House Project... Planning Stage

NOTES ON CHOICE OF DESIGN:

Materials......

Foundations... Concrete ring beam 100mm x 300mm with 1/2 mild steel rebar in centre. Stones from site laid in courses between cement (1) slaked lime (3) and sand (12) mortar. Cheap, local available products, strong yet flexible, breathable so wont rot timber base plate, relatively low carbon. Alternatives...... RC (reinforced concrete) or gabion cages filled with graded stone.
Steel Ties... Steel rebar bent at both ends. Strenght, ease of use to tie base plate and ie structure to the foundations, tranfering the loads to the ground, slightly flexible to absorb vibration and allow for seismic forces in earth quake without permanent displacement. Alternatives......  Wire (gabion cage), bamboo,

Base plate... 6 x 4 inch rough pine timber base plate. Available locally, strong but relatively flexible, suitable for use with bamboo vertical members. Alternatives...... No basw plate (bamboo in founds), RC

Wall posts... 6 x 4 inch rough pine timbers. Available locally, workability, easily tied to other primary and secondary structural memebrs. Alternatives.... RC, bamboo, oversized adobe corners, clay brick

Wall infill... Adobe / lime slip formed wall with secondary structural members of bamboo (or roundwood) vertical and horizonatal in centre of wall fixed to primary structure. Sourced locally, adobe has good termal mass so stores heat to create a warmer environment for occupants, carbon nuetral, anti seismic designed for stenght and flexibilty, cheap, simple construction technique, easy to work with. Alternatives.... RC and cement block, clay brick, wood frame, adobe blocks with lime or adobe mortar.
Floor... Abode with fired clay floor tiles with lime grout. Warm as the adobe and tiles both act as heat sinks storing heat during day to be released at night when its cooler, low carbon, on site and locally sourced materials, ease of workability. Alternatives..... concrete painted, concrete with tiles, timber floor.

Roof... Bambu cut in half overlapping. Locally sourced (Xela), carbon negative, lightweight so safer if falls in earthquake, good weight to strenght ratio. Alternatives, lamina (galvinised) clay tiles

Layout....

Window and door opes 1.2m away from corners so that corners are stronger. anti seismic
Box layout. anti seismic
Heat rises to sleeping areas
House faces entrance (south facing window in kitchen)
Porch for dry wood storage
Openable windows for fire escapes
Porch for evening sun and dry storage of fire wood etc
Main door beside toilet for ease of access at night
Toilets and shower closer to soak pits less pipe work needed
plancha in centre of house for heating entire building
sink near soak pit and showers
window in kitchen evening sun
window in main bed and boys room allow heat from sun facing south to heat room and house
vent for plancha same size as flu to stop drafts
piela near water and soak pit



I would like recognising the people who have been reading my blog over the last 9 months or so. All time page views of blog....

Ireland	1295
United States	300
Guatemala	236
United Kingdom	102
Russia	100
Canada	74
Australia	58
Germany	44
Austria	34
Netherlands	12

All the support is greatfully appreciated and in all honestly is quite humbling to have such support. I wholeheartedly appreciate it and along with being a great source of publicity and therefore fundraising seeing so many people reading makes it a lot easier to spend the time to write the posts. The page view summary above shows that the hits are basically 50 percent Ireland and 50 percent rest of the world. It only shows the top 10 im afraid. I would like to say a big thanks to people around the world namely JT Magen(New York), Reillys (Guatemala) and Terri (Oz) along with everybody in good ol Eire for there financial support without which it would not be possible to undertake this house project.
If anybody reading from places like Russia or Canada would like to donate towards the project I would love to put your money to good use as we are still a good bit short of the monies needed to complete the house project fully. If one of the people in Russia happens to be Roman Abramovich a spare million or two would be great...