Components
Simple Wall Examples
Applications
Meaningful work and profound accomplishment for all
What Does It Cost?
Component Costs
- Portland Cement, Type II, standard in Home Depot, etc. Currently $6.80 per 47 pound sack. It use to be only available in 94 pound sacks, a worthy challenge to lift and carry. These half sacks are much more user friendly. One wants a mixer to at least hold enough concrete to use a full sack. Having to shovel a specific weight from a sack is dusty and not fun. On the other end of spectrum is going big time with a truckload of bulk cement. Big up front cost but it reduces the price about 50%. In a full fledge operation one would do this along with owning a mixer truck. Doing footings and slabs, along with supplying the tile concrete would save a lot. It’s a management decision as to how much to keep “in house”.
- Pea gravel coarse aggregate. This is usually bought bulk by the dump truck load, about 10 dollars a ton plus delivery cost. Owning a dump truck is another good investment.
- Concrete sand. That means a sand that has an even distribution of particle sizes. This allows a denser concrete, and uses a bit less cement. It’s about 10 dollars a ton too.
- Anti Hydro water proofs concrete and imparts superior qualities. It’s used in a 1:12 ratio to the added water. It’s 90 dollars per five gallons.
- Fritz Pak Super Plasticizer PCE is a powder for reducing water content in the mix and increasing strength. This is used to achieve a water cement ratio of between 0.45 and 0.5. It will cost 50 dollars per 7.2 pounds (115.2 ounces).
- Steel Reinforcing fiber.
Octagons
Endless Wall
Putting floor to ceiling windows in all the vertices assures the occupant of not seeing any closed corners. One's view of the wall can continue to the horizon.
Concrete Deck Components
New Perspective
It’s about time housing gets a new perspective. The norm is for neighbors to be virtually anonymous. With societal and climatic changes accelerating, neighbors should depend on each other like never before. Our current subdivision layout scheme certainly supports division. Lawns are a chemical repository, which, in the name of green, are toxic particularly to children and animals.
I have learned a fundamental truth from my life, and that is my life is no better than the life of my dog. Dog virtually sounds like a degrading word, except for the fact it is god backwards. The gold standard of a “fenced” backyard is woefully inadequate. The main source of problems with dogs is the fact they don’t get sufficient exercise. A happy dog is a tired and socialized dog. There needs to be ample space for people to meet and dogs to romp. I feel that space needs to be at a minimum the size of a football field.
There is a wonderful solution for this. Currently, the standard home / lot ratio is 0.4 . For example, say a football field is 120 yards long and 60 yards wide. That is 360 feet by 180 feet which equates to 64,800 square feet. If an average two story house has a footprint of 1,500 square feet the lot size minus the house would be 2,250 square feet. A block then would consist of 29 houses.These 29 houses would encircle the football field. Decisions to manage the space would be shared responsibility. There would be no “side yards” which is usually wasted space. The houses would share common walls for a complete enclosure. Concrete construction with total soundproofing will guarantee complete privacy and safety. Are there still people who yearn for a cooperative village lifestyle?
In true Columbo fashion, there is still one more thing. Natural energy systems are a vortex. That is a rotating circular motion. Maybe a reason why things have become so discordant is the orthogonal prevalence that we take as normal. Maybe natural energy gets thrown into chaos in a rectangular structure and that gradually permeates our psyche.
Perhaps the two most Nature attuned cultures are the Tibetans and Native Americans. They had round abodes. Round isn’t an attribute at this point of my system, but octagonal is very easy to do. Octagons offer great versatility in contiguous housing.
Contiguous housing may be a synonym for “townhomes” but in my opinion there is a big leap beyond that. I am a dog lover. My personal creed is that my life is no better than the life of my dog, my created external soul. A happy dog is a tired dog. Running and playing carefree is essential. Sadly, that is virtually impossible in most circumstances. A fenced yard is woefully inadequate. Dogs need at least the size of a football field to have decent environment. That is where contiguous housing comes in.
The key to friendly relations with neighbors is to have a common denominator that drew you in the first place. In my experience, dog parks are where one will find the nicest people who really care about their dogs, and their own exposure to fresh air and vitamin D.
When I’m visiting my partner in the “city” from my mountain sanctuary, it’s a fifteen mile drive to a dinky dog park. There is no other option despite massive acreage of agricultural land.
How to solve that.
It doesn’t need to be octagons, but just for an example, these are 36′ diameter octagons enclosing a football field area. In regular subdivisions, side yards and pretty much the entire “yard” are chemical laden minimal utility spaces facing streets that really only give separation. If the side yards were removed and all the space concentrated in the center, everyone would have plenty of safe space. People would know and be friendly for the common denominator of wanting this. The space could be everyone’s idea and responsibility to create a Nature preserve with gardening, labyrinths, picnic areas, one’s own consensual private space. Sports could flourish again. The former analog world can be somewhat reclaimed. Carl Jung in his autobiography stressed the need for “Reform by Retrogression”. We have outpaced our connection with our ancestral roots and need to reconnect. Relief from digital will aid our balance.
The Building Process
Ongoing Construction, More to Come. Call me at 303 949 5947 with any questions or desire to get engaged.
A Poor Man Shames Us All
Can you embrace the statement as an affirmation of your empathy with the human condition? If not, then good day, you need note spend another moment here.
At 69 years now, the time and evolution of a concrete solution to make an attempt at “bringing the bottom up” is necessarily at hand.
I’ve having a unique life, living along on a remote mining claim high in the Rockies with no family. My lack of outside responsibility has enabled me to obsessively focused on Nature and my inner self. My personal philosophy of my life being no better than the life of my dogs has helped me maintain perspective. The leashed confinement mantra perspective of “close in” living is toxic for me.
But I have derived my own spiritual orientation in privacy and openness, and that is Cooperation is the source and cause of Creation. It starts with oxygen sharing its space of electron accommodation with hydrogen’s need for stability. So hydrogen and oxygen cooperate to form H2O, water, which is start of making all things possible.
Cooperation is stability, empowerment, and accomplishment for all involved. We are a chain of interconnection, and only as strong as our weakest component.
I don’t favor “proselytizing” yet this is my luxury to choose how I wish to employ my lifetime of development of this building system. The patriarchy is a failure. It’s a ploy to dominate with “might makes right”, and misogyny is its first offspring. Mother Earth and humanity are its victims.
So very simply, Concrete Building System is empowerment for less privileged people to cooperate. The result is very affordable housing and more natural living.
This can be a very profitable system with the ability to fund nonprofit venture. The technical details of staffing and direction can come from a collaboration of like minded principals. I surely have my plan, but I’m open to brainstorming for optimization.