[Greenbuilding] suggestions for outdoor wall?

[Don Jennings]

Corwyn,

Wow! I thought the wall was quite impressive, but $45,000? I was under 
the impression that part of the appeal of rammed earth structures were 
their low cost (if the labor was cheap, of course). I wonder where the 
costs were; was it primarily for material costs? It looked like they 
chose to use a substantial amount of formwork rather than re-using a 
smaller amount, but surely that isn't a significant cost.

Thanks for all the info.

Take care,
Don


On Sep 1, 2006, at 8:52 AM, Corwyn wrote:

>> Any suggestions for other materials or other ways to accomplish that
>> goal which might be more environmentally friendly? We are currently
>> investigating rammed earth (per MIT's rammed earth N51; see
>> http://www.mit.edu/~jdahmen/rammed/ if you are interested), but didn't
>> want to overlook other options.
>
> Don,
>
> Joe Dahmen is my cousin (sort of) and we have talked extensively about 
> his wall.  Some things to note:
>
> 1. It wasn't cheap,  even with graduate student labor.  I recall the 
> number was around $45,000.
>
> 2.  It is massive, And would do a much better job IMHO of stopping a 
> speeding car, than almost anything else you can mention.
>
> 3. It is capped with a steel top to keep the rain off.
>
> 4. There is quite a bit of cement in the foundation, which Joe is 
> looking for a way of doing without.
>
> 5. It is an experiment, although he is confident that it will last, 
> one of the reason for making it was to test in field conditions.
>
> 6. It required a LOT of materials, having such thing close by will 
> drastically affect your outlook.
>
> 7.  I think it looks nice for what it is, but it is a monolithic wall, 
> appropriate for cityscapes only, I suspect.
>
> Thank You Kindly,
>
> Corwyn
>
> -- 
> Corwyn
> Kermit didn't know the half of it...
> http://www.greenfret.com/
> corwyn at greenfret.com
>