Icelandic turf houses: Laufas, Glaumbaer and others | Hacker News Reader

Icelandic turf houses: Laufas, Glaumbaer and others

rachelsruminations.com

50 pointsthunderbong22 comments

Turf roofs are a phenomena of the past in Iceland. In the Faroe Islands the culture is still very much alive and much more ubiquitous and impressive.

https://guidetofaroeislands.fo/best-of-faroe-islands/8-place...

Well, green roofs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof) are having a comeback all over the world, so it's quite possible Iceland will pick them up again as well...

Thanks for posting this! We're planning a trip to Iceland this year, so the full trip description on this site is just what I needed...

For hot springs, go to Hvammsvik instead of Blue Lagoon. Hvammsvik was a much calmer, far less touristy experience with none of the kitchy BS.

For some fun culture and history in Reykjavik, book a cooking class with Salt Eldhaus. Had a great experience there, the hosts talked about how much Iceland has changed from when they were young, got into the history of some of the dishes we made.

Hakarl is a tourist gotcha, it's really not bad to eat at all, even outside of Reykjavik. Not my first choice, but you can see why it got them through long winters. If you have time, stop in Selfoss for the Skyr Museum and yes, definitely eat all the Skyr you find, it is delicious.

Friðheimar, the big tomato greenhouse farm, is worth the drive. The food was good, walking around the grounds was super chill.

We went during Oct of 2023, so the weather was between 40-50F and slightly rainy, but nothing we were not used to being from the northern parts of the US. Pretty decent time to see some Aurora Borealis though. You often can't see it with the naked eye unless geomagnetic conditions are absolutely perfect, but the camera on your phone can pick up things your eyes cannot, so don't be afraid to just snap pics of a seemingly blank sky.

+1 on blue lagoon, was way too busy to be enjoyable when I went, there's plenty of smaller hot springs around which are much nicer.

Do both if you have time. We thought Blue Lagoon was awesome even though we try to avoid overly touristy things. Some things are popular for a reason.

We discovered that many towns in Iceland have municipal pool/sport complexes, and those were great to visit. They were quite affordable for single visits, the pools were great (with various pool temperatures to choose from), and many of them had extras like pool toys and waterslides, which were a hit with the kids.

How do the turf houses deal with pests? The walls are made of dirt. Wouldn't worms and insects be burrowing into the home constantly?

I didn't even think of that, but I did think of moisture. In theory a good moisture barrier would help, but I don't think they had that in older times. I suppose a lot of heating on the inside would keep it dry, but heat + moisture = mold.

Wood heating combined with "natural ventilation" should take care of any excess moisture inside

Materials like this are actually quite good at not trapping humidity but allowing it to escape and evaporate. Turf and clay are actually making a comeback as an effective way to insulate houses for this reason. Turf and dry soil actually are a bit hydrophobic. They don't absorb water that well unless you completely drench them. That's actually a problem in dry regions. Because rainfall just erodes the soil instead of absorbing into it.

Having grass growing on the outside probably improves things. What little moisture is in there gets used by the grass. And the roots hold the whole thing together. And any excess water just runs off.

Mold is what happens when moisture can't get away. It's a problem in modern construction when using materials that don't let the water through. Like concrete.

Brick and plaster (as long as you don't seal it up with latex paint) are almost perfect at keeping proper humidity flow.

The (American) classics Little House on the Prairie books told a story of a family who lived in a sod house and constantly had bugs, critters, and even snakes fall from their ceiling onto their dining table (and everywhere else)

I never read the books but watched some of the old TV show episodes. Those were depicted as wooden cabins in the TV show.

"On the Banks of Plum Creek" - The Ingals lived in a dougout sod roofed house in Minnesota.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_Plum_Creek

There aren’t any pests like that to worry about in Iceland. You might see earthworms and spiders, but I doubt you’d see much beyond that.

Nowadays I suppose you might find ticks if they latch onto a bird and are left on the roof, but ticks are relatively new to Iceland and they’re typically not found in towns and cities.

Turf housing goes back to the Neolithic era and was spread throughout the globe, including of course Norway where the Icelanders came from. I've always wondered how they dealt with pests? Does the sod harden somehow?

I've never seen any pest problem in houses or structures built with or using turf in other ways. I have seen an old man picking lingonberries from a turf roof though. Not what I would call a pest..

I suspect they had a very different relationship with things we would find annoying.

Ooo. "You have been blocked".

I probably have too many privacy plugins.

The author, after 4 years, is probably still afraid of contracting Covid from you; given that she spend more than a paragraph complaining about absent distancing.

Covid is no less virulent or no less serious than it was 4 years ago. Among well vaccinated populations, the seriousness of infection decreases, but among populations who cannot get the vaccine it is as dangerous as it ever was. It has not evolved into something less dangerous over time.

Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7...

On top of that, long covid remains a serious concern, and rates of long covid remain steady: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...

COVID also increases autoimmune disease risk by up to 40%, which can have life altering impacts. Source: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.25.23285014v...

Given the author may be from a place with poor healthcare that doesn't support the disease or autoimmune diseases well (e.g. the U.S.) or may be close to someone with a weakened immune system, it's very reasonable for some people to be cautious about covid.

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