[Strawbale] Cement vs. clay (was 'trashcrete')

[Shody Ryon]

--- Alan Abrams <alan at abramsdesignbuild.com> wrote:


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Hey HW--

be happy to join you for with mugs or shot glasses any
time, but just to clarify my read of things--it's not
necessarily an either or proposition, green versus
structure
********************************************************
Me too, accept I would prefer it filled with
wheatgrass juice
********************************************************

--once I built a conventional house on a site that was
basically bottomless muck--using a carefully
engineered gravel trench--the house basically designed
to be bouyant.  18 years later the house just fine, no
foundation cracks, with finished basement dry as a
bone.

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That is what I would like to build; a retrofit under
an existing house with a broken, bad concrete mix,
old, no rebar foundation, the front part was on piers
for a pourch that had been converted to living space,
so that part is not a retrofit, it is a full build out
to keep the living space.
the soil in not too bad, on the bank of the Willamette
River, so imagine it has silt and clay. 

Alan (or anyone), do you think I could build a rubble
urbanite trench foundation that would satisfy my
engineer and the city? IF so, do I need to put in a
convesional footing? As it stands now, I have a
retaining wall called for on the street side, so that
probably needs special consideration. I think I could
remove that requirment, as I had wanted to build a
walkout basement on the downhill side, but I have been
rethinking that with the possiblilty of building a 4'
high retaining wall accoss the back of the property
and slightly leveling the lot and having a stair going
up 4 feet to get out the back. I probably would need
to build a 4' high stem wall on the sides, as wood
(and steel?) brace panels are not aloud to brace
concrete retaining walls, I believe. Perhaps I could
have wing (?) walls on the ends of the retaining wall
as brace panels?
Shody

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 and it was a big cash savings, not to have to dump
countless yards of concrete into a hole in the ground.
 


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