Have you heard of the Shou Sugi Ban style of wood treatment? Basically, it is charred wood. Traditionally the practice, developed in Japan, uses Japanese Cedar. The Cedar is burnt, cooled and then cleaned/finished with a natural oil. The practice is sustainable as it preserves the wood making paints or other sealers unnecessary, and also acts as a fire barrier. Commonly, we see its finished look as a silvery grey, like in the picture from Houzz below:

The method can, of course, be done to lots of other wood species, and can give a beautiful and interesting look and feel to a room. Check out this other photo here, also from Houzz:

We are up in Nederland, adding a utility shed and lanai..errr should we say, “porch” or “patio” for you mainland folks (some of us lived in Hawaii for a good long while and still use the local phrases…what can we say), to the Passive House we built last winter. The method of siding the homeowner wanted is, Shou Sugi Ban which we are doing on flat cut Beetle Kill Pine; which we picked up from the Forks Lumber Mill just outside of Fort Collins (most of the Beetle Kill the Forks Mill processes actually comes from the Nederland area, so it’s local, sustainable, and beautiful.).

Here are some photos of our Shou Sugi Ban work, along with the additions to the house features:

First a few up close pictures, to show off the look:

Eric and Bryan welded up these handrails, and built/welded this robust barn door for the shed at the end of the porch!

psst, that welded track is actually meant to rust fast, giving it a nice rustic (see what we did there) look, per the homeowners request!

I don’t know about you all out there reading this but, SIGN ME UP!!!

Above: Bryan, charring it up!

There is still a shade structure to be built on this, South Facing, side of the house to optimize the summer shading and decrease the solar gain.

The look of the Shou Sugi Ban, along with the Corten steel (developed to weather quickly but resist corrosion) gives this new home, a very rustic-been here for ages- mountain retreat-appearance. We like it, a lot! What do you think?

Here are a few of the interior photos. The homeowner has chosen to do a lot of the finish work himself, which is why we have not had many finished interior shots to share.