How To Build A Stone House Book
I ended up lending the book to a friend of mine a carpenter and though he almost always works with wood he is now contemplating some stone construction.
How to build a stone house book. To build a vault you have to shape the stones so that they support each other at an angle. Their weight and the weight of the outer walls will hold them in place. Building with stone is an introduction to the art and craft of creating stone structures and projects by a man who has made stonework his vocation. It is cooled and powdered and gypsum is added to control how fast it sets up.
In 11 chapters and an epilog long details the basics of building with field stone taking each step in the rough chronology of. The ingredients are ground mixed in the right porportions and burnt in a kiln at a temperature of about 2500 degrees f 1350 c to drive out water bound up in the raw materials. Desert sun this volume is a fine if concise introduction to the joys and problems of constructing living spaces with stone. Build your own stone house features straightforward and complete instructions on a variety of topics including the materials stone sand cement and others how and where to site your stone house excavating the site estimating the materials needed and figuring the ground load setting up using and removing the forms pouring piers footings and basement walls building the stone walls corners and door and window openings.
Most of the materials can be sourced for free and every finished piece is an original. A vault is in effect an arch that extends the entire length of the room. Making fairy houses is a hobby suitable for all age groups and fitness levels. This book broke down the trigonometry needed to build a right angled home using non trigonometry based examples which i thought could be very helpful for those less mathematically inclined.
The enormous undertaking of building a stone cabin can be mitigated if you know how and when to augment the process using earth clay or adobe to make the home softer warmer and much easier to construct. Stone houses possess that enchanting and magical beauty which make miniature versions of them perfect for fairy gardens. The book is written well like a patient instructor who is in no rush and they cover almost everything i need start to finish to build a rudimentary stone home. Injuries from rock work or caustic lime mortar burns can severely impair the progress of building.
The book provides detailed instructions that will enable anyone to build a stone house. Throughout the book is charles mcraven s stonebuilding philosophy that careful craftsmanship and time well spent during construction will repay itself many times over. Nearly twenty years after karl and sue schwenke first constructed their vermont home their classic book has been revised updated and reissued for a new generation of readers. In the kiln it fuses into chunks called clinker.
The simple and functional beauty of a well built stone house never seems to go out of style.