Sundials

[Butch50]

I am drawing up plans for a house that I am going to start building in about 18 months. It will be mostly concrete, made from the native sand on site mixed with portland cement. I have run trial samples and it makes great concrete. River bottom sand, very clean and pure. The house's floor will be concrete on grade, and the walls will be CMU (with an exterior face that will look like quarried limestone) that I will cast myself with molds. The roof will be steel beams recycled from two old mobile homes that I will demolish and terra-cotta like tiles that I will also make by molding sand/cement/color agent.

Still working out the details for the roof tiles, but am thinking of using fiber reinforcing to make them stronger. One of the main concepts here is that I can do 95% of the work by myself, if I figure out how to do it in modules that I can physically handle. The footings and slab for instance will be formed and placed in small sections, then another layer placed over them in small sections that bisect the construction joints below. Thus I won't have to have a finishing crew or buy concrete from a ready-mix plant. I have a veritable forest of large bamboo at my disposal and am thinking of making all new furniture from bamboo.
Anyway....

I am building an octagonal house. It will have a central fireplace that will also act as a center support column for the roof beams - kind of a yurt looking arrangement. After I had decided on an octagaon, it occured to me that since I do not live in an area with streets or building codes, I could align the 8 corners with the 8 compass points, that symmetry strongly appeals to me. This works out nicely as the river view is due South.

Then it occurred to me that I could incorporate into the house design, astronomical/solar clocks/calendars using various schemes and shadow patterns (such as an analemma on the fireplace) - since I was going to align it with the universe at large anyway. This has set me onto a research mission to learn about such things. I just finished one book tonight on the theory and building of sundials, and thought that perhaps some of the members of this community of do it yourselfers might already be versed in sundial lore and knowledge.

So, to finally get to the point - have any of you set up or built your own sundial? If so, I would be interested in any ideas you might have as regards an octagonal house and things you could do with it. I am interested in any other ideas that might occur to anyone.

If not, check it out - it is fascinating stuff and if you make your own brew it might also be something you would find interesting. Not because it is related to distilling, but because it is related to the whole concept of self sufficiency and re-capturing the old skills and knowledge.

By the way, there is a group called the North American Sundial Society that has a web page at:
http://www.sundials.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow, which is an excellent place to start.

[Hack]

For the central fireplace I'd do a masonry stove or russian/finnish fireplace. Have you looked into a cob or adobe with a plaster finish? Around here we've got all the clay you could want you just have to track down the sand. Sounds like you've got the sand, might need to find clay.

I just finished pouring a 6'x8' slab for a pump shed. We mixed the concrete ourselves as there was no way to get a concrete truck to it and it was a small pour. Even with a mixer it was a fair bit of work. It took 42 80lb. bags.Then it was also a cool day so it took forever to go off. Doing an entire house will take awhile.

I like the idea of aligning the house to the compass points and the sundial idea.

I'm just finishing up a cabin I've built from salvaged lumber and already have plans on how I'd like to add on to it to turn it into a useable house. I really like the idea of using what is at hand, native materials, and building on a scale that is achievable by the average joe.

[goose eye]

castin them roof tiles gotta take some time. how you liftin them panels in place.

[Butch50]

For the central fireplace I'd do a masonry stove or russian/finnish fireplace. Have you looked into a cob or adobe with a plaster finish? Around here we've got all the clay you could want you just have to track down the sand. Sounds like you've got the sand, might need to find clay.

I just finished pouring a 6'x8' slab for a pump shed. We mixed the concrete ourselves as there was no way to get a concrete truck to it and it was a small pour. Even with a mixer it was a fair bit of work. It took 42 80lb. bags.Then it was also a cool day so it took forever to go off. Doing an entire house will take awhile.

I like the idea of aligning the house to the compass points and the sundial idea.

I'm just finishing up a cabin I've built from salvaged lumber and already have plans on how I'd like to add on to it to turn it into a useable house. I really like the idea of using what is at hand, native materials, and building on a scale that is achievable by the average joe.

I have looked at cob/adobe and decided against them due to lack of local material and high humidity/rain in my area. I have an endless supply of clean sand right at hand, mixed with portland cement in a ratio of 1 part pc to 6 parts sand makes a very good concrete. If I lived where there were a lot of rocks, I would build a rock house, or if there was timber then a log cabin, out in the desert it would be adobe. Here where I am, it is sand so - sand concrete. The roof tiles will look like fired clay, but will in reality be concrete. No clay hereabouts. I will have to experiement to see what size of slabs I can mix and pour in a day by myself, but I have 30 some odd years of experience with concrete so I am confident in what I am doing and how to do it. Just a matter of dialing in to what I can do alone.

I am not sure what you mean by a masonry stove or a russian/finnish fire place are - can you explain or send me to a website? I am certainly open to ideas.

Thanks!

[Butch50]

castin them roof tiles gotta take some time. how you liftin them panels in place.

It will definitely take time. I am thinking I can buy a couple to make molds from. They look to me to be basically a double "s" curve. I can cast them on their sides with a two part mold. Use sand concrete mixed with red color agent so they look like fired clay. If I set up 10 molds and do 10 a day on average for 5 days a week, I can produce 50 per week.

The walls will be basically made of blocks, like cinder blocks, or hadite blocks or concrete masonry units, depending on what they call them in your area. Each block will be 8" x 16" nominal, with two holes in the vertical plane. Laid with mortar and then the holes filled with reinforced concrete top to bottom. Very standard type of construction except that I will be casting my own blocks. Again, about 10 per day, 5 days per week.

A large part of the reason it will be 18 months before I start building is the time it will take to make the blocks and the roof tiles. If all goes to plan I will start fabricating blocks/tiles in January.

[Hack]

A masonry stove, and finnish or russian fireplace are all different names for the same thing. They are high efficiency fireplaces. They work by folding the chimney back and forth, or something similar, and allowing the mass of the stove to absorb a majority of the heat which is then radiated slowly into the living space over the rest of the day. You run the fire wide open so it also has the side effect of burning more cleanly than most wood heat because it burns hotter. The claim is that you can heat your home with one or two armloads of wood a day. You also don't have the hassle of tending a fire all day. There are several sites about them if you do a google search on it. I've got a good book on building one. I'll post the name of it once I find it. I'm planning on putting one in my cabin if we make it to the next phase of additions on it.

No clay means no cob, that makes sense. This is actually something I'm interested in trying myself. Wet and humid climate shouldn't be a problem for it though with a protective outer layer of plaster. I've got a book that shows a cob building in Dawlish, Devon, England that dates bake to 1539. I've also got a Czech guy working with me who remodeled a cob house from the 1400's back home in the Czech Republic.

[goose eye]

make sure your mold for them roof tile got holes for nails. is you gonna uses same tile for ridge cap to. with barel shape you can aint sure bout s . how many to the sq an how many square of roof you rekon you gonna have. add 10 percent to what you think you gonna need. what pitch roof you goin with.
round here a while back they had styrefoam molds they would form an pour for concrete houses.

[theholymackerel]

Hey Butch,

I'd forget about the big masonry stack fireplace that Hack suggested.

They are meant for far northern climes where 24/7 heat is needed and where it gets frickin' COLD and stays that way. A big stack of masonry can take a week or more of 24 hr a day fire to get up to operatin' temp and longer to cool. Totally the wrong Idea for Tx, the South, or the South West. A good idea if yer livin' in Michigan or Canada.

Use what our elders used in our clime and you'll be happy: Cast Iron wood-burners. In our clime it can be frickin' cold in the mornin' and sometimes at night, but often warms up to T-shirt weather in the day. Perfect for small woodburners. Start the fire in the mornin'... and let it die out as the day warms up... buy the time the day is warm the stove is cold and not drivin' ya outta the house.

[Hack]

theholymackeral may have a point. I am from western Washington and don't have first hand experience with your climate. The mass of the stove and your concrete walls will help moderate the temperature of your home though. It will hold some of the days heat through the night and some of the evenings cool through the day. If balanced properly it will make a very comfortable home. A masonry stove, built right, won't take a week to bring the temp up. It's a matter of using the appropriate amount of mass for your heating needs.

The styrofoam forms goose mentioned make for one of the best all around homes for moderating temperature and insulation. The downside is they are expensive, costing more than a traditional stick built home. The sales pitch is that they will pay for themselves with savings in heating costs.

[Hack]

Here's a couple links to some info on masonry stoves.

http://www.gobrick.com/BIA/technotes/t19d.htm
http://www.gobrick.com/BIA/technotes/t19e.htm

[Butch50]

Thanks guys, lots of food for thought.

The fireplace may be largely decorative - I have been reading up on wood gas generators and am thinking about incorporating a wood gas generator to provide heat, and use the off gassing to drive an electric generator. That will leave me with some good quality chunk charcoal that I can use for a lot of things, including burning in the fireplace for a nice clean fire.

Did you know that mesquite chunk choarcoal sells for almost $1.00 US per pound? Imagine having a waste product from heating your home that you can sell for even a quarter of that?