Ok, Ok, that last page was the basic technical boring schtuff - so let's get on to BUILDING with soil cement. Concrete is heavy stuff, and you're going to be handling LOTS of it, so make it easy on yourself and apply KISS formula (keep it simple, stupid!).
So bear with me while I explain the basics of pouring a soil cement house in a way that's simple and inexpensive and do-able by the owner/builder:
POUR IN PLACE! It is inexpensive and simple - one doesn't have to be an expert construction guru to do it, and you can do it with little or no help (if you MUST!)
It seems ridiculous to me to handle these very heavy materials any more than absolutely necessary. Why make all these little bricks and blocks, whether brick, concrete, adobe or whatever, only to have to cure them for X days, then carry them to the laying wall, mix and carry and trowel still more mortar, lift them again into place, and then have to clean up and maintain all those joints. AND have the skilled techniques to make it all look nice and neat?
However, despite building many homes, I can't claim I ever enjoyed concrete work; nor did I get good at building huge concrete forms. That stuff is for the big-bridge-builders and I think it's most inappropriate and expensive for homes and other small buildings.
So, I'm expecting you're going to be out in the desert or the woods or the mountains somewhere, using the spouse and the kids and friends (they'll work to satisfy curiosity and beer cravings) and a little cement mixer.
And you're no better at designing and building huge forms than I am! Frankly, years ago I poured one small pumphouse building where I formed up all the walls and did the bracing and reinforcement, and then we busted our buns bailing all the redi-mix concrete from barrow to wall cavity. At the end of it all, the forms began giving way and made it one hellish day! So never again!
My answer? Form around the house perimeter, perhaps 6" to 12" high and pour in lifts. Pour today, and tomorrow you can move the forms up and start pouring another lift, okay?
No huge stack of forms, just enough for 1 lift inside and out around the perimeter only but just a few inches high. No huge loads from stacking wet concrete 10 feet high - so bracing is minimal. That's a tremendous saving in forms cost, and if you scheme things out just right, you'll probably find good use for the form materials when building the roof!
All this soil cement is your thermal mass - the storage for the "good" temperature you want inside.
The insulation needed to keep the good temp in and the bad temp out is built right into the wall as you pour. Styrofoam, urethane, whatever you like - no itch, no absorption, no leaks, and and no problem. I should mention that a moderately thick insulated wall will perform much better than several feet of uninsulated rammed earth or earthship-type tire walls.
When the walls are poured, the walls are DONE. If you choose to texture and paint, fine, but there's no stucco or veneer needed outside, and no plaster or drywall needed inside. Nothing else to buy, no more work to do. The walls are DONE! So put on a roof and move in!
And if you're using a good soil-cement mix, your home is not subject to rot, or termites, and will probably be in someone's way in a few hundred years when it's become obsolete as a medieval castle! Build it so that YOU don't have to tear it down!
So, design and plan your home well - you're going to live with it forever! (That's where you might want to call on me at SolarSense Designs!)
now, let's get started with some details!........ next are several forming methods
Updated by RonKZ Sunday, August 15, 2004
copyright 1998 - 07 July 2006 by Ron Klotz-Zellhoefer, SolarSense Designs, Arizona & New Mexico
Permission is granted and welcomed for personal application only.
