Owner-Built Home & Homestead
(Page 15 of 15)
Wood 2 by 4s can be used in reinforcing simple concrete slabs. Such a wood member, placed on the bottom side of a slab, in order to provide maximum tensile reinforcement, can double as a means of attaching ceiling insulation material, etc. It also replaces part of the form lumber.
RELATED CONTENT
Early Christians often employed effective building systems which have since been little used or understood. Around 300 A.D. the church of St. Vitale was built at Ravenna, Italy with a dome constructed entirely of hollow earthenware (the "urns" used were formed so that the end of one fits into the mouth of another).
This "pot" or "bottle" construction technique has truly become a lost art. Recently the French architect Jacques Couelle revived bottle construction. Couelle's three-layer bottle vault will span 49 feet without reinforcing steel, and 26 feet on a flat ceiling. The neck of one bottle receives the open end of another, with ordinary cement between. Longitudinal notches along the sides of each ceramic bottle make for rigid holding power; each bottle is entirely encased by a thin layer of cement.
Couelle reports a saving of 50% in cement over conventional concrete block construction, and a saving of 30% in weight over concrete building. M. Ros (Swiss Laboratory for the Testing of Materials) claims that the thermal insulation of ceramic bottle construction is increased 50% over average building practice.
Whatever materials are used for composite construction, a house-needy family might well begin its building project with the purchase of a drum of emulsified asphalt. As a builder, I would not begin a construction project without this material on hand. Aspahlt emulsion, of the slow breaking "stabilizer" type (Bitumil), is made by more than 30 companies and sold everywhere. It retails for 20 cents a gallon in barrel lots. As already pointed out, this versatile material will stabilize any number of filler compounds. It can also be used extensively as a wood preserver and for waterproofing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (books listed in order of importance)
Corrugated Concrete Shell Roofs: Central Building Research Institute, Vol. 1, No. 3. New Delhi, India.
"Bamboo Reinforcement in Portland Cement Concrete." Experiment Station Bulletin No. 4. Clemson, S. C.
"Possible Uses for Waste Rice Hulls." Bulletin 507. Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge, La.
"Use of Corn Cobs as a Filler for Concrete." Michigan Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 1.
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