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Gee Kalakoa,
If you can't find it on the shelf at Walmart you're not interested? If you're not interested then just be not interested.
It takes longer to get a building permit than it takes to ship something in from the mainland.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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If you can't find it on the shelf at Walmart you're not interested?
I'm tired of every "better solution" requiring expensive lengthy shipping.
It takes longer to get a building permit than it takes to ship something in from the mainland.
Relevant only where permits are required -- perhaps it's a 600sf storage building, or a generator shed, or similar project.
Again, 100% agree that wood isn't a worthy "investment" -- but it's available with zero lead time. For some projects this is more important; I've met several people who would rather have a house now and argue with County afterwards, because permits don't keep the rain out for several months while waiting for Planning.
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Why are you tired? You're not ordering anything that requires thought or lead time. All shipping is expensive. Your toothpaste at Walmart costs more because of shipping.
This is a poor county in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If you prefer building materials available 8 hours a day six days a week by all means build with wood. It is there for you. It is already soaking wet in the lumber yard. Some of those stacks already have termites in them. The fact that it is a terrible investment doesn't matter. It is there. Just for you. Why bother making any effort that might affect your home for the next fifty to 100 years?
Quite being a sour mouth . If you're not interested just shut up and hang out at Hondsador.
By the way, the Chinese kit buildings are in stock - just for you. You could be under a roof in a week or so.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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I agree - the constant whining doesn't get us anywhere. it's not really clever nor funny. and if you really hate it all that bad - THEN MOVE!!
When you hand mix concrete it is pretty precious stuff, independent of cost.
For my piers, I drove about 5 sections of 4' long, inch thick rebar at odd angles into the ground from within the forms before pouring the concrete. For these piers to move in any direction, they are going to have to pull a lot of steel with them. This obsession with massive quantities of concrete is just plain stupid.
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You can't fix Samsara.
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I have built concrete corner posts for my fence using 12" x 12" x 8" column blocks, 6 blocks tall. I started by drilling 1 1/2" holes into the rock as deep as I could go which was about 18" deep. These holes were located at the inside corners of the concrete blocks. I used anchoring cement to grout 1/2" rebar into the lava. The anchoring cement is available in small tubs at Home Depot. You have to mix it really runny so it will flow into the hole around the rebar and you have to be fast because the stuff begins to set up in a couple of minutes.
You need a large rotary hammer and a 1 1/2" bit of sufficient length. You also need a large solid chunk of lava where you need to put the post. If you do everything right, and with a bit of luck, your finished posts are cemented into hundreds or thousands of pounds of solid pahoehoe and aren't going anywhere. So far my posts are keeping my fence drum tight. They are probably holding hundreds of pounds of tension, cantilevered directly out of the ground without diagonal braces, and the installation required only cleaning away the surface dirt down to the underlying lava, then drilling.
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One method of building with stone that is mentioned wherever alternative building methods are discussed is slip form masonry. You build wood forms as long as your wall, a couple of feet tall, and about 18" thick. You reach the stones in from the top and place them with the good faces out against the forms. When that course sets up you move the forms up and do the next course. You fill the center of the wall with concrete and rebar so you are essentially building a reinforced concrete wall with decorative rock faces. Those rocks make the wall heavier and require the wall to be thicker to be self supporting. The irregular rocks also require more mortar to fill all the gaps. There is the false impression that using the rocks adds strength and uses native materials but unless it is a dry stone wall you would be better off somehow casting 4" thick slabs and tilting them up or casting them in place. Point being adding the rocks does not reduce the amount of cement if you are committed to building a reinforced concrete wall.
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it's not really clever nor funny. and if you really hate it all that bad - THEN MOVE!!
Not intended as clever or funny, nor do I hate it, and I'm not moving.
I'll rephrase:
If these non-wood alternatives are so far superior to wood, why do they have to be special-ordered in kit form? I can easily accept "not made here" (manufacturing too expensive), but is our economy really so poor that it won't support a retailer or distributor who stocks these fantastic construction materials?
the Chinese kit buildings are in stock
Yes. I've been thinking about these for a while; they're nearly ideal, with a couple more windows and some insulated roof panels, they are probably perfect for "storing" some furniture and maybe a stove. Still "expensive" (only as relative to the local economy -- not compared to wood or masonry).
Some irony there; these kits are the best option so far. Kudos to Rob for bringing them.
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quote:
Originally posted by kalakoa
it's not really clever nor funny. and if you really hate it all that bad - THEN MOVE!!
Not intended as clever or funny, nor do I hate it, and I'm not moving.
I'll rephrase:
If these non-wood alternatives are so far superior to wood, why do they have to be special-ordered in kit form? I can easily accept "not made here" (manufacturing too expensive), but is our economy really so poor that it won't support a retailer or distributor who stocks these fantastic construction materials?
the Chinese kit buildings are in stock
Yes. I've been thinking about these for a while; they're nearly ideal, with a couple more windows and some insulated roof panels, they are probably perfect for "storing" some furniture and maybe a stove. Still "expensive" (only as relative to the local economy -- not compared to wood or masonry).
Some irony there; these kits are the best option so far. Kudos to Rob for bringing them.
There is no great conspiracy to deprive Hawaii of non wood alternatives that are superior to wood, this is just a matter of market forces at work. When "non-traditional" materials are brought into a market they always start out as "special order" items, because sellers do not want to take the risk of a full roll out if the buyers are not there. This is true of all industries, not just building materials, but the construction industry tends to be conservative about adopting new materials and the distributors sure don't want to take the risk of stocking a superior innovative material that no one will use, or knows how to use, and then take a loss.
In the early days of solar you couldn't just walk into a retailer or wholesaler and buy inverters or solar panels, now you can. Someone has to pioneer this stuff by getting it into use initially so it becomes an accepted material to use. You are throwing a tantrum because you don't want to be the pioneer, you want someone else to take that risk and make the investment to stock a material with no proven market yet. The economic cycle of innovation and adoption just doesn't work that way, especially in a relatively small market like Hawaii.
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We need an Elon Musk type to form a startup willing to stock new building products at a loss for 10 years to gain market share, and lobby for permit approval. Something revolutionary like the lego style interlocking AAC/ICF, or the insulated metal panels like Mr. Tucker brought in. Rob is like our Elon Musk I guess, just not a billionaire yet. 
So, my 2' posts just have diagonal bracing, no sheer walls. Am I going to die horribly or what?
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