| | Forming Details(Make sure you get to the bottom; that's where results of the first experiments became a really great forming system for most anything!) |  | | Remember these little pics are thumbnails - click if you want a larger view you can SEE! This one shows the construction section and forming methods used for the Outhouse. These walls were 4" concrete bonded to 2" of styrofoam. | 
| | Left off the above drawing is the "slip collars" - cut from 1/2" OSB and placed over the forms at about 2' centers to hold the forms together while pouring. An extra 1x10 was used as a stiffener outside the styrofoam. Putting things together was rather a pain, but we did manage to get it poured in just a few days, one lift at a time. I'll mention that we liked the earthy color of the soil-cement in this pour. A sealer was used, but it was left unpainted inside for several years. The exterior foam was covered with 1 thin coat of stucco and then textured elastomeric. |  | Problems with this system:
- Splitting, warping/cupping, edge wear
- Difficulties setting and aligning the forms due to having a concrete ledge on only one side
- Having to stucco and elastomeric-paint the exterior in order to stiffen the exterior and protect the styrofoam. In thicker walls, the styrofoam would be about 2" in from the exterior surface, with concrete poured inside and out.
- A bonehead move on my part - not leaving off the lower 1x2 for the first course - I felt it necessary later to fill in that groove because it was always full of dust and dirt!
- and more bonehead stuff - - - setting the lightweight aluminum doorframe into the concrete. It's bracing was always in the way while trying get in and out of the structure. Worse, there was some movement, and now it's impossible to adjust for that perfect fit. Luckily, it works nonetheless!
|
| | The Pumphouse was next. After the Outhouse experience, I decided to use lightweight steel for any further forming. It's more stable, has nice tight rounded corners which allow the concrete to nestle in better, is more durable and easier to clean . For this building, the forms were bent from 5 1-2" x 20 gauge steel track, then screwed together so that I could pour about a foot with each lift. The grooves were less deep this time. I used sleeved bolts to hold the forms - tedious but firm. |  | | Later the same forms were used for the cooling tower, but I used slip-collars (shown here) with happier results. I expect that most people would prefer their house-walls not have the horizontal grooves - we're coming to that! | | Next stop is a page devoted to the house forming system. It should work for most structures. This is far the best system, don't worry about those above! |  |
|
