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The Project: A 2,163 square foot house utilizing dry stack concrete block construction with a central courtyard and based on the Spanish colonial-era missions in San Antonio. The Challenge: Can a forty-something married couple design and build an attractive, efficient and mostly paid-for house while remaining sane, solvent and married? With no actual prior construction experience? Hmmmmm - let's check in on our Contestants and see how they're doing... |
| We finally get ready to do the roofing. The ferrocement roof will rest on 2x6 joists, which need to be anchored to the walls (which are in turn anchored to the foundation via rebar and grout columns). I hold in my hand the noble 8 inch J bolt and accompanying plate, our means of anchoring the joists to the walls. The bottom of the bolt will be embedded in concrete, the plate will be screwed to the joists and a nut screwed onto the top of the bolt. |  |
| A bolt embedded in concrete. Approximately every third bolt is actually embedded in the top of a concrete column inside the wall. The bottom of each of these columns contains a piece of rebar which is embedded in the foundation. This aids in transferring the load and stress of the ferrocrete roofing through the walls to the foundation and essentially makes our house one big safe room. |  |
| Each end of the 2x6 joist rests against a 4x8x16 block, which will form the parapet around the edges of the house and the courtyard. The parapet, a traditional part of Southwestern architecture, keeps the wind and force of wind lift from affecting the roof. The inner courtyard wall is 17 courses tall, the outer walls 15 or 16 courses high. This disparity in wall height provides enough slope for rain runoff on the roof. |
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| The joists are placed 16 inches on center, a construction industry standard measure. Close spacing will provide enough support for the roof and the results of too much of my wife's good cooking. These joists are placed over what will become my recording studio. |  |
| We close this installment, as we did last week, with another look at a wall niche for some of The Wife's tchatchkes. This niche is built into a wall in the master bathroom. Notice the projecting lips over and under the niche. |  |
| Want to see a rough floor plan?Want to be notified when we post new pictures? Just e-mail us! Want to see the rest of the story? Click on Gimme Shelter Home Page. |
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| Next week's installment: Guess how many are coming to dinner? Click HERE |
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