Owner-Built Home & Homestead
(Page 9 of 15)
Various methods for insulating stone walls have been tried out. The standard practice for insulating masonry walls involves the use of "furring strips" set in the masonry vertically. These serve as light nailers for a second row of nailer strips on which insulation board is secured. The embedded strips are apt to dry-rot with age, and unless a great deal of patience is exercised in keeping the strips straight and true, the wall is certain to be uneven. I read somewhere of one mason who built a dead air insulation space into his stone walls by laying rolls of chicken wire, wrapped with burlap, at close intervals in the masonry. This method sounds much more practical so long as wall strength is not thereby appreciably reduced.
RELATED CONTENT
I am personally partial to any type of construction simple enough to be understood and implemented by anyone having average intelligence and ability. The complicated technique of masonry seems to require a few basic aids before the average man can master it. Flagg, Peters, Nearing and Magdiel all suggest methods that reduce the need for high level masonry skills. All these systems work well and all contribute greatly to the advancement of owner-builder construction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (books listed in order of importance)
Pour Yourself A House. Frazier Peters, 1949. Low cost building with concrete and stone.
Houses of Stone. Frazier Peters.
Small Houses. Ernest Flagg, 1921
Living The Good Life. Scott and Helen Nearing.
Building Construction and Superintendence, Part 1, "Masonry Work." F.E. Kidder.
Handbook of Building Construction. Hool and Johnson.
"Farm Building Section." Rubble Masonry: Information Series No. 54. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
The Owner-Built Home, Vol. 2, Ch. 8
"Composite Building Materials"
In previous chapters of this volume I have attempted an exploration of building material possibilities. Some superior, and less expensive, methods and materials have been suggested. I have tried to emphasize the fact that present-day building practices have failed to provide for the low-cost housing needs of the majority of homebuilders. Practically none of the commercially available building materials are adaptable to a truly low price range. Furthermore, if an owner-builder expects consistently high-quality yet economical building results, he must be sufficiently aware of existing house-building alternatives to consider completely new forms, unorthodox methods of construction, and materials almost unheard of.
No attempt will be made here to list all "unheard-of" or unconventional building materials used by man. But the principle behind the utilization of waste and readily available materials will be expounded, the principle of compositing materials (synthesizing their qualities of insulation, structure, workability, low cost, etc.). It is this principle, and not the particular formulas, that must be understood by the owner-builder.
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