The Oil Drum

105 comments on Open thread

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flankp on October 7, 2005 - 12:48pm

Not just concrete, with nothing on the inside of it. You'd have insulation between the concrete and whatever was the inside wall. Foam, fiberglass, or whatever and then your drywall or whatever was the inside wall.

I'd be a concret shell, but the inside wall on the living space would not be concrete.

That would not be more efficent than wood? And last a whole lot longer?

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ChrisPhoenix on October 7, 2005 - 2:03pm

Concrete doesn't always last well. I was just in Chicago, and saw quite a few highway overpasses with chunks literally falling off the bottom of the concrete girders.

By contrast, there are 200-year-old wood houses that are still in great shape.

As far as light bulbs: Most of the non-dimmed lights in my house are fluorescent. When dimmable fluorescents or LED's become available, I'll gladly switch to them. I have looked, and even with Google and Ebay, they're near-impossible to find; I'd have to buy a 12-pack for $150 or something like that.

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fum on October 7, 2005 - 8:42pm

Dimmable CFLs currently don't work that well based on the one I purchased. On top of that, they are $13 each.

Concrete in housing will last longer than concrete that is subjected to the stress of being part of the road system.

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markincalgary on October 9, 2005 - 2:34pm

My impression is that it wouldn't be more efficient than wood, but that's mostly because of the embodied energy of concrete (not to mention the drywall). If you were to forego the concrete and drywall, and just use a lime (ok) or earthen (ie. clay, hopefully from onsight) plasters, both inside and out, over a modern post-and-beam frame infilled with strawbales or cellulose, well then you've got something to talk about.

Some of the most environmentally fundamentalist straw-bale and natural home builders (ie. my friends) still use concrete but only for footings. Even then, they often use rubble (field stone, miscellaneous rock, recycled pieces of concrete) to minimize the amount of new concrete they use. But as a footing material, concrete is hard to beat.

Seriously, you really don't need a concrete slab for a home. A well done earth floor is beautiful, functional, has a low environmental impact, and inexpensive. You can even insulate an earth floor (underneath and on the sides) to use it for passive heat-storage or passive cooling, not to mention active heating.

And concrete isn't necessarily as long-lived as you might think. Like all building materials, improperly used, installed, or maintained, it's rather short-lived.