[GSBN] Stacking Bales was thin concrete shell roofs

[John Swearingen]

Well, leave it to my  twin Down Under to do everything backwards!

The difference is that, owing to the relative youth of our mountains, they
are restless and sometimes move without warning.  So we have to figure that
our buildings will move up, down and every other direction, maybe all at
once. Since our houses have to withstand turning on end, or even upside
down, we end up with more posts and points of attachment, as well as heavier
top and bottom plates.

Ausie John's scheme will work in quiet regions with stable ground, but would
never fly in an earthquake--or rather it might!

John

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 4:18 PM, John Glassford <jacksflat at gmail.com> wrote:

> G ' day
>
> I have to disagree with my Skillful Twin re roofing before stacking.
>
> If you are in a very very wet place that rains all the time then maybe you
> roof first.
>
> We are developing our hybrid method and improving on it all the time.
>
> In essence we prepare all the door and window frames together with bottom
> and top plates.
>
> We then erect the frames and fix the bottom plates in place.  Then the
> bales are stacked top plates attached an compression takes place.
>
> Once this is complete we put the roof trusses on and sheeting.
>
> I feel that this is a very very strong method that combines the best of
> frame and load bearing walls.  We get excellent compression using all
> threaded rods in pairs every 1.8 metres.
>
> The building is very stable and best of all it is a very quick method.
>
> The last hybrid we did was a 300 square meter 4 bed room house in a high
> rain fall area of New South Wales.
>
> Is it cheaper than in-fill?  Absolutely.  Is it quicker?  Yes by far.  Is
> it strong?:  Very very strong.
>
> You can follow the progress of the last one we did on the front page of our
> web site:
>
> http://glassford.com.au/main
>
> Just scroll down to the start of the build and then scroll up as to the
> stages in 5 days.
>
> You can also see a 3 bed room hybrid that we built in Victoria here and we
> actually roofed that one during the 8 days that we completed the job in:
>
> http://glassford.com.au/main
>
> Obviously the down side is NOT getting the roof on straight after the wall
> raising however with good planning and delivery of materials this should not
> occur.  If it does we have found that a building can take a lot of rain
> falling if you prepare the walls well with a cover under the top plate again
> see the photos on the web site above.  We have not had any problems with
> this method since we started using it 3 years ago now.
>
> We are just about to go do another one this time at Coffs Harbour on the
> North Coast of New South Wales and it gets pretty wet up there at times,
> like now, so we will see what happens.  However the roof is there ready to
> go on now and we will have the walls up next weekend.
>
> I do not often disagree with my twin brother or my Kiwi mates but it works
> well for us and for our clients.
>
> Kind regards
> John Glassford
> Huff 'n' Puff Constructions
> http://www.glassford.com.au
> 61 2 6927 6027
> In Australia (02) 6927 6027
>
> Mountains of the Moon 2011
> http://www.mountainsofthemoon.org
>
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>
>


-- 
John Swearingen
Skillful Means Design & Construction
2550 9th Street   Suite 209A
Berkeley, CA   94710
510.849.1800 phone
510.849.1900 fax

Web Site/blog:  http://www.skillful-means.com
https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com
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