On Tue, 20 May 2003 22:40:02 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in response to Jose Lourenco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
I have been very interested in home construction. Your paragraph on the mud houses was a very familiar to me. I am from Salvador-do-Mundo and the family house was of mud. Like everything in life, there are pros and cons. Here are some cons. Mud houses are not neat and cannot be kept clean. The walls tend to be thicker and hence decrease the space of a house. The frames of doors and windows cannot be secured tight and they can be easily wrenched off the structure. This limits the number of doors and windows and a well illuminated gouse is not attainable. The roof cannot be in the form of a slab (RCC). I had a dilemma when I recently rebiuilt the family house. Today houses are broken into and the plot was a very narrow one (7.1 m) and I used stone and cement. The roof is of RCC and on top of it tiles were placed. Every window and the back door is secured with iron grilles. The floor is tiled and can be washed and kept clean. The roof had fallen in and the rains had wrecked the structure. The roof gets too hot in the hot months and dissipates the heat internally. I would like to meet with you Jose in Goa if possible and discuss this matter and we could draw up guidelines fo the construction of mud houses.Alternatives could be explored. The pros are as you write, cooler than stone and cement construction and they last long if taken care of. Once the roof leaks, there is havoc. The Mahatma had a simple house built in Warda made of mud and it was extremely clean and the walls smoothe. But this man had very little possessions and it is easy to keep a house clean if it is bare and small as his house was. I am fond of investigating innovations in home constructions. I am interested in the use of wind and solar power to heat water and generate electricity. Biogas digesters are not an easy solution as they need maintenance and a lot of cellulose (grass or dung) to operate them. Edgar Martins ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ########################################################################## _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
