Scott Perkins

quote :   order a 10ft culvert 10 ft long. The culvert bolts together so that would give me two 10 x 10 sections
allowing me to construct 10x20 ft Quonset hut, which is acceptable to build without a permit.
4 ft pony walls to give added head room.
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Are you building the pony walls with steel studs and steel flat panels or maybe concrete block etc ?    How will you give the walls rigidity to keep them from blowing over in a small wind ?     So the max height of the shed is going to be 9 feet.   There should be plenty of head clearance..

Since you say the culvert bolts together I assume it is metal.  My concern is rust as I have seen many smaller metal buildings and sheds totally rust away.   Can you tell me the significant parameters where you can determine if the metal is suitably galvanized and the thickness of the metal so that it will last a long long time as exposed to the elements.    How does culvert metal differ from the  normal or various quonset hut "corrugated" sections that are bolted together?   Is it recommended to put a coating of some sort like paint on the exposed culvert ?

Tiffaney Dex wrote:Hello,
I'd like to have it covered with a thin layer of lime cement. My husband says it won't work because it would have to be much thicker than what I would like. He says we'd need to use ciment with fiber glass in it, which would be quite horrible. I was wondering if we could use something like wool in it, to have something more ecological. Anyone know if that might work? If we manage to get a smooth layer on the floor, I would want to glue down cork tiles and put the forbo on top of the cork, to have something that's rather softer.

Can anyone please give me advice?

Nothing wrong with glass fibers in cement ... in fact the fibers work miracles.   When the cement is cured and hard the top surface can be sanded to be very smooth.  Many stores in the USA now use mostly cement floors that are polished smooth.   I think the floors last forever with the harshest traffic ever .....

For USA folks,  go to LOWES on line and look up  C V T  to see the tiles used in hospitals and Airports and Warehouses etc.

For that job and price I would buy a done-up road legal Samurai/Sidekick/Kei truck..
Or https://www.sealion.ca/manta-utv looks pretty great if funds were no issue..
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It is hard to follow the politics but the best technical solution that exists are the Japanese gasoline
4x4 KEI TRUCKS with electric start ..... You should rarely have to charge the battery as they have alternators to recharge the starter battery if driven  a bare minimum amount  regularly.   Currently the only ones that can be imported have to be 25 years old but that is to protect domestic mfgrs..... Trump says he is going to change that.  Leave the Samurai and Sidekicks alone.... they were great cars but now there is no mfgr support and you are stranded.  I have owned a Samurai since 1987 and it sits for 20 years in my basement needing transmission work.    Somehow I just think the KEI trucks would be easier to work on ..... wouldnt it be great if we could get KEI trucks new here in the USA with dealer support ?

Oddly enough, I have an old Snapper riding mower and the mowing apparatus wore out and we removed it and now it is just an electric start gas scooter  with low gearing and big tires  that could be knobbys that get good traction and that is pretty easy to get around in AND it has a trailer hitch for hauling carts and trailers of all sizes.   Riding mowers that dont mow are by far the cheapest haulers available if you keep your eyes open or leave a message at lawn mower repair shops etc.

I stumbled across this photo years ago and tucked it aside but upon seeing it again , it game me new ideas.
The worst thing about the pictured dome is that all the cups face to the outside.  That is bad so I thought about flipping everything around  and you get a beautifully smooth surface to work with that does not trap water.
The Beauty of the "cupped inwards approach"  is that we can build a dome with any flat material that can be folded or bent etc.   The cardboard photo is kind of goofy but what if it was space age composite or plastic etc or even sheet metal  of many varieties.   The geometric shapes will be easy to connect to their adjacent components  and the components will all be easily stackable  and inside each other if the folded edges are moveable. There might be a good bit of waste in making the geometric shapes but if we pick a material like metal then we can recycle the waste cutoff material.   So imagine making all those cardboard cutout components that are then creased and the flaps are bent over.  The cardboard model shown has large flaps but in any kind of stout material the flaps might only need to be an inch or inch and a half.  IF metal is used then we could use nuts and bolts to assemble.  Other materials could be using staples or glue  or some other kind of clamp.    So take a good look at the cardboard dome but reverse the dome pieces so the flaps face the inner side.  The flaps would have to be trimmed a little differently but that is a minor concern.  
PS.  How is it that we have no DOME category ? ?

I like to refer back to the bathroom shower builders who build shower floors out of cement and then add tile and also  build and add tile to the walls of the showers.  Of course we want those structures to last and not degrade due to water.   So the Tile installers and Shower Floor builders use  an Acryllic Admixture in their mortar and cement used to build the shower floor and when gluing the tiles to the floor and wall.   So why dont we build bridges and skyscrapers the same way....   basically they are making the concrete more waterproof and maybe stronger as well.   Well guess what,  Todays exterior paint is acryllic and I found some guys mixing cheap mis tinted store bought paint and mixed it with portland cement and sand  to make water proof concrete and also when thinned enough to be used as a water proof coating/covering much like a coating on roof shingles to extend the lives of shingles and protect the shingles
I am just now finding out ( I started another thread recently here )  about clay being used in concrete to make it last much longer as was the case with the Amish and when they built the Hoover Dam etc.

There are now many dozens of  ADMIXTURES  featuring many substances that make the concrete stronger,  impermeable so as to prevent the rusting of rebar reinforcement and concrete used for water tanks etc.    This new info needs to be woven into the science we already know about the many forms of concrete.  Expecially bridge construction is looking hard at the new sciences to increase the life span of bridges and skyscrapers etc.

For a few years I have been collecting data about fibers in cement, various admixtures  and how the Romans created such long lasting concrete.   Here is some info about how the Hoover dam was constructed and for old Amish  builders etc.    Check this out and  try to incorporate with all the other new info.

Go to the places that sell fish in aquariums and ask  them to keep the duck weed that they scoop out of their aquariums and sell to you .... duck weed is rapidly growing and cleans the water like many other plants but it is uniquely nutritious for ducks ( and humans as proven in china ) if you can develop an ecosystem that has plants to clean the water of duck waste and also serves as food source..... that is the goal.   Also water lillies etc.  When at the fish store also inquire about minnows that do not grow large but multiply rapidly.... they also clean the plants which put oxygen into the water.

The key to affordability is HIGH DENSITY .    This is proven for us in very hi density population countries.

I'd say the Holiday Inn or any of other dozens of hotels offering rooms with sm kitchens and bathrooms etc.
to provide some templates.   I have heard of hotels being converted into privately owned condominiums

A good idea would be a  look at Korea and Japan  at the multi story sky scrapers with smallish apartments for families to live in.    This is also the same way we solve the problem with growing numbers of homeless people.