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I've just finished a closet in a masonry building I'm making. A closet allows me to try certain steps, before committing such steps to the entire building.
How will the drywall work? Test it in the closet.
How will the paint look? Try the closet.
I awoke to a beautiful 15 inches of fresh powder. I took a few pictures of these masonry buildings covered in snow. The domes, arches, catenary forms: all seem to create interesting topological snow surfaces.
Sometimes people will ask about how appropriate a masonry roof is for big snow loads? They only get stronger with more weight, and the snow also helps insulate even more. These buildings can handle extreme snow loads.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660075 ("Topological interlocking manufactured concrete block"). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
The previous post showed how we excavated, poured the footer and built the stem wall. Following this, the vertical walls were assembled and the floor was installed. The floors are made to accommodate a radiant heating system. First a rigid foam is laid down, on the level compacted ground floor; then "Pex" TM pipe was installed.
Concrete was then poured on top of the foam and pex, and screeded level, then the floor surface was floated.
After all the vertical walls were assembled, forms were built at the top of these walls; rebar was placed in this cavity as per the PE specification, and the form was poured with concrete to create a reinforced bond beam.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660075 ("Topological interlocking manufactured concrete block"). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
My company was awarded a
Phase II funded project by the National Science Foundation. The main objective of this work was to
demonstrate our innovative masonry systems, and to obtain a positive evaluation
report from the International Code Council- Evaluation Services. In order to
achieve this, it was strongly suggested by ICC-ES that we work with a Registered
Design Professional architect and a licensed Professional Engineer to design
and build a test or sample building for the purposes of evaluation.
We began with the building
design, in consultation with Robert Ferry, RDP, AIA and Cheng-Ning Jong, PE. The
basic approach was to keep the entire structure under compression, being squeezed
together, which is how masonry is strongest.
We incorporated several different types of arches, domes and half-domes,
configured with flying buttresses.
Work began with excavation
for the footer. This work was done room
by room, in sequence, simply so we had a place to put all the excavated dirt
while we worked.
The footer had its
reinforcement rebar detailed by the PE. All footer sections used formwork to
establish dimensions. Rebar laid flat, horizontally, was tied to the vertical
rebar which would go up into the walls.
This was done using ninety-degree elbows of rebar. All rebar was “Gatorbar”
basalt-based Fiber Reinforced Polymer rebar, which is lightweight, stronger
than steel in tension, and never rusts.
This rebar also bends easily to provide curves for arched roofs.
Once the footer was poured,
stem walls were built to make the foundation come up to grade, where the
vertical walls began, above grade.
Today (December 2nd 2020) my company Spherical Block LLC received a Product Listing from the International Code Council-Evaluation Services (ICC-ES). This puts my company's technology in accordance with the International Building Code (IBC) which is written by ICC. This was a long, tedious, difficult and expensive process, but it's necessary for any new construction technology.
