What's new

Concrete House questions

My house is cast in place concrete. I use the Thermomass system. They are out of Iowa. 8" structural concrete, 2" of ridged foam, 4" exterior concrete for a 14" thick wall. Top plate was a 12x6 treated lumber anchorded into the top of the wall like you would a sill plate. My floor system is 4"x6" treated lumber attached to 3"x3" x3/8" angle iron that is attached to the concrete walls with Titan bolts. I have conventional wood trusses with standing seam metal roof. My windows are all thermally broke aluminum. Interior walls are bare concrete and the exterior is stained. 450 yards in the house with about 40 tons of rebar. I do have a 16' retaining wall that runs the back of my house that ate up a lot of concrete and rebar. solid 14" thick with double mats of #7 and #5 bars at 10" with a footing that is 8.5' wide and 18" thick with double mats or #5.
 

Attachments

  • EBD08515-15F6-4F72-AD83-F52BB789149D.jpeg
    EBD08515-15F6-4F72-AD83-F52BB789149D.jpeg
    755.6 KB · Views: 35
Some more shots. We are in a high fire zone as well as earthquake and get hurrican winds. Elevation is right at 6000'. We get snow but temps rarely get to 15 degrees. Home is nice an quiet and cost about $30 per month to heat in the winter. We only use the A/C in the summer when there is smoke from Californa fires. The thermomass works great and we have nice even temps in the home and the furnace hardly runs. I kinda wish I would have done concrete floors to make it even more quiet from the shop noise I make sometimes as the bottom floor has a 2 car garage and a 2 bay shop. For the upper living spaces I used fiberglass form ties to keep the walls totally thermo broke so no heat transfer thru the walls. One thing with the walls is that the insulation value is about a R-10 and to meet the current building code energy requirements I had to install R-54 in the ceilings.
 

Attachments

  • 0F6F6DB2-C260-4F08-9DA2-3722B6BE45CF.jpeg
    0F6F6DB2-C260-4F08-9DA2-3722B6BE45CF.jpeg
    700 KB · Views: 34
  • E73FD9E5-1F9D-4DEA-BD7D-BE2BFB36C820.jpeg
    E73FD9E5-1F9D-4DEA-BD7D-BE2BFB36C820.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 32
  • 25C50A60-A870-42CF-A06F-F7CB81ABD16E.jpeg
    25C50A60-A870-42CF-A06F-F7CB81ABD16E.jpeg
    1.6 MB · Views: 31
  • 96724907-D930-47E8-BF9D-01C65CEAA87D.jpeg
    96724907-D930-47E8-BF9D-01C65CEAA87D.jpeg
    1.8 MB · Views: 32
  • 33AC774A-679A-478C-BF6A-65A7D17A9145.jpeg
    33AC774A-679A-478C-BF6A-65A7D17A9145.jpeg
    959.4 KB · Views: 33
Last edited:
Some more shots. We are in a high fire zone as well as earthquake and get hurrican winds. Elevation is right at 6000'. We get snow but temps rarely get to 15 degrees. Home is nice an quiet and cost about $30 per month to heat in the winter. We only use the A/C in the summer when there is smoke from Californa fires. The thermomass works great and we have nice even temps in the home and the furnace hardly runs. I kinda wish I would have done concrete floors to make it even more quiet from the shop noise I make sometimes as the bottom floor has a 2 car garage and a 2 bay shop. For the upper living spaces I used fiberglass form ties to keep the walls totally thermo broke so no heat transfer thru the walls. One thing with the walls is that the insulation value is about a R-10 and to meet the current building code energy requirements I had to install R-54 in the ceilings.
awesome, thank you for sharing!
 
fuckin' A bud, answered my question about the thermal bridging from form ties before I could even ask it

7/8" rebar in a retaining wall? jesus you're a lot more serious than I am lol
 
The retaining wall is 16' tall and on the side of a mountain in an earthquake zone. Its what the engineers came up with. Vertical double mat of #7 and #5 10" oc with #4 horizontals at 12" cc. There is around 80' of that wall along the back of my house. I did about 80% of the build by myself and it came in at $450K for materials. I hired out the HVAC, some plumbing, and the drywall. I hate doing drywall. I got the forms from a local concrete contractor that ran out of work. He gave me a 14 person crew and I just had to pay their labor which most was min wage. He was glad to keep them working.
 
The retaining wall is 16' tall and on the side of a mountain in an earthquake zone. Its what the engineers came up with. Vertical double mat of #7 and #5 10" oc with #4 horizontals at 12" cc. There is around 80' of that wall along the back of my house. I did about 80% of the build by myself and it came in at $450K for materials. I hired out the HVAC, some plumbing, and the drywall. I hate doing drywall. I got the forms from a local concrete contractor that ran out of work. He gave me a 14 person crew and I just had to pay their labor which most was min wage. He was glad to keep them working.
that's amazing :eek:

for the house, what is roughly your largest open span internally?
 
The shop at 36'x28'

awesome, i'd really like to have the shell be 100% of the stucture and load and keep everything interior just floating, basically. that is a good enough span to give me hope :laughing:

although i'm trying to do half the house, hopefully, compared to what you've got :laughing:
 
awesome, i'd really like to have the shell be 100% of the stucture and load and keep everything interior just floating, basically. that is a good enough span to give me hope :laughing:

although i'm trying to do half the house, hopefully, compared to what you've got :laughing:
I've got a 30x50 clear span downstairs, and the entire house above is supported on the outside walls.

Here's a little pic dump.

20151020_172149.jpg

Framing before all the vertical supports went in. There were double 2x6 posts every 2' when done. Could barely walk through the bracing.
20151029_090712.jpg

Two mats rebar, mesh, and pex for heat.

20151212_154754.jpg

Forms pulled.
20160301_160950.jpg

House overall. Back wall is 16" because it's also a retaining wall, the rest are 12". Suspended slab is 8" ground floor is 6". 450ish yards and something like 30t rebar. The new addition in front of the garage door two years ago brought it up to 600yds total at the site.
 
I've got a 30x50 clear span downstairs, and the entire house above is supported on the outside walls.

Here's a little pic dump.

20151020_172149.jpg

Framing before all the vertical supports went in. There were double 2x6 posts every 2' when done. Could barely walk through the bracing.
20151029_090712.jpg

Two mats rebar, mesh, and pex for heat.

20151212_154754.jpg

Forms pulled.
20160301_160950.jpg

House overall. Back wall is 16" because it's also a retaining wall, the rest are 12". Suspended slab is 8" ground floor is 6". 450ish yards and something like 30t rebar. The new addition in front of the garage door two years ago brought it up to 600yds total at the site.

Thank you for the pictures and info :smokin: looks like what i want is going to be do-able.
 
20 years ago I photographed a really cool concrete house in Phoenix Arizona. It was probably more on the artsy-farts side of house designs, but honestly it was really neat. I'd love to have a concrete house. They polished the floors, which gave a neat look. If I remember correctly, it was almost entirely made of concrete.
 
Top Back Refresh