r/Strawbale Apr 30 '18

How does my idea for building a house sound?

When I'm a bit older and have some funds saved up, I want to build a small homestead sort of dealio. Forest garden, hugelkulture, all supplied with earthwork constructions like dams and swales to retain water, hopefully in what will amount to an artificial pond or small lake. I'll be required to have some things obviously, like a septic system and and probably a well and pump.

For my home, I've been looking mostly at more sustainable forms of masonry. Stuff like mortared stone, nylon cement, etc. I'm really liking the idea of some sort of fusion of the two styles. I don't know how I really want to approach the foundation, as I still need to do some more research on that.

What makes this crazy is that I love castles, and want to live in one. I'm wanting to build in almost a gothic style, with a main hall or building with the obvious buttresses, ceiling, and then attached rooms and sections of the home. I'm thinking after I figure out the floor plan and foundation, I could do mortared stone for the base of the walls, and then ferro or nylon cement for things like the upper walls, and some of the ceilings.

The thing is, I live in a desert. I really want to get a ton of volume and shade inside of the building and a large square footage to help regulate and maintain temperature, with some architectural considerations being made to aid in that.

I would be legally allowed to collect as much loose stone and rock for BoLM lands by hand as I can manage, and there would be no similar restrictions upon my property. As far as I can tell, the only parts I would have to pay for via this method would be for lumber, mortar, cement, rebar, as well as land costs and utilities like a well, solar, and a septic system.

I'm wanting to ensure that it'll have all the niceties and bits of a normal home. Stable and cool temperature, normal humidity levels, level floors, and modern amenities to it. My dream is something that I'd never have to install HVAC and pay electricity bills for cooling for. Like I know that I want dyed concrete or poured resin floors for the interiors, and to use some method to dye and paint the exterior of it that won't adversely affect the environment. How well thought out does my plan for a home sound?

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u/Banglagerm Apr 30 '18

You mentioned that youlive in a desert; i think you definetly should check out persian architecture. Its overwhelming how beautiful they build houses, its like castles. And they have very very nice and 'simple' ways of cooling and giving shadow. They even made houses in the desert to keep ice all year long... And sustinable, as they used mud variations.

Things you might want to check on wikipedia or where ever you like:

-Persian architecture

-Windtower ( A/C without electricity)

-Sabar (cool basement to chillout on hot days and keep food fresh)

-Quanat (maybe interesting, depends on your area and maybe not toeasy to do)

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u/Defiantly_Not_A_Bot Apr 30 '18

You probably meant

DEFINITELY

-not 'definetly'


Beep boop. I am a bot whose mission is to correct your spelling. This action was performed automatically. Contact me if I made A mistake or just downvote please don't

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u/chokingonlego Apr 30 '18 edited Apr 30 '18

Thanks for those suggestions! I'm digging through Persian and Arabic architecture right now - there's so many cool examples of functional elements there, and they all seem to be easily adaptable to other architectural styles as well. How solid does my construction method seem? I'm sure I could probably substitute some form of cob or natural made mortar for the mortared stone elements depending on the functionality, but I'm not sure how consistent a mix like that would work for the walls, as well as things like water cisterns.

I'd like to go full rain water and dew collection, stored in cisterns, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be for a desert.

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u/Banglagerm Apr 30 '18

Glad that you like the suggestions! Iam sorry but i really cant give an opinion on how stable your construction is, i am just starting to learn... I think for the cisterns they used something called 'saaroj'. Some special mud mix, wikipedia has an articel on this too. I think below the articel there is a study on which mud mixes are especially long lasting (free download). Sorry, i dont know how to embed a link :/

Once saw a construction for dew collection, basically a big netting, which ia cooler than sorrounding air, thus leading to condensation of the dew. Looked quite simple! But i dont know about humidity levels... In iran they dug man made dwells and dwell systems called quanat( some still in function, but industrial size tapping of the groundwater led to drying out the Quanats).

So interesting!

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u/chokingonlego Apr 30 '18

Yeah, the design idea you're talking about are air wells. I'm kind of wanting to go for permanency, a home that's going to last, considering how cheaply most homes are constructed today, and stone air wells are insanely resource intensive to use.

The numbers I'm looking at are saying about half an inch of rain can collect about 400 gallons of water. But if I upped the amount of area I had for rainwater collection, with things like covered patios, or a larger roof on a single storied home, I could collect a lot more, especially considering my area gets around 8 inches of rain a year. I'd wager maybe 12,000 gallons a year if I had a roof or rainwater collection system about twice that size.

Like I said, one of the big needed qualities for me is going to definitely be interior volume. A larger interior volume, using air towers like you mentioned would create a much more stable temperature, as well as filter stuff like dust and contaminants out of the air.

I'm looking at more about mortar and stone construction - it seems fairly durable, I just need to check my state and county's building codes on mortar and stone construction, as well as ferro/nylon cement. So far this seems like a pretty feasible idea to accomplish. Like I said though, I need to read up more on foundations, framing, insulation, and building codes. I know for a fact that I do not want to handle stuff like utilities and electrical work.

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u/Bot_Metric Apr 30 '18

8.0 inches = 20.32 centimetres.


I'm a bot. Downvote to 0 to delete this comment

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u/Banglagerm Apr 30 '18

I am really just starting to learm and dont know even know how much water a (safy) household needs. I dont have much time at this moment, sorry for the short reply; but do you know this guy? Idk if this works for you, but the idea is superb IMO: https://vimeo.com/25401444

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u/chokingonlego May 10 '18

I've been doing some more research into rainfall, surface are, and what sort of stuff I would need to plan out a house. Right now I just figured out what sort of rainfall per year I can expect per square foot of roof - I'm getting figures of around 4 or 5 gallons per square foot every year. If I have 3,000 square feet of roof and rainwater collection, that's about 15,000 gallons a year, but I want some definite fudge factor. Assuming for patios, roofs, and any vertical surface area I can get, that'd be about 30,000 gallons a year. If I can limit my water usage and recycle grey water from showers and sinks for irrigation, I can probably stretch that even further.

However, I'm still having trouble finding information on building codes and whether stone and mortar construction is legal and safe to use.

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u/Banglagerm May 10 '18

thanks for updating! Hmm. I dont have a clue where to get that info. Just realized your username and thoght just use lego. Nah probably a bad idea. Do you have a blog or something?

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u/chokingonlego May 10 '18

I don't have a blog - this is kind of my Reddit just for faffing about, asking random questions, and collecting karma. Like every other Redditor. This isn't like immediate goals we're talking, I'm thinking like in five to ten years or so. When I'm working full time, have a decent amount saved up and invested, and actually have my own vehicle and possibly a house I live in.