Hollow tile/masonry house.

[Daniel]

While visiting Utah this summer I stopped at a historical fort near Cedar city called Cove Fort. It is owned by the LDS church so there were missionaries there giving free tours. As we began the tour I noticed that most of the fort was made of rock wall, similar to something that one would see here in hawaii. It had very thick walls, that made for interesting door ways and windows. The first thing that I noticed upon entering the first room, apart form all the original furnishings, was the temperature. It must have been over 100 degrees outside and inside it was a nice cool 70 something. The Missionary was quik to point out that the fort had NO AC but that the coolness was a result of the thick rock walls. He said the opposet was true for winter, the fort stayed relatively warm inside. So that got me thinking a lot about our current forms of building. The pioneers that built that fort did a better job than most of our modern buildings. Since then I have been interested in building a masonry home. I was wondering if anyone on puna web has had experience with masonry or hollow tile homes here and what their opinion is?

Mahalo,

Daniel R Diamond

[Rob Tucker]

My company does a lot of masonry in a new technology way. The attributes you admire are achieveable and doable. The effect you descibe is called thermal mass and designed properly for the right climate it can be very energy efficient.

I'll invite you to visit my web site:

http://www.castleblock.com

[AlohaSteven]

Hi Rob, and good to "meet" you, Daniel!

Castleblock materials appear entirely legit in all regards and excellent in actual field service from the research I have done and in situ examples I have viewed firsthand in Puna and north of Hilo. We are including them as elements in steel structures we are building (flooring material between first and second floors, stairways, and so on) in the effort to make the structures completely fireproof, termite proof, sound and vibration deadening, seismically resilient, and mildew/rot resistant while still cost-effective within our budget.

On a different subtopic within this discussion, FYI, in the strand "Large slab recycled glass as thermal storage medium?" over at www.tribe.net in the interest group titled "Non Traditional Housing" ( http://nontraditionalhousing.tribe.net ) there has been a fascinating concept introduced on a technique I have never before heard of yet which sounds great and entirely logical. To wit:

[Post by Robbie, 22DEC2007]

"If your thick-glass options all turn out to be unpalatable, you may want to substitute tumbled recycled glass shards for gravel/sand in an adobe or tinted cement matrix. This is a little-used but fascinating technique. If the glass concentration is high enough for direct physical contact of particles throughout, the wall will slightly glow on the inside in daytime while transmitting most light energy into the wall. The text I saw had specific methods for calculating proper mixture per given load requirements, etc.... Good Luck and keep up the good work."

...I have posted a request for the citation &/or formula on this one, and will share such if it comes through. The notion of thermally efficient walls which gently glow with inside illumination while insulating a cool interior space during daylight hours ...and then later slowly radiate stored heat at night to ward off a chill or damp, all via recycled glass shards embedded in the cement at specific density, -this concept is most elegant, very appealing.

Best,
AlaskaSteven

[Rob Tucker]

I believe what you are referrng to is sometimes called translucent concrete. I have read of it but have seen no examples of it in person. Developed in Europe as I recall.

[Daniel]

Thanks Rob, I'll check it out. []
Nice to "Meet" you too, AlaskaSteven, thanks for the input.

A hui hou,
Daniel R Diamond

[Carey]

Glass-crete was used at Keaau Transfer station (glass aggregate) but they had to pay a lot more, as the mixer comapany would only do it if they paid for a complete clean out after the pour. Talk story with the employees, they can share a lot about that product.
The glass slab almost sounds like the mirror slabs they use at the observatories, only a lot less work (no polishing or micro leveling)

Have also read some on paper-crete, (and watched some utubes from forum links), but cannot imagine that the product could stand up to Puna (the writeup seem like it could, but would have to think that you have to have a moisture barrier throughout, but this is just my speculation, no knowledge to back this up..)

[AlohaSteven]

I heard back from the person who posted on this fascinating concept over in a Non Traditional Housing discussion thread on Tribe. S/he writes:

"Well, the glass/cement info was in one of many engineering texts I checked out from my university library a couple of years ago. I can't recall which book it was now, but I was thinking of running some of my own experiments eventually anyway so I'll just do it sooner and send you the pictures and data.... the basic idea was to simply replace gravel and sand with similarly-sized particles of glass, with mixture ratios being about the same as usual, I think. I'll test Portland cement with various glass colors and mixtures and report back. It may take a month or so. I also recall seeing interesting data on cement/perlite mixtures (the "popcorn-like" air-filled rock pebbles common in commercial potting soil) that where much lighter and better insulators than regular concrete, just not as strong."

Whenever the results of that experiment are in I'll let 'yal know, and will pass Carey's note about glass aggregate (Glasscrete) along back to Robbie.

Does anyone know if it is part of this glasscrete wall technique to take an industrial polisher to the inside and outside surfaces after the pour is set? From working with industrial application dalle de verre stained glass panel walls I know that the more polished the surface of the glass on the outside of the wall where sunlight strikes, the more sunlight which enters and is passed inside via the glass. Likewise, the more polished the surface of the glass on the side of the wall facing into the room, the brighter the residual sunlight shining through. Seems like grinding and polishing the inside and outside surfaces of a glasscrete wall could significantly raise the luminosity of the glow coming through, if technically feasible and cost-effective.

-AlaskaSteven

[Rob Tucker]

As to polishing concrete:

Do not expect translucent concrete to be the cheaper method. Such finsihes take effort.
By experience I can pass this along.... Concrete takes on the form and texture of the forming material. I have used plexiglas to form concrete and the result was a mirror/glass finish. It might be effective to use something like plexiglas or glass to form all of, or areas of,a wall and achieve the polished finish you refer to.

As to the pearlite aggregate. Our Rastra product - an ICF building system, uses recycled polystyrene in the manner suggested. The recycled content is 86% (by volumne). Insulation is very high. Fire resistance is very high. Termite resistance is complete. No outgassing. No chemical treatment of the gorund required. What I like about the Rastra system, aside from the recycled content, is it allows an inexperienced builder to successfully do high value structural work.

[Carey]

THANK YOU Rob, Last summer I made a stepping stone from some extra concrete poured into a deli tray top & got a glass smooth finish. Have been trying to figure out how to get the same finish if we poured a small counter slab.... you have answered my pondering mind! What a great forum!

[Nate SC]

Maybe a thin sheet of plastic stapled to the concrete form would produce a decent finish too and it would act as the release agent.