Welcome

Welcome to CarnationConstruction.com, a site that describes in detail how I believe a house should be built such that it's super energy efficient and will last for more than 500 years.

 

 

(The picture above shows my current status on the evaluation building and clicking on it takes you to the current step.)

Exacting requirements

I'm an engineer by training, but I came relatively late to the world of house construction, triggered by the fact that I could not find a house to buy that met my exacting requirements.  I wanted a house that was built to last and that was low maintenance, so that meant a traditional stick built home was a non starter.  I also wanted a super green energy efficient house, because I wanted a house that was both non-toxic and very low cost to run.

Thinking from first principles

Rather than just accept conventional house building wisdom, I tried to rethink everything from first principals and from that figure out all the details of how to build the perfect house for the 21st century that will still be around in the 25th century.  This web site describes my adventure.  My journey starts at the planning phase of the project and the web site gets updated as my journey to the complete house unfolds.  You can if you wish use my journey as a step by step guide to building your own house for the 25th century.  Do note though that I accept no liability if your house falls down or incurs some other problem.  This site just has my personal opinion about how things should be done.

Concrete and polystyrene house

The house is built using ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) and the floors are also built using concrete poured into polystyrene forms.  In essence you build a house out of polystyrene lego-like blocks and then you fill up the centers of the blocks with re-enforced concrete.  Concrete is a wonderful building material invented by the Romans a couple of thousand years ago, and as proved by the fact that there are still Roman buildings standing in Europe, it lasts for a long long time.  Of course there have been lots of advances with concrete technology since Roman days, some for the better like corrosion-proof and polypropylene re-enforcement, and some for the worse such as steel rebar that corrodes, but the trick is to use the good technology and avoid the bad.  Anyway, concrete done right is really good long lasting stuff, and it has the added advantage of having a high thermal mass, so now you can build a house with both good insulation thanks to the polystyrene and the ability to naturally give you a nice comfortable temperature both day and night all year long.  Polystyrene is also of course something that lasts for ever.  What's more, a decent percentage of the polystyrene used is recycled polystyrene which saves filling up land fill sites with all that packaging material that tends to come with everything you buy these days.  My house even uses polystyrene under the foundations because it's high insulation factor means it can stop heat escaping to the ground.

House styling

Just because a house is built out of concrete and polystyrene does not mean that it will be unattractive to look at.  You can make it look exactly like a stick built house if you want, but I chose a look that I believe reflects the fact that the house is built to last for a very long time.  The look copies the style made popular by Thomas Jefferson that he primarily copied from the Greeks.  Hopefully that timeless style will still be popular in the 25th century.

Good for the planet

It is unfortunately true that it takes a lot of energy to make concrete, but the thing that offsets this is that concrete makes a house that lasts for a very long time.  A conservative estimate is that a concrete house will last 5 times as long as a wooden house.  It may take slightly less energy to build a wooden house but you will need to use that energy 5 times to cover the lifespan of a concrete house.  The lifetime of a house is often an overlooked factor in assessing building energy impact on the planet, but it is actually the most important factor.

 

 

Detailed step by step

Even at the planning phase, each step is mapped out in significant detail.  As I implement each step, I fill in the extra detail that I learnt through the actual implementation of that step.  If you want to be safe with your own house building project then it's probably best to keep a bit behind me in the various steps, but it should be noted that I have a full time software job, so I only get to work on the house building at weekends.  I'm doing most of the work myself, so you can probably build your house much faster than me.

Continuous learning process

Building a radically different house is a continuous learning process.  I do a lot of research and thinking before I decide to do something a particular way, but that does not mean that I will always be right.  There are lots of very knowledgeable folks out there that may be able to help in this project by pointing out errors in my thinking or judgment.  I very much welcome this input.  If you see something you disagree with on this web site please do send me a note ( dave@CarnationConstruction.com ) and I will make whatever changes are appropriate.  Through this process my house will be better thanks to your help, and those using this web site to guide them through their own house building projects will also be very grateful.

Note that I do not accept any liability if my advice causes something bad to happen.

Product choices

At each step I also describe the products that I am using.  These are my personal choices and my choices are based on my engineering judgment, not influenced by any financial incentive from the manufacturer.  In the future you may also see ads on the page, but these will be clearly identified as ads and their relevance is determined by the ad provider company (Google or Microsoft).

Web site sequential pages

The web site is organized as a sequential set of steps for building the house.  There are also separate sections that describe the various techniques from a top level perspective.

 

If you want to share the adventure, click on the link below to go to the first step...

Next:     000 - Techniques - House Design.html