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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 finish the prep work for our roof this week. I put 2 inch nails through the insulating foam board and down to the joists to keep the wire stretched taut and suspended just above the foam board. This will place the wire in the center of the ferrocement roofing where it will do the most good. Note the complex plane layout of the roof to channel rainwater towards the downspouts. |  |
| The rolls of wire we buy are 48 inches wide by 75 feet long. After unrolling the wire and working my way along driving in nails and then stretching the wire over them, I take my trusty (and rusty) aviation snips and leave enough of a tail on the wire to go up and over the parapets. This will tie the ferrocement roof decking to the walls. |  |
| Here is a look at the wire coming over the parapet. Our ferrocement roof will be topped by several layers of what we call "meshcrete" - cement troweled into nylon mesh fabric. The resulting laminate provides exceptional strength with a thin shell, resulting in light weight (light weight being a relative term where concrete is concerned). By greatly strengthen our roof by tying it into the walls like this. |  |
| Yes, this part of it is as tough on the fingers as it looks. We want to tie the lengths of wire mesh together for strength and to help in keeping a uniform thickness to the ferrocement roofing, so we push these sharp wire ends down and around... |  |
| ...until they look like this. We are now wired and ready to take delivery of 3 cubic yards of concrete on Monday. Of course, getting those 3 yards up and on the roof brings it's own challenges, so we drop the hammer and pick up the telephone. How would *you* get a ton of concrete up 16 feet and put into place? Our answers next week, so stay tuned... |  |
| 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 installment: No Flab In My Slab Click HERE |
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