This week we'll take a look at the process of house design and building itself. As a case in point, we could not find any ferrocement projects in our area to look at, let alone experienced contractors. Internet research indicated ferrocement might be an ideal answer to our roofing needs. This humble arch over the entryway provided a chance to test and learn on a small scale. The knowledge gleaned from this project led us to...
"....Hmmmmm...I wonder if I could put a small arch in over the recording studio to echo the big arch we are *going* to build?" This small arch also served as a testing and learning project for the roofing itself. We laid 15 feet of ferrocement roofing, including over this arch, using different mixtures of cement, sand, Perlite and admixtures in order to test durability, curing, finish and workability. This relentless self-education turned into...
...our arch-in-progress up front, the focal point of the house's architecture and climate control. Professional custom home builders say almost all customers make their jobs more expensive and complicated with last-minute changes in design and the resulting complications. If this is to be expected, even with a pro, DIY builders should leave themselves some flexibility to learn and change, grow and experiment. This is advice well worth thinking about. A good example of this might be...
...as beginning owner/builders, we realized we'd never get started if we waited to learn absolutely everything we needed to know. Accordingly, we chose simple and fool-friendly dry stack block construction and got started on the walls while learning and researching the question of "how are we going to put a roof on this thing?" While we had a pretty good idea what we would do, the small scale projects were as essential to the design as they were to educating ourselves.
We have borrowed ideas and technology from the Romans, Greeks, Spanish, parking garage contractors, outdoor signage manufacturers and other sources. In the end, DIY is all about borrowing what you can and inventing what you have to. For meritorious DIY service, I have decided to present us with the prestigious Golden Trowel Award. I'd like to thank Mom, Dad and the members of the Academy...
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