The Energy-efficient Silo House
(Page 2 of 3)
January/February 1982
By Glenn Worthington
Freezing weather or not, we then went on to break away the old grain chute piece by piece with a sledgehammer and nail short boards, each at an angle, on both sides of the opening to add a decorative touch. Next, we bought four long, narrow windows and built a shingled awning to be positioned above each one. The installation involved tying an awning onto a rope, climbing the bars that led up the slot, pulling up the awning, nailing it in place, climbing back down to tie on a window, hauling up the window, nailing it in place ... and so on, until the task was completed!
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A Winter of Work
We finished our window wall in mid-January, and the weather had turned pretty danged cold by then! With plywood propped over the entrance (until we could afford a door), the inside of the silo provided at least some refuge from snow and slashing wind, but — in order to continue working — we knew we’d have to get our woodburning stove out of layaway. It was soon set in place on the concrete slab, and I stacked the stovepipe 40 feet high and ran it through the flashing I'd incorporated into the roof for that purpose. (Of course, I used the appropriate insulated stovepipe, so there'd be no danger of fire when the floors were put in.)
Then, with a good cozy fire roaring, I was much more eager to start figuring how to contrive strong round floors out of straight lumber designed for use in rectangular houses. My solution to that problem was to space four wooden columns evenly around the circumference of the solid concrete pad. Next, I built a wooden square that rested on top of the columns, and nailed stringers every 16 inches until the square was filled. Then, to make a circle, I stood a board up along the wall between each pair of columns and set another board atop each one to span diagonally to a support. Finally, sheets of plywood were cut on a curve and nailed into place, and we had a sturdy circular floor.
Another quartet of columns was then placed directly above the first, and floor after floor gradually came into being. This fairly simple procedure was complicated, however, by the need to leave openings for a stairway that would spiral a quarter of a circle around the inside wall for each floor — making nearly one full twist before it reached the top.
I’d never built a set of stairs in my life, but since 48 steps rise from the first floor of our silo to the balcony, I gained plenty of practice — and, I must admit, they looked better and better as I got closer to the top.
By the time the staircase was complete it was spring, and we were able to finish the balcony by making a cantilevered, wooden platform — covered with a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood — which we secured with interior bracing. Its inside half was sheltered by a shingled A-frame section boasting two skylights. We then installed a door and a railing with a gate that would allow us — in case of fire — to climb down an adjacent ladder, which the silo's original builders had strung up the side of the structure.
