Want to show you my house

Hello all, I've been looking at and conversing over on the energy pages for some time but thought I'd share some pics of my house project. I don't really know if this is the correct sub-forum but I guess it is the closest being that the wall of windows you see in the first pic is South facing, and the overhang shades the windows completely in the summer so there is no direct sunlight inside during the hot weather months. It is poured in place, light weight, concrete throughout, (though some of my interior walls will soon be steel stud framing). Even the roof is poured in place. The key design concept is 'thermal mass'; there are 14 columns for a combined 31 tons of mass, the outer walls are 12" thick, and the radiant floors are 10" thick . Although you see wood floor joists, they were only there as forms at first, now they are raceways for wiring and plumbing but are no longer structural. The window frames are 3"x2" galvanized box tubing and are glazed with 1/4" polycarbonate.

Anyway, here are a couple of images to get the conversation started. Just so you can get an idea of the scale, the wife and I are both around 6' tall. I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Good lookin house man!

I love seeing real examples of different ideas. What is the roof construction? I can't figure that out.

Really interesting with the poly windows.

Tj Jefferson wrote:I love seeing real examples of different ideas. What is the roof construction? I can't figure that out.

The roof is reinforced, poured in place concrete. The shape is called "hyperbolic paraboloid", meaning that it curves in two opposite directions at the same time. Think of the roofs of the conestoga wagons; it is an arch across the wagon but an inverted arch going the long way through the wagon. In this way the two forces cancel each other out and the roof is self supporting with just the four corner columns holding it up. If you draw a line from the corner to the apex of my roof it is very slightly an arch, going from ridge line to ridge line it is an inverted arch. At the connection with the column the roof is approx 20" thick, then it tapers to just four inches thick at the apex.

Awesome looking house!  Those windows look great!

Holy Cow!  Not nearly enough information on your cool build!  I have too many questions to fit into one post!  But this looks awesome, exciting, inventive, scary, and fun.

I'll stick with one question - (literally) How did you do that roof?  Designed and made a form out of plywood that you suspended and then poured?  How thick?  How much rebar etc.  Living roof on top of it eventually?

Thank you for sharing so far.

Chris Knite wrote:

I'll stick with one question - (literally) How did you do that roof?  Designed and made a form out of plywood that you suspended and then poured?  How thick?  How much rebar etc.  Living roof on top of it eventually?

Thank you for sharing so far.

The roof was first fitted with its rebar skeleton on 6" centers. The apex ridge line rebar of #8 was supported by a 30' tall maple log and the rest was woven like a spider's web starting at the bottom using #4. Then starting at the corners a layer of plastic was fitted to the proper gap top and bottom to the rebar using galvanized wire. After that a frame of galvanized welded horse fence was wired in place to support the plastic under the pressure of the wet cement. Light weight concrete made of portland cement and vermiculite was mixed in a 9 cu ft mixer on the second floor and then pumped via home made concrete pump into the cavity between the sheets of plastic. Most times it would be about 3'x16' sections and after curing for 4 or 5 days the 'form' would be striped and moved to the next location. The thicknesses were described in my second post above.

No plan for a living roof as it is in some places more than a 12-12 pitch, which can better be seen from this pic of the North side of the house.

It's really beautiful house. I like it. Looking cool to live inside.  This type of windows I like the most. Thumbs up buddy form my side.

Very cool looking! A lot bigger than what we are thinking, but love the windows and overhangs! We are actually planning to downsize from our 1600SF main floor and 1100SF basement, but with time building extensively outside/covered decking/sunroom/attached greenhouse. (and staying in MO) Hope to see more on your place though, as time goes by.

Thank you for your detailed descriptionof the roof construction.
Can you elaborate on the floor joists as forms/raceways?

William Bronson wrote: Thank you for your detailed descriptionof the roof construction.
Can you elaborate on the floor joists as forms/raceways?

Hi William. A normal wood joist floor is designed to withstand a 70 pound per square foot load. In my case with a 14 foot span that required 2x12 joists on 16" centers. On top of that I put down 1/4" plywood. The top of the joists however, were set down 5" below the finished floor height so that when I poured the floor it would come up to the proper elevation and the plywood acted as the bottom of the form for the concrete. There is a rubber roofing material on top of the plywood as well. The red tubing is pex for the radiant floors. I would form up an area approximately the size of two batches of lightweight concrete using 2x4s above the rebar and motorcycle inner tubes below the rebar. The in-floor electrical box can be seen in the pic below and the wiring is run through the joists exactly as it would be in a normal floor ( but now the cavity between the joists are really just raceways for utilities). The joists now don't support anything because the concrete floor is rated to withstand 250 pounds per square foot. The wood floor was strong enough to support the concrete floor while wet because my concrete for the floors is only about 60 pounds per cubic foot and being less than half a foot thick it didn't over load the wooden structure.