DRY STACK CONCRETE BLOCK
WALLS STURDY AND WINDPROOF

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.

Although dry stack is designed to level the first
course and last course of block, Ron 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. Several of the walls at this point were free standing and we were afraid they were not that stable until the sill around the top block had been reinforced to keep the free standing walls in line with one another. The larger gaps like the slider door and the door that eventually would lead to the greenhouse were of major concern.

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.

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 communicating 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. That way he just added blocks as the walls were raised.

The metal staging that we had would have to moved to many times to be useful for a one man job. The ground was so unlevel that staging would have been very dangerous.

We had to leave the west side of the house open for the plumbing to be installed. The foundation also had not been poured and it needed to be leveled after the plumber was finished.

So Ron built up the other three sides and the corners of the house. The west side of the house is where the septic and leach field were done.

Update April 2010 In hind sight the leach field should have gone on the east side of the house. That way we could have planted trees to shade the west side from the hot summer sun.


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