Subject: [Homestead] Home Manufacturing Series, recent post #5
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:07:41 -0700
Home manufacturing, recent post #5
http://www.planetaryrenewal.org/ipr/ultralc.html (a little more
esthetically appealing than a modular-panel foamed concrete quonset, or
simple gable-roof (at least make it wide-overhang), but though this
design envisions use of a polyester-resin mix, it could use
foam/fiber/acrylic/pozzolan mix just as well---with a lot better
insulation factor.)
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/stone.html (Northcoast has always been a
fine source for building low cost homes (and other buildings), still is,
and has some new books worth reading (at you local library first).
Buy the Ken Kerns of course, and you've GOT TO Own the Christopher
Alexander books on "Pattern Language"---no more boring,
marriage-destroying ninety-degree, unlit, no-vista Indiana Boxes.
"Making Concrete Ornaments' is a failsafe source of home manufacturing
income, and not discussed here, give real consideration to the cheap and
excellent India compressed earth blockmaker---nothing cheaper and few
things better that the dirt under your feet.)
http://www.earth-auroville.com/index.php?nav=menu&pg=auram&id1=7 (the
Auroville CEB press to which I referred to above. Makes lovely buildings
at cost little more than plain adobe, and much stronger,
insect-resistant, impervious to rain if a little asphalt is mixed in.)
This is the manual press version---used to cost about $800 laid into a
U.S. Port of entry. There are engine-hydraulic press versions for lazy
Americans---or those who want to make a business of seling compressed
earth block to building contractors at a fraction of the price of
concrete block) The engine-hydraulic presses as I remember, use a
rotary table to put earth mix in the molds, press it in next stage, and
eject the molded part in a third. A note as added economy, besides the
interlocking block, you only use one centimeter of earth-mortar between
blocks---same mix as the boocks are made but slightly wetter.)
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/wood.html (Old Northcoast photo of
cordwood masonry that any little old lady in tennis shoes can
build---especially if the house uses few posts, is round or hex, and has
a bond-beam to tie the cordwood and provide a component to which roof
members are attached (imbed L-bolts or steel plate tiedowns.) Someone on
the Homestead List built a cordwood masonry house, forgot who.
[Homestead] Home Manufacturing Series, recent post #5,
Tvoivozhd, 09/21/2004