Owner-Built Home & Homestead
(Page 5 of 15)
It is the problem site that best challenges the working belief that form and function are one. In any building circumstance where this notion is operative the foundation must necessarily act as a downward thrust of roof-wall and not as a separate and independent "pad" upon which the house is set. The concept of a building having a "tap root" foundation and "growing" from its site is not a simple idea to grasp. It took a master builder like Wright to capture this organic architectural theme.
RELATED CONTENT
BIBLIOGRAPHY (books listed in order of importance)
Foundations for Small Houses in Oklahoma. Means & Parcher, Eng. Exp. Station Bulletin 99, 1958.
Grade-Beam and Pier Foundations. University of Pennsylvania.
Building Construction Handbook. Merritt.
The Owner-Built Home, Vol. 3, Ch. 2
"Rubble Masonry"
For purposes of discussion it's possible to classify building materials into three general groups, depending upon the degree to which the new material is modified; synthetic materials, like plastics and paper-core panels, are greatly modified; manufactured materials, like plywood and concrete, are modified to a lesser extent; natural materials, like stone, earth and timber, are but slightly modified.
Obviously, the less processing required of a material, the less it will cost in the finished wall. Modern building technology has produced some truly remarkable wall materials, but without exception the saving made in added insulation, speed of erection, durability of finish, etc., is more than used up by the higher cost of the material itself. And inasmuch as the average owner-builder has a labor resource far in excess of his money resource, it behooves us to consider in great detail the unprocessed building materials.
Next to earth, stone is the most "natural" of all native materials. It is reasonable to suppose that in areas where this material existed, man's earliest houses resembled mere piles of stone. Then somewhat later he probably found that the drudgery of handling so much stone could be eliminated by laying one stone on another. We know to this day that the strength of a stone "dry wall" depends entirely upon the firmness of "seat," the fit of one stone on top of another. Then the discovery of natural cements made it possible to build "wet walls," walls that can be at once thinner, higher and stronger.
It is a mistake to attempt a minute analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of stone masonry construction (for all the advantages of any material, one can find disadvantages). A stone wall is relatively fireproof, but requires some form of waterproofing; a stone wall is strong and has a long life, but the strength depends entirely upon workmanship and varies with mortar proportions; a stone wall requires little maintenance, but there is a high initial labor cost for construction; the comparatively small size of stones aids in handling, but the wall itself has great weight; a stone wall is relatively soundproof, but additional insulation against heat transmission is required; a stone wall can be built to hold heavy roof loads, but the wall can scarcely resist bending or tensile forces.
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