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Home, Home on the Range
Homebuilding 2 |
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Kevin Peterson (Peterson Construction of Bonham, Texas), photo at right, takes a breather while siting the piers. In the following photos the pier holes are dug down into the rock layer below the black dirt and, the next thing you know, a very large concrete truck rolls in.
The steel and concrete piers that will hold the slab in place dry for a few days before plumbing and foundation steel is rigged. Then, here come the concrete trucks again! Lots of 'em this time. But before you know it we have a shiny new slab. In the photo at right, Rod Peterson (in yellow shirt) inspects their work. It's summer in Texas. The crew sets up a sprinkler that keeps the newly poured foundation's surface wet for the next several days. This prevents the outside from drying too fast and then flaking off in a few years. Now its early August. I can tell because that's me in the background on the first of three straight days of summer mowing. The stacks of white hollow blocks on the foundation are expanded polystyrene and galvanized steel. These are stacked like Legos into the shape of a house. Vinyl door and window "frames" are braced with special steel panels.
The standing walls are reinforced from the outside with steel and lumber braces and by the interior framing. Then the poly block walls are reinforced inside with steel and filled with concrete. Solid sums it up, You feel like you're in the Alamo. "PolySteel walls have been independently tested to withstand flying debris driven by a 250 mph wind." Also, no wood to feed black mold or termites, and our utility costs should run about a quarter that of a well-insulated, comparably-sized home.
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