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There's lots of ways to build inexpensively and a lot of them use standard construction techniques. Some of the least expensive methods are to build a small enclosed center area with huge lanais all the way around it. Since your wall area is pretty small, that keeps the expenses down. Having the lanais all the way around gives you covered living area without the expense of walls. Screens of some type keep the mosquitoes down..
Yes, I recently toured a new construction on Papaya Farms Road that is utilizing these principles. Having the living area up high above the ground helps with air flow and decreases the number of bugs.
By open air I meant no windows, not without screens. However, in mid day screened doors can be opened up for a true, open air environment. They were also planning to have a second, outdoor lanai kitchen, but apparently the building department doesn't allow this. The construction was being done without a permit, but someone turned them in.
These guys are expert renovators from Montana, btw. I was very impressed with their work.
They also plan to build small structures on top of a couple 10,000 gallon ferro cement water tanks. They had a model of a really clever design that looks like a big hat, with the entire frame made of concrete.
hapci534, maybe you could put the thatch over a metal roof. I've seen this done in Malaysia.
The building department would have most likely nixed the second outdoor kitchen because it was the second kitchen, not because it was an outdoor kitchen. Two kitchens aren't allowed if the building lot is only allowed one dwelling.
How well would a ferrocement tank do during an earthquake?
Thatch over metal sounds like a great way to get the metal to rust, how about thatch over fiberglass or plastic roofing?
The building department would have most likely nixed the second outdoor kitchen because it was the second kitchen, not because it was an outdoor kitchen. ..
Yes, that's right. No second kitchens, regardless of their location.
Thank you for the link, Blind Cleric. At $90K per fake thatch roof (if I interpreted the graph right), *I* would stand in the rain, and hold an umbella over it
Maybe I should just build the whole roof from joined solar cells on a wooden base grid then, and add 4 tall legs to the roof contraption. "No house here, Mr. Inspector. This is my solar generator. Sure, I live in it, no law forbids anyone to move into a power generator."
Or if the solar cell roof had only 1 leg in the center, I could say, "There is no house here, Mr. Inspector. This is my umbrella." If a hurricane came, I could simply lower that leg with a hand crank mechanism into a vertical shaft until the roof edges came down to touch ground. Et voila, a protective pyramid over my household whose leg is now some 20 ft deep. Shelters against hurricanes, thieves, wildlife, you name it.
I've heard that there is a way to roof your house entirely with solar panels, but haven't looked into it.
The thatched roof company seems quite secretive about their pricing. The first post at this link suggests that it isn't quite so expensive- More like $16 sq/ft.
I got the $90K figure from Endureed's "Click here to receive a free report illustrating the benefits..." link. (Page 3 of that PDF). I should have divided it by the listed 6,100 sq ft project size, this puts it around $16 / sq ft indeed.
As I ponder the "solar panel roof as umbrella" concept, it wouldn't even require digging a 20 ft shaft into the Puna rock for the stem. It could be simply telescoping aluminum tubes. Carrying two levels of roofs (small roof on top) so the lower, large roof has a center ventilation hole for the hot air to escape.
I didn't try to sleep in an open field in Puna yet. So I'm not sure how much critters would bother me at night without a mosquito net. If they are really an issue at night, I guess the lower roof could include a roll down mosquito net tent?
I just finished reading through the 329-reply Puna thread, I feel a whole lot better informed. So in a totally open air house the insects would eat me alive at night, and my 3000 books would turn to mush from moisture. I guess the latter would be a regrettable loss. So what people with thousands of books do, build some sort of sun-warmed library room? (Book greenhouse. Bookhouse.)
From weather stats I see that Hilo (and its vertical geographic slice) gets twice the rain of Kaneohe on Oahu. With this much water a small manmade artificial lake (instead of a pool) could be probably accumulated merely from catchment spillover over time, but how deep can one dig the soil in Puna before the shovel hits rock? I was just thinking about this, walking at Blaisdell Center (Honolulu), when I looked at the pond. It's only one foot deep, and one already feels pleasantly cooler when standing by it.
If I can't make a lake work horizontally, how about making it vertical. That is, if my house must have walls, did anyone consider making the walls the water tower by making them hollow between roof and faucet height? Then no pump would be needed, the water could flow simply by gravity. And the house would be essentially water-conditioned. (Instead of AC, W... hatever. ) The question is, what wall/tank material rides an earthquake instead of breaking...
For books and photographs most folks use ziplock bags or tupperware type containers. I know one woman who binds books as a hobby and keeps them and her materials in a 8 x 8 closet in the middle of her house with a light bulb left on all the time. There is very little soil in most of Puna. You'd probably hit rock within an inch. All the trees and jungle vegetation you see here are growing in that and in the cracks. Quite a few people have ponds in their yards though, usually by just picking the lowest spot in the yard and putting in a vinyl liner. I'd be worried about a tall thin wall of water in an earthquake.
How about moving to Puna and renting for a bit, Hapci? Or visiting, at least, that wouldn't be as expensive. Then a lot of things will become very known to you.
Most of Puna lives on catchment water so 'ponds' are a standard feature of Puna residences, although almost all of their 'ponds' look like above ground swimming pools.
Depending on exactly where you want to build your house, there will be different things to work with or around. Some areas are much cooler than others and will require walls for warmth, other areas will be warmer and you may want the walls to hold the heat out. Most of Puna will want lots of eaves to keep the moisture away from the house as well as provide shade on the house walls and a dry walk space around the house can be nice, too. Which is partly why big lanais all the way around are so useful. Lanais on grade and the house raised up or if you have some slope to work with, lanai at grade on one side with a deck out the other might be nice. In any case, you can't really get a nice house unless you start from the specific parcel that you're going to build it on and go from there. That will let you know the house orientation as well as the specific conditions the house will have to deal with. Views? Wind? Rain? Noisy neighbors? Etc., etc.
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