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The 1,000 year house

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4th crap
20K views 98 replies 17 participants last post by  wazez 
#1 ·
#89 · (Edited)
Tscar, Modular units would have saved even a slave based society money... But the Romans did incrediable things without them, but they didn't give the Western world techniques of bonding shapes they didn't use....

Put the 10" long tiles there, the 10.5 long tiles over there, the 1' long units across the via, and stack the 9.5" long units on the scaffold....

Sesmic and wind loads pretty much eliminate the use of lime based mortars on USA structures of any Public utility. I am over it, are you?

I use type 'S' lime every day... with type I portland.....I'm going to do some old school plastering, so I'll let you know how the hydraulic lime works.
FJN, Structural engineers have pretty much given up on having their footings all react equally, thus we're stuck with dealling with 1/2" or more of differential settlement on 'well' designed buildings =lots of CJs Get to the early meetings and particpate in the layout of the CJs...let the principles know every CJ adds to cost.
Use of matching color of caulk, or even two tones, one to match the units and one applied to match the mortar, can reduce the impact of the CJs.

I believe the local climate is just to unforgivening for 100 % lime mortars, I've underpinned/repaired dozens of failed rock foundations laid in lime cement. But it appears to statisfy those in warmer climes.

Wasn't the collaspe of a church steeple caused by the bell ringing monks/frairs peeing on the lime mortar for decades,finially leading to failure? I can pee on my walls without damaging them....
 
#90 ·
Type S lime is not hydraulic lime. Hydraulic in this application means that it will set under water.

As for modular, it doesn't matter what the size or size differences are if all you are using are wholes and halves as shown in the diagram I posted above.

If I remember correctly, Vitruvious discusses or at least mentions a cavity wall system, although he did not call it that.
 
#91 ·
Try a herringbone bond with non modular units, and height doesn't matter???? really? Ideal rowlock walls, impossible

Hasn't the failure of Builder's specials,(8 5/8") really? 3" bed "craapp" and other non-modular products of American Brick manufacturers to achieve market share taught us anything?

Imagine the story pole one would need... layout would take several times as long with random sizes. It'd be hard to keep 'on bond' when one corner has 40 courses and the opposite has 39.... oink, oink, a hog in the wall would be "normal".

Visualise a Jenga game with differing sizes of sticks, not much entertainment there, that is roman brick tech.

Imagine the delays if all lumber(masonry) rolled off the truck in random lengths as it did in the past....

We can and do do better than Romans not because we are better men, but because we stand on the shoulders' of thousands of great men that preceeded us. I detect just a wiff of ancester worship in your claims regarding the Romans. Any in depth study of the Romans has to figure why there was so little technical innovation over hundreds of years, basicly the craftsman/women were slaves and illiterate in general, and advances in tech weren't preserved or encouraged, ( no profit motive, patents...) only maintaining secrecy were practical means of capturing profits from innovation.
 
#92 ·
You are using your logic on Roman methods and materials. Don't do it, it just makes you look silly. They did it the way they did it for a reason, and it worked well for centuries and has lasted for even longer.

As for the rest of your knowledge of Roman Culture let's not digress away from materials and methods of construction.
 
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