Fargo house will research Hemp Construction Material

The two small houses are going up on the back half of a lot just off a busy street, not far from downtown Fargo.

"These homes are identical in blueprint, they're 13 by 23, with 12 foot ceilings, there's a loft in each of them," explains Grassroots Development president Justin Berg, the man behind this one-of-a-kind construction and research project.

One of the houses is built with a traditional wood frame, fiberglass insulation and covered with that shiny white house wrap material. Walls are build using hemp hurd, or the inner woody part of the hemp plant mixed with lime and water, then sealed with plaster. A second house a few feet away also has a wood frame but the walls are filled with 12 inches of hempcrete, giving it a brown, textured look inside and out.