Page 8 RAIN December 1979 A HARD LOOK CONTINUED SHELTER Bad information abounds in the owner-built housing field these days. This is the area I've invest.igated the most thoroughly, and where I've made some embarrassing •mistakes myself. . Domes: After helping to build 17 domes at Pacific High School in the '60s, publishing two dome-building books,2 •and corresponding with dome-builders all over the country, I finally concluded that domes were totally unsatisfactory shelters. Without going into detail here, domes have unique and specific drawbacks which mc1:ke them, in my opinion, less efficient and practical than conventional stud construction. I ended up writing rather extensively about why they don't work,3 and have tried to show what went wrong, even though a lot of people apparently don't want to hear about it. Shelter Publications still gets letters and phone calls every day, asking for Domebook 2, which has been out of print for five years. The Post & Beam or Mortise and Tenon House: Ther_e are many books and accounts that advocate t)lis type of construction over stud-frame, stating that it is " ... cheaper and quicker to build than conventional houses."4 Nonsense, as any experienced, practical builder can tell you. Post and beam was superseded over 100 years ago by the stud-frame method for good reasons: The new system was a lighter, more practical, cheaper way to build. I realized one aspect of this several years ago in the midst of building a post and beam house. After the building was framed and I was about to put my walls on, I began thinking: Here are these posts, 8 feet apart and I'll have to build a stud wall in between them to put my sheathing on. Why do I need these big posts? I could have just built stud walls in the first place, properly braced, instead of fooling around with heavy timbers. Of course, the posts and beams looked good. There are also problems of insulation with exposed ceilings: You need two layers of roof sheathing, or must settle for less efficient insulation than putting fiberglas between the rafters as in conventional construction. Underground Housing: This one I can't believe! To advocate that people actually build underground is risky enough, but to publish explicit plans and how-to-do-it drawings seems highly dangerous. One such book has sold 50,000 copies.5 As I found with Domebook 2, you can't depend upon people to follow instructions safely. Novice builders will add their own interpretations or cut corners, or quite often simply do not have the skills to build well. When you've got 15 .tons of wet earth on your roof, things become a lot m0re critical. It's also expensive to build a roof strong enough for such loads. And if you develop a small leak, you've got to remove all the earth to get to it. What do we know of the effects on people of living underground for years? Isn't it only done in countries where there are hardly any building materials and the climate is dry? How about earthquakes? How good an insulator is wet dirt? The "Flash" House Design: A sculpture, a n_ine-sided tower, a logarithmic-spiral shaped home, etc. Using an abstract idea for house design instead of tried and tested methods has caused much wastage of time and materials, and often bitter disappointment. Many a builder has learned his less\>ns the hci.rd way. Building a house will be t,he biggest thing you will ever attempt-in sheer physical size, money invested, hours spent, energy exerted. You can't afford for it to take forever, to get hurt while-building, or to end up with an expressive or artistic assemblage that promises nothing but continual discomfort, compromise and maintenance. The houseas-art makes grea:t color photographs, but you can't live in a photograph, and with something as large as a building, unlike a painting or ceramic piece, the mist:ake can't be thrown away. Used Wood: Especially close to my heart, since most of the materials I've used in 20 years of building have been recycled. I love the look of used wood and enjoy utilizing something that's not brand new. But ... roughsawn used wood on walls can give you splinters and collects dirt. Ceilings, even after careful washing, drop particles of dirt forever. Used wood takes far longer to work with, due to imperfections: Sawblades hitting the occasional nail must be sharpened, dry two-inch lumber can bend nails, powder post beetles and wood rot can infest your new building. Anyone who has worked with it knows these and other disadvantages. I· , " 'Where Have All the Domes Gone? From visionary panacea to widespread disappointment-that's where. Shelter Publications' early w,ork with geodesic-inspired - structures almost ten years ago helped popularize this radical departure from conventional building techniques and forms. These efforts culminated in the Domebook series of the early '70s. Yet, with time and the sharing of mutual experiences, the unique and specific drawbacks of domes became apparent, leading to the deliberate decision to cease publication of these books. The dome saga is an alternative technology classic from whkh we can all learn. For a copy of "Why We Stopped Printing Domebook 2," write to Shelter Publications, P.O. Box 279, Bolinas, CA 94924. ENERGY The magic words: solar heating, wind electricity, methane digesters, fish tanks... . Some useful information on solar heating, etc., has been developed in the past ten to fifteen years, but much of it is decades old and is being re-invented. (Miro-mit solar water heaters have been operating for over 3 o. ye<\.rS in Israel.) There have been new ideas that are useful, even inspiring. But in the field of devices for producing energy or heat, we need more objective analysis and full disclosure by inventors and promoters, and a more watchful eye on the part of the public. It could well do more harm than good for • people to believe and invest in devices purported to save fossil fuels _or conserve electrical energy, only to find that the devices fail to perform as expected, or there are hidden costs or high maintenance requirements. Caveat emptor! Active Solar Space Heating: Usually expensive and permanent, often-requires two heating systems. In many cases, building a small house, r_emodeling, landscaping, insulation, window alterations, weatherstripping, or wearing warmer clothes indoors could save more energy than installing new, expensive hardware. Solar space heating offers much promise for the future, but it is very difficult right now for builders or homeowners to know which of the many systems will provide economical and trouble-free service over a period of time.
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