What material do you choose for walls off grid in
the desert? We looked at dry stack concrete block,
straw bale, adobe, rammed earth, SIPs, CFMs
and stick built to name a few.
Our concerns with straw bale and adobe were
moisture during monsoon season and
labor intentive to construct the walls.
Our land was pretty much flat so rammed
earth would have been out of
the question for us.
SIPs and CFMs seemed to want a contractor
not an owner/builder to contact
them. Stick built we were concerned
about termites, nesting pack rats and
other critters in the desert making
claim to the space in the walls.
We chose dry stack concrete block because
one person (Ron) was building the house.
Although concrete block weighs approximately
27 lbs each, it seemed to be manageable.
Dimensions had to be converted to the
size and number of blocks to be used instead of
feet. In order to communicate this to Ron,
I made up a
dry stack concrete block spreadsheet
with the block placement
for each side of the house.
It worked well. This was used as the blueprints.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Ron laid the concrete block dry stack. Mortar
is to be used to level the first course.
We found that the blocks were so irregular
that this did not help.
He put spacers of nails to level out the courses. Every four feet is concrete reinforced rebar up to the top course of concrete block. Ron cut off the nails sticking out with our reciprocating saw.
Ron laid the blocks on
their sides for spacers
for the doors and
windows. This way he
did not lose the block
count and kept the
walls plumb.
The first 5 courses of our off grid dry stack concrete block were the easiest to lay due to their height. They went up in a couple of days. Ron was inspired.
Building off grid was proving to be a challenge. It took
innovative thinking and communicatiing to each other our ideas.
Many times we were not very effective. It did prove to be difficult. We resorted to pictures alot. Neither of us can draw. It was primitive stick drawings.
In the end, some things came out as invisioned
and some did not. We worked with those that did not.
Ron built staging out of concrete block and 2 X 8's in an effort
to minimize climbing up and down ladders for mix and block. The
staging that we had would have to moved to many times to be useful.
We had to leave the west side of the house open for the plumber
and the leveling and foundation to be poured.
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Go to Surface Bonding Cement from Dry stack
