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[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

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Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2000 23:27:53 -0400
From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
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To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Silly tent thoughts...
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>
>     I have often wondered about setting up a big
> tent like the 16 x 32 mentioned and coating it
> with epoxy resin then start laying on fiber glass
> cloth and more resin in several layers. ts.
> Might make a cheap barn or shop at least.
>
> --
> farmer

Tvoivozhd---Epoxy or polyester and glass roving, cloth and mat cost a lot of
money, even when resin is bought in drum or tank car loads---part owner of a
boat company once.  A really cheap barn or shop could result from applying the
lessons of a SanFrancisco architect of 1930---think it was Bernard Maybeck.
Anyway, for walls in his house he strung some wires and hung gunnysacks dipped
in Portland cement slurry over them.

Just a minute, have to go to the library---that means moving a few piles and
boxes out of the way so I don't break a leg.

Yup, here it is in Ken Kern's The Owner Built Home.  Dr. Kurt Billig in India,
1950 built what is probably the cheapest house in existance---a fiber-concrete
Quonset (page 141).  Set up a number of temporary wood or steel arches at 
three
to eight-foot intervals, draped jute cloth (gunnysacks) over them, stretched 
it
tight and troweled a thin Portland slurry over it. Let it dry and apply
additional coats up to two inch total.  Pull out the formwork---no steel
reinforcement is required for a span up to 60 feet.

Actually the jute (or in the U.S., old carpet) should be dampened first, then
trowelled or better yet, sprayed with a rented Master Builder 
plaster-sprayer to
get the job over with in a few hours---one guy to handle the spraygun, another
to keep stirring a barrel full of thin Portland slurry.

For hot or cold climates, make it three layers, one of carpet, one of cheap 
air
insulation (plastic pop bottles), one of carpet.  Not perfect, but good enough
for a government job.