Hi Mark,
I know you are asking about concrete footings but I was wondering if
you had thought about using tyres filled with earth/rubble?
a trench with a low tyre wall as footings, the tyres filled out with
earth (possibly with some lime mixed into the earth). With a wooden
sole plate/plank pinned down onto the footings for the wall to be
built on.
Have you thought about using lime concrete in place of cement
concrete? It has half the embodied energy of cement.
Just some ideas, all the best for your project
Paul
From: Mark Bigland-Pritchard <mark@lowenergydesign...>
Reply-To: European strawbale building discussions
<strawbale@amper....muni.cz>
To: "SB (Europe)" <Strawbale@amper....muni.cz>, "SB (repp)"
<STRAWBALE@LISTSERV...REPP.ORG>, "SB (yahoo)"
<SB-r-us@yahoogroups...>, "SB (bale-on)"
<bale-on@yahoogroups...>
Subject: [Strawbale] concrete footings
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 01:12:31 -0600
Hi folks.
I'm organising the building of a small (30 m2) sb structure this
spring, on an environmentally sensitive site. We need to minimise
the amount of concrete going into the ground (to minimise embodied
energy, to minimise local ecological impact through changed soil
chemistry, and to minimise transportation costs). So I've ruled out
a concrete pad. A rubble trench foundation is ruled out because
there is no suitable rubble locally. I'm therefore looking at some
sort of pile foundation. Treated timber below ground level wouldn't
meet the ecological criteria set by the site managers, and I don't
want to take the risk with untreated timber; my previous experience
of using boulders is that it's not the best way to do this because
the timbers on top of them have to be individually shaped to fit
(time-consuming, and not suitable for the mostly unskilled volunteer
labour which we will have). So I'm looking at using concrete piles,
probably arranged in something like a 2m grid, to support the building.
My question is this: does anyone have experience they are willing to
share of using proprietary systems for shaping the concrete such as
that at www.bigfootsystems.com ? (Bigfoot make a bell-shaped footing
out of recycled plastic, into which the concrete may be poured.)
My second, more tenative question is: can this sort of system be
used with rammed earth instead of concrete? (I don't think I have
the time to learn everything I'd need to know to do this this time
round, but it would be good to know what's possible for future work.)
atb,
Mark
Borden, SK, Canada
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Send all messages to:
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