Construction

Rain filtering trough the walls

jgarcias.cr — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 04:09:38 +0000

Rain filtering trough the walls

Good morning dear Geoffrey!

You know what? you were right about the bricks I bought. The rain made its way through the wall and the plaster inside the house revealed it. Well, the walls outside did not have any treatment as yet to make them waterproof so it was something I expected to happen.
We started to apply acrylic silicon to the joints and then the primer paint to all the exterior walls. This solved the problem but I was wondering, if these bricks had the cavities so that they were tangent to each other as you pointed out before, the grout would eventually fill those cavities and prevent rain to filter inside the house?
I wonder this because, even in a fired brick house, another friend had problems with the rain going inside through the cement joints. He applied some kind of water repellent enamel to solve the problem.
Also, the ICEB joints are not precisely closed. The water can always go in between the bricks and saturate the grout after some time.
How did you solve this for your ICEB?

Blessings and best wishes,

Joaquin.

jgarcias.cr Tue, 12/06/2018 - 11:09

As we can see from the…

As we can see from the photos of the top and bottom of your blocks, the interlocking dowels and cavities do not extend to and touch the grouting holes. This allows rain ro flow through a wall. Your solution of caulking the joints is a fine one. Even caulking with cement /soil will work. As you point out, even mortared brick or concrete block walls will show weepage on the inside of the walls at the mortar joints. This is due to the capillary and absrpti e properties of the mortar used.

Construction

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Helping villagers build their own CEB "huts"

bambam — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:07:27 +0000

Helping villagers build their own CEB "huts"

Hello from West Africa,
I am interested in CEB construction to help villagers still living in grass huts (and millet stalk compound walls) to move into a more durable, less fire-prone structure. Most everyone here who has the means builds one or two room structures of about 4 meters square per room. There is no electricity or plumbing in these villages to be concerned about in the building process.
Poorer villagers do not have the means to buy alot of cement and rebar. They have sand and clay in their fields so that only has to be dug up and transported to their compound.
Of course they cannot afford to buy a CEB press. I am researching the possibilty of buying the press, learning how to use it, how to select the proper soil, etc. then showing them how to make CEB bricks for themselves. Also, most people have a relative or friend that has experience as a mason. I think several of these masons could learn how to make CEBs as well and help their village neighbors
I have other responsibilities so this can't become my fulltime job. Do you think this is a reasonable thing to undertake or am I "biting off more than I can chew"?
I read that CEBs are too expensive for the poor and are more feasible for middle class families. Is that your experience?
What suggestions/advice would you have for me?
Thank you!

bambam Fri, 31/01/2014 - 23:07

Good questions! Identifying

Good questions!

Identifying earth as an alternative to plant material is a good start. Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks, or "Rhino Blocks," require some attention to detail. Therefore good supervision and follow up is needed. Any successful project requires these things.

A lot of clay is not good in a compressed earth block; only a small amount of clay is desireable. Your walls will be subject to expansion and contraction and cracking if they have a lot of clay. Rhino Blocks can be made without cement. Cratterre has some excellent books on Compressed Earth Blocks that explain more about when stabilizers (like cement) are needed.

One of the simplest forms of earth architecture is adobe. It uses clay and sand and straw. An adobe wall needs a good rendering (a coating of plaster which can be made from many different materials).

Any earth house needs "good boots and a good hat." That is, a foundation and damp-proof course is required to prevent capillary action. And, a good roof is needed to prevent erosion.

Masonry buildings can be built without rebar, but not in earthquake zones. Earth architecture looks great with arches, vaults and domes.

To make earth archictecture attractive to poor people it might be good to build some middle or uppler class homes with it. Poor people will always buy the best building materials they can afford. Is Habitat for Humanity of the Fuller Center for Housing active in Senegal? Maybe they can help you.

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Construction

ISCB Use Oversease

laurence — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:49:46 +0000

ISCB Use Oversease

Geoffrey,

Can you please tell me, to the best of your knowledge.

If someone wanted to use the Interlocking Soil Cement bricks in regulated western countries, will they be allowed without any great difficulty?

For example i would like to build with them in the USA.

Can i assume that if the plans are drawn by an architect who understands ISCB, checked by an engineer who understands ISCB, and then submitted to whatever local county planning office, can i assume that structures planned from ISCB will pass all relevant codes etc?

Regards

laurence Fri, 30/11/2012 - 10:49

Building codes

Dear Mr. Fagan,

I do not know how difficult it will be. Building codes help to
make building permit process easier. Design your building to
the code and it will be approved. I believe that Arizona, New
Mexico and California have some building codes dealing
with earth construction. Some municipalities have extended
codes for earth construction. You will need to compare the
codes to our blocks to see whether the codes are applicable.
Construction in an earthquake zone will require a more
stringent code. The alternative to designing to a code is to
have a structural engineer do calculations to determine the
forces the building will be subject to and the specifications
for the walls to resist those forces. Please tell us what you
find out.

Geoffrey

Construction

construction

Lalboywiza — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 07:56:58 +0000

construction

Hi,
I am from North east india(NEI) and I have recently introduce this techonoly. and I am yet to understand the details of consrtuction. I am producing blocks using stone dust(coarse and fine mix together) and the ratio with cement ratio of (1:8). NEI fall under high seimic zone and most people who have seen this technology often ask me wether it is possibe to have two floors. I am constructing a 30 ft by 30ft single storey building as demo. I would like some info on how to raise columns and tie beams for floor slab. We don get percast slab in this part of the world.
I would like to mail photos of the construction for more feedback

Thanks
Lalboy

Lalboywiza Sun, 28/10/2012 - 15:56

Columns and Tie beams for floor slabs.

Dear Lalboy,
I admire your courage in using a technology that is new in your area.

For some construction information (mainly for non-earthquake construction) you can see http://www.cvbt-web.org/uploads/Pubs/RhinoCwb/CONSTRCT.pdf
Which state are you in and what is your seismic zone classification? What is your expected ground acceleration?
You can have two floors, you just need to do your structure well. The best thing is to check with a structural engineer. They will calculate the masses of your building, the forces that will act on it, and the size of the walls you need and the reinforcement you'll need.
30 ft x 30 ft. That would be 10 meters by 10 meters. Single story. You need a wall layout that provides some structural stability (intesecting walls or buttresses).
Are you asking about the bottom floor slab or the top floor slab? As an alternative to precast you can use joists and cast insitu floor.
I believe you can post photos or attach photos to posts or plans (pdfs are good) to this forum.

Construction

Timber recommendations for a project in Indonesia

sogreene — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:42:20 +0000

Timber recommendations for a project in Indonesia

Do you know what timber past projects have used to make window frames and doors? I am currently struggling to find a softwood that is commonly used on the island.

sogreene Tue, 08/05/2012 - 13:42

Possibly of use to you ......

If you only need a small amount of timber and/or are not too concerned about your sustainability credentials you could simply ask the locals what local timbers they use and find durable. They will normally be very knowledgeable.

But if you want to become familiar with Indonesian timber , here’s a few things I learned whilst building houses in Aceh after the tsunami:

The great majority of naturally occurring timber in Indonesia is hardwood. You specifically ask for softwood, but there is no reason I can think of that you should be specifying softwood.

For significant projects with international funders/donors, sustainability is going to be an issue. There are sustainable timber suppliers in Indonesia, but they are vey rare and going to be exporting their product to Europe etc. You’re unlikely to get their product. Furthermore if you ship unprocessed timber across regions in Indonesia you come up against a whole raft of legislation, licensing and local practices which substantially increases costs (if you are lucky) or deny you the product altogether if you are not.

Then there are legal timber sources. They are not sustainable by most criteria, as the logging companies are clear-felling to plant oil palm. But it is legal.

Then there is the other stuff. Which is a large proportion. The worst of it is logged illegally and sawn up on the spot: watch for chain saw marking on the planks. But most of it is sawn in sawmills somewhere in the forest.

I did understand that (in Aceh at least) villages had some “forest rights” that allowed them to take timber for use in the village. We were building on too big a scale to take advantage of this, but for small scale projects ensuring that new seedlings are planted to replace the trees logged might be adequate.

Indonesian timbers do have a basic grading system, produced by Ministry of Forestry which grades them for durability and structural strength. If you are going to get serious you will need that document. I may have a copy or a reference if you need it.

But next we hit the problem of species identification. The Grading System will identify the scientific and a common name for each species but out in the real world many timbers are known by completely different names (some of them potentially illuminating such as “iron wood” or “stone wood” but others less so such as “yellow wood”). Ministry of Forestry have prepared about a dozen books with such titles as Medium Hardwoods of Sumatra which would help an experienced tree guy to identify trees growing in the forest. But identifying them in the woodyard when they’re reduced to planks is a whole order of magnitude more difficult.

One useful book is The Timbers of Sabah which has many common names for trees throughout South East Asia, and much more information on durability, capability of treatment and ease of sawing etc.
If you are in the more developed parts of Indonesia the woodyard will most likely offer meranti. There are about 140 species which answer to this name and it is not very durable.

Once you’ve selected your species you need to get the quality right.

Traditionally, hardwoods would be cured in a log pond for a couple of years and then dried, either air-dried or kiln-dried. These days they are immediately air dried and sawn. So more warping and cracking. Only a few companies will kiln dry to a controlled moisture content.

Most tropical hardwoods are too dense in the grain to take much treatment. You might get a few millimetres penetration by soaking for a while, depending on the chemical you use, but they’re not like the most porous timbers like New Zealand pine which will achieve 100% penetration. When I spoke with the timber export department of Ministry of Forestry they talked of a government owned wood treatment facility somewhere outside Jakarta. But I was never able to find anyone who knew where it was.

So you rely on naturally resistant timber: the highest risk is to termite attack; timber with low starch content is least liked by Indonesian termites; also do not use timber in places where the timber can stay damp, which is fertile ground for termites. The people who know most about Indonesian timber are at the Agricultural University in Bogor. We also had timber attacked by lyctus beetle; this seems fairly rare, but I did hear of an attack in a development in Jakarta. The conclusion in our case was that the beetle was in the timber when it arrived; another disbenefit to air-dried timber of course.
Check moisture content in the woodyard. You will be looking in broad terms for <15%. Ace Hardware make a cheap instrument, so you can get a proper commercial one for a couple of hundred dollars. I wrote a Spec identifying acceptable moisture levels at each stage of the process which we adopted for our supplies.

If you do not want to use natural forest hardwoods you have some other options, maybe:
For doors we used albasyah core which is a really cheap and nasty timber plantation grown for the paper industry. But it soaks up treatment wonderful (pressure treated for three hours). The supplier also used durian timber (orchard timber from old trees), again treated. The timber was then cut into small pieces and glued with finger joints. The whole was then veneered with meranti. Normally exported, these high quality doors were used for 2000 of our houses.

For windows we gave up on timber altogether and used aluminium, as did some of the other larger projects.

Two other projects that might be of interest if you are building a lot of houses:
One NGO imported treated NZ timber. Because it achieves 100% penetration it could be cut after import and the intention was to make the doors and windows out of the imported timber. But the fabricators in Indonesia, used to using meranti, did not like all the knots in the NZ timber and refused to process it.

One NGO built houses using steel frames and timber imported from Europe, again a pine and fully treated.

Construction