely. Might be a fall project... too hot to do now lol
I would recommend using a jig you can mount from the overhang of the roof to hold the gutters in place. I always build an extra set of “hands” to help me finish my projects.
I sat for days trying to figure out how I could suspend the gutters while I installed the mounts. I had thought ropes coming over the other side of the roof. Maybe I'll have to google some ideas for a jig setup.
I love what you did to the exposed outside. Looks awesome 👌 Wanted to say the other thing I really love is your appreciation and honor you give to the builders who went before, you pretty much do it every episode. When you poked into that beehive and the animated bee flew out i toppled off my chair🤣. You got me!
Hey Yvette, thanks for watching! Sorry I knocked you off your chair lol I made the video and it still unnerves me too lol
Hi,
i really really enjoy seeing you DIY work the house into a better shape, i have discovered your channel today and binge watched all of the videos and i am really excited to see all the little progress being made from Video to Video, especially the outside being done showed how great big the difference is.
I absolutely love seeing you pick apart all the little things from the house and show how they were done, like the walls being a mixture of hay, mud and some other stuff like the trusty old sea rock being put in there, it is really funny to see and gives the house a lot of character and a feel of people actually having lived in there.
not to forget i also just absolutely love Japan and have beeing looking forward to going there and see rural Japan for myself, so seeing your Videos really excited me to go to rural Japan as well.
as i said, i am really looking forward to the next Videos and to see the transformation of your house!
Hey Benedikt, thanks for the message! Glad you enjoyed the videos! Definitely if you visit Japan, spend some time in the countryside. It’ll give you a more authentic experience of old Japanese culture than the big cities. But it’s definitely disappearing fast.
When applying wet mortar to dry, it helps to moisture the old dry surface and your first 'pass will adhere better and your float can move better.
Great advice! I have some outside walls on the first floor that will need the same treatment as the second floor! I’ll put your advice to good use then! Thanks!
Great job, my mud walls the same material.
Then I pray for you lol
The exterior wall you completed looks great! I like the contrast between the light gray plaster and the ‘darkness’ of the wood. The plaster became lighter in colour after drying. Nice job applying the new plaster. Was it a special, exterior Shikkui?
This type is meant for exterior according to the bucket. Can all of them be used outside... that's a good question. The plaster went on much darker... which I liked the dark color, but did end up drying much lighter. So you can't worry so much if it's dark at first.
@@DIYJapan As you may know Shikkui is traditionally made from all natural materials. Common basic ingredients are lime, seaweed glue and hemp or straw fibers. To increase water repellency for exterior use, soybean oil is added. Diatomaceous earth for example is added to increase water absorption from the air reducing interior humidity. Many other ingredients can also be used for different purposes. Kesodo is another natural product worth considering for interior use. I’m not sure what ingredients are used in many of the pre-mixed, ready-to-use buckets of Shikkui commonly sold for DIY’ers in Japan these days. I’d want a water repellent additive for exterior use. Sometimes finding exactly what you want is a challenge in the countryside. I’m planning on doing some interior Shikkui repair later this summer.
@@ShikokuFoodForest I've been applying shikkui in the interior for some time now. My videos are a little behind my current work's pace. A lot of good products out there and you can alway order them online. Sometimes I order the big buckets when I can't find them locally, heavy as they are, and have them delivered... to the dismay of my mail man lol
@@DIYJapan Thanks! There are many Home Centers in the city not too far from where I live. Sometimes, I ride my bike 1 hour to go there. I don’t mind the extra exercise. One question I have is in some areas, the clay and straw has crumbled away. So, I wonder if I should fill in those areas with new clay/straw mix first before troweling on the new Shikkui. Actually, many of my interior walls are thin layer of light gray mortar, rather than Shikkui. I’ve been trying to research exactly what it is, so it will match when doing my repair work. Ever seen this? Not sure whether to use light gray Shikkui or mortar??
@@ShikokuFoodForest The coating in the middle would be called 中塗土 or ( nakanuri) you can copy the Japanese and search it. You will come up with a lot of sites that sell it. You can add straw and rocks or what have you if you want a rough layer and then add another smooth layer of nakanuri over it to smooth it out. It'll take a good long while to dry so be prepared to wait. The outer layer is just a lime plaster like shikkui. As far as the thin layer or gray... is it mortar really? Some different grades of shikkui are harder than others... but it could be possible that they used mortar... just strange if they did lol
Wow what a wonderful house you have found in Japan. I have been following you as I clicked on episode one and have been impressed with the structural integrity of the house. What is this house an Akiya And what part of Japan is it located?.
It was an akiya. It wasn’t occupied for 30 years. But the family’s cousin lives a few houses down and did upkeep from time to time. Just basic things like bushes and grass. The town is called “Ine”. Small fishing town on the northern coast of Kyoto prefecture.
Got some good laughs and info out of this video! The guy who put up your gutters must have been related to the guy who nailed my sliding windows and kitchen door shut! They used huge nails that required the force of god to pull out!
I feel your pain about the doing stuff alone part. Most of the people I see on YT doing old house renovations are couples or have helpers, but I do follow you and another couple of solo DIYers, like myself. The Japanese-style stucco you used -- is this the same stuff that can be used with a "new" wall of bamboo strips, criss-crossed inside the frame of a wall, or is something more needed? Also, how much does that large bucket cost?
I noticed that the wood on the left side of your house is still brown -- are you planning to match it with the front? I think it would look really cool!
Yeah those nails are the worst. In the up-and-coming video I show some of the nails. They are huge!
I used this material on that type of wall. All my interior walls are the sand wall with bamboo criss-crossed inside. This type is mixed with fibers so it's a little tougher than the smooth versions. It's specifically more for outdoors because of its chunky style. It's pretty expensive, as of writing this it's about 13,000 yen a bucket... yeah ouch.
The plan is to restore the whole outside of the house exactly like the front portion I did. Just time is short and I have other projects inside that I want to focus on first. And summer wasn't exactly my favorite time of the year to do it. It's was unbearable doing it in summer :( I actually have all the material just sitting there lol
@@DIYJapan I wonder how on earth those nails even managed to stay straight when they were banged in! I have the same ones scattered here and there and I absolutely hate how long it takes to pull out just one.
12,000 a bucket isn't cheap, but how does that stand up to mixing it yourself? If you notice the terribly-damaged walls on the left side of my house, you can see that there are several posts, beams, sill plates, and walls that have to be replaced. I see people replacing the bamboo inside and redoing it the original way, but if you were faced with having to do this, would you follow the original method as well, or make some changes in your approach? It seems so time-consuming! I know it lasts for a long time, but I can't help but wonder if there's an easier way that's just as durable, if not more so.
I have certain things to do before winter arrives because I plan to be in my house before the end of the year. I like that you used an expanding foam spray to fill the cracks! I didn't know if people were using this here, but it's definitely a common thing in the US. Is it very expensive?
Thanks so much for all the info, it's really helping me out!
@@BrandonAEnglish I've never bothered mixing it myself. It's much much cheaper that way. But it's not easy by hand... dare I say near impossible. I eventually bought a mixing tool with enough torque to mix with... in future episodes lol I'm actually months ahead of my youtube channel now. Don't be fooled into thinking that a power drill with a mixing attachment will do... it won't have the power to mix it.
I wouldn't be concerned in following the original methods. Few reasons: Cost, time, and difficulty. It'll take a lot of material, the method takes time, you have to put it in layers and each layer allowed to dry for long periods of time before the next layer goes on. Arakabe, the first layer needs to dry 1-2 months before the middle coat and finally outer coat is applied. It would be much quicker, cheaper and easier to install exterior sheetrock over the old walls and moisture protections and if you can, insulation. Unless you really wanna keep it traditional... and you like pain and suffering lol
As for the foam, many carpenters actually use it to fill the shrinking gaps and then cover the walls up with boards and moisture paper. It's very common.
Regarding the foam to fill the cracks; right after I bought my Japan house I got spray foam and caulk to fill the gaps, but was told by the locals to not do it as the house needs to breathe, otherwise mold will form inside the house. I never did fill those cracks and also ended up putting in house recirculating fans to get more air flow. Even though my house is in the mountains, we still fight the mold every summer. I imagine it’s probably worse where you are.
A lot of people talk about old houses being designed to ''breath''. And I get it. Mold is a tough opponent and always lurking. But I think that mentality is old fashioned. There are many ways to fight mold without compromising energy efficiency. I have see many carpenters using it in my area. I've seen a few youtube videos in Japan about it too. They foam the heck out the old houses lol But I'm no expert lol I just don't like my house exposed to the elements and insects. Recirculating fans is definitely a good idea but it's tough to balance breathability and energy efficiency. Your neighbors are probably freezing in the winter and spending loads of cash on kerosene and passing out in the summer... there should be a better way to balance things... I'm still trying to find that balance myself lol
Are those your Japanese Rice fish in the pot?
Not sure… been a while since I’ve watched this video lol
Is that Shikkui any different from the stuff you used indoors?
It is. There are some types that are indoor/outdoor and just indoor. The outdoor has more fibers. Kinda feels hairier if that makes sense lol
@@DIYJapan, it’ll take me a good 10 minutes of slow reading to figure out if my Yamato Shikkui will work outdoors
AMIGO SI VIVIERA SERCA TE DARIA UNA MANO MUY BUENO ESTA QUEDANDO ESO..!
Gracias por la oferta. Hacerlo solo es difícil. Siempre es mejor con dos personas.