Documenting a personal quest for non-toxic housing.
Thursday, August 19, 2004Project Update
Finally, a price list. I was at last able to get pricing on the H40V theatrical truss components from one of Prolyte's US distributors. However, there is still no practical solution to the mixing of ladder truss and box truss components for a box frame structure. Having custom welded connectors on these already pricey components is simple not on. But after some pondering I've come to realize that there is another structural approach to the use of these components; a 'bay frame' system.
Some large clear-span structures such as aircraft hangars use flat truss members for both wall and roof support. This is done by creating a series of parallel frames spanning the sides and top of the building, sort of like the spars in the hull of a boat or the wing of a plane, that surrounds a clear span space or 'bay'. Perpendicular cross-supports and sometimes diagonal tension cables are used to stabilize these frames but when metal roof and wall panels are installed the system collectively functions as a 'stressed skin' or 'monocoque' structure. This approach leaves the two ends of the 'bay' completely open so they can accommodate those large doors such structures are noted for.
Using just the H40V box frame and box corner components alone a similar kind of structure can be made, each bay frame consisting of one 5m truss, two 2-3m sides, and two box corners. To include a floor deck one would add box corners and another 5m truss at the bottom to form a complete rectangle. A series of these frames are then joined together at the corners by short 1m box truss units and thus the bay is extended for as 'deep' as one requires. If a floor deck is used one must add further 1m truss units to the bottom of several corners for foundation supports. On a concrete slab the frames just plug into sockets set in the concrete floor. Bays are added side-to-side by adding more bay frames to the sides of the existing ones at their corners, sharing the intervening vertical members. The 1m spacing is close enough to support the heavier grade of structural metal panel roofing or catwalk grating/aluminum deck for flooring while leaving plenty of room for portals/doorways between each bay. Adding bays side to side is actually more efficient then just extending the 'depth' of one bay since it uses fewer parts, sharing vertical members.
With this approach a simple home might be built as a series of side-by-side boxes, each with two wide openings at the bay ends for windows and doors and a skin of metal roofing panel. A 'microhouse' might be built with one 10m long bay.
But this strategy has a much larger number of these more expensive components -especially the box corners. According to the newly obtained price list the box corners will cost about $800 each, 5m trusses almost $1000 each, 2.5m trusses about $600, 1m trusses $400. A roughly 5m square (about 256sf) structure finished will probably be in the area of $20,000. That's just one modest room. At a cost-per-square-foot guestimate, this is probably about $100 per square foot on slab foundation, well over that using a floor deck with pier foundation.
Though cheaper than other currently available modular component products and suited to incremental stockpiling, this is expensive. My income might cover one part a month. At that rate I'd wait a good decade to save up enough parts for a small home -and I just hope the company is still making them by the time I've saved enough. And there's still the issue of experimentation to deal with, and its attendant waste due to trial-and-error testing. But I can't help thinking there's some possibility here. This is something I could build by myself, even if affording it would take more time than I have. A very small test structure could be realized with the income over about a year. But unless that could win further support, it would probably be an exercise in futility. Though I've seen a great deal of welcome feedback to this project site, I've seen no actual interest in supporting any of the building approaches I've described. Is a bet on lottery-ticket odds better than no bet at all? I feel like the street person struggling over the best way to spend his last dollar. Does it matter?
In other news, a colleague has recently pointed out an interesting approach to obtaining affordable land in low pollution areas; unpatented mining claims. There's a company selling mining claims in the California 'gold country' with some excellent placer mining parcels on offer. These are proven gold-bearing river claims but, of course, all that I'm concerned with is that fact that they provide generous acreage in pollution-free areas at a very low price. I'd only be interested in panning for gold as a bit of low-impact exercise and source of pocket money -which is all you can realistically expect from that anyway. You don't 'own' such land in the conventional sense. You just own the right to its use and mineral content and the right to be compensated should the government decide they want it for something else. But, contrary to popular belief, that's better than the property terms you actually get in a lot of East Coast housing developments.
The only real problem I so far see is that you are limited to building things that are ostensibly related to the business of mining, which might limit some of my options for home-based work activities. (do I tell the BLM the hydroponics vegetable garden is a phytomining lab?) And you can't use trailers for housing because they don't meet the Universal Building Code -which may be why so few people take this approach. This is rough country where normal construction is sometimes difficult and most people's notion of housing doesn't get more sophisticated than the suburban tract home.
But I know very little about this region of the country, its climate, its available services, or possible hazards. This idea needs more research and I will need to find people who can tell me more about the region, can go and examine these claim sites for sale, and clue me in to any catches I've overlooked. If there are any readers familiar with the California 'gold country' region around Klamath National Park I would like to hear from them.
