On 21/6/14, Bill, discombobulated, unleashed: >We live on the bottom of an ancient lake bed. Dig down about 6 feet and >you will find an expansive clay that goes down another mile or so. When >the clay gets wet, it expands and houses actually lift slightly. The >large floor surface moves more than the footings however. Interior walls >in our basements have to be floated at least an inch and a half around >the perimeter to as much as 4 inches in the center of the basement of a >large house. >It's only been in the past dozen years or so that the construction >industry has figured out how to build a stable basement in this area. >Most of the basements here have horizontal cracks in the walls >destabilizing them and require steel C channels attached to the floor >joists above and buried in the concrete floor to keep the walls from >caving in. >This is just about the stupidest place to build a city, and it turns out >that the reason it was put here was to enrich some local politicians who >owned land in the area and railroad magnates who were cooperative given >the proper amount of lubrication. >Twenty miles in any direction takes one out of the lake bed and into >more stable ground.
Interesting! Are there any geodesic buildings built on the clay that you know of? Concept: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome#Methods_of_construction> In effect, a foundation is laid, knee-walls built, then the dome constructed onto this, put up pretty much like erecting a tent. Then any internal walls are non-supporting, except for the 2nd floor (1st floor for UK readers). I desperately wanted to build on a couple of decades ago... -- Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ Broadcast, Corporate, || (O) | Web Video Production ---------- <www.seeingeye.tv> _____________________________ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
