The $300.00 house contest

wroughtn_harv · May 21, 2011

jovoto / empowering creatives / ideas

If you are in to neat ideas and off the wall solutions to the world's problems then you might find this site interesting.

While you are there take a look at my entry "recycled plastic block houses" and rate it for me. Follow your conscience, good sense too.

Some of you might recall me posting something about this last November. Well, in the last six months we've built the machines to make the blocks, we've built a model house for SMU, we've hauled that house to OU for structural testing and am waiting for them to get roundtuit.

We are talking with some major charities about the idea. The wonderful thing about that is they all seem to be on the same page. The objective is to go where it is needed and create independents. I know, when we think of charity we sometimes think we are creating dependents. Not here.

The way we see it working is we go in and create a cottage industry that makes and maintains the machines with local materials. We also create the plastic block house industry, jobs for people picking up the plastic, jobs building the blocks with the machines, jobs for those building the houses, etc and so on.

Take a look and see if you are the curious sort.

A note for those who really really like not spending money on heating and air conditioning. The blocks we made for the SMU project used styrofoam and walmart bags. The estimate on the R value of the block wall is in the forties. A little advanced thought into the coverings of this wall and we could be in the R value in the sixties, is that cool/warm or what?

piller · May 21, 2011

I took a look at the link, interesting work. I like the natural earthen plaster, perhaps you could say more about this. It looks like you are using a fair amount of rebar and metal wire and plastic in construction of the building. I think I would prefer to build with all natural local materials which for me would be stone, wood, dirt, straw, and natural fibers.

groundcover · May 21, 2011

What a great idea !:thumbsup: Are the blocks only used for the walls ,how is the roof done ?

wroughtn_harv · May 22, 2011

groundcover said:
What a great idea !:thumbsup: Are the blocks only used for the walls ,how is the roof done ?

What makes the whole thing work so well is the post tensioning of the walls. A critical part of this is the pulling down of the top plate to the foundation. At SMU we used two bys for the top plate. But in the real world anything can be used. For instance bamboo could be used and the roof framing could be bamboo with frond roofing. Or metal channels and metal roofing.

What we see as our objective is to get people to consider the plastic trash that is everywhere can be a good building product.

People see the plastic block/bales and assume a weak wall. One of the pleasures we received at SMU was having the visitor push on the walls. They are unbelievably solid.

wroughtn_harv · May 22, 2011

piller said:
I took a look at the link, interesting work. I like the natural earthen plaster, perhaps you could say more about this. It looks like you are using a fair amount of rebar and metal wire and plastic in construction of the building. I think I would prefer to build with all natural local materials which for me would be stone, wood, dirt, straw, and natural fibers.

This wasn't designed with you in mind. This was designed for the developing nations. We aren't there yet.

groundcover · May 22, 2011

We are not there yet but it seems we are getting closer everyday.

forgeblast · May 23, 2011

Harv, in some of the pictures areas were left unplastered. Does this let the light in like a window?
Amazing what plastic bottles and plaster can do, it really looks good. I think most people are missing the point on some of the comments on the other site that I read. The house will provide shelter for those who cannot afford shelter and are living in conditions that we cannot comprehend. Just wanted to say you've done one heck of a job.

wroughtn_harv · May 23, 2011

forgeblast said:
Harv, in some of the pictures areas were left unplastered. Does this let the light in like a window?
Amazing what plastic bottles and plaster can do, it really looks good. I think most people are missing the point on some of the comments on the other site that I read. The house will provide shelter for those who cannot afford shelter and are living in conditions that we cannot comprehend. Just wanted to say you've done one heck of a job.

That is a "truth window". It's exposing the construction details so that visitors can see how it was made. You see smaller versions of it in some straw bale houses. What happened was Stephanie Hunt of the Hunt Institute that put on the Hunt Institute Engineering and Humanity week wanted me to leave the interior unfinished so people could see the house was made with plastic trash. My grandsons stayed in the house eandhweek and I wasn't going to leave them exposed to the hazard of a fire. So I plastered the inside for safety reasons and put a truth window outside for the visitors.

The young lady made a block and was down right proud of it, took it home with her too.

wroughtn_harv · May 23, 2011

If you get a chance to look at the other entries I would like you to consider how they would done under the conditions we've exposed our house to.

We winched it onto a dovetail trailer. Tied it down by the its foundation. Hauled it from Dallas to OKC at speeds up to seventy miles per hour. When we got to the University of Oklahoma we tied it to a tree and drove out from under it.

It's at OU for structural and environmental testing.....LOL

A couple of points to keep in mind.

1. The building was only secured its foundation. There were no straps over the building to keep it on the trailer. You could call this a redneck seventy mph wind load test over rough roads.

2. The plaster is an earthen plaster, three coats over most of it. It didn't stick real well to the plastic when it was shook like an old fashioned martini at speed.

3. The building was still intact and just as strong before and after its journey. I removed the roof sheets because I was already an inch or two over legal width. I put it back on when we got to OU. That was all we did. The mud plaster has nothing to do with the structural integrity of the building.

dave1949 · May 23, 2011

That's very inventive Harv. I am thinking of video shots we see on TV of people who spend their lives picking over, living off, the local dump. The plastic is no doubt free for the gathering.

With a little micro-lending, I could see someone making a business out of the block pressing machine. People could haul in a couple sacks of plastic and leave with some blocks. They could pay for their blocks with extra plastic.

We aren't used to thinking small scale here. When I was in Iran with the Peace Corps, my landlord made his living from rent, and he had 5 donkeys. We lived in one of the wider dirt alleys, small dump trucks would dump a load of dirt or mud wall lime in the alley in front of his house. He would shovel it into sacks on the donkeys and deliver it to places around town no truck could get to.
Dave.