Estimated cost of concrete block wall???? (Phoenix: homes, landscaping, construction)

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

to protect the Hacienda from Indian raids.

this is a significant reason why you see walls all over the SW....it's a tradition descended from Spanish/Mexican days here....

when I was a little kid before we moved here and my parents were first out here looking at houses, the very first thing my mother said when she called back home to say "hi" was, "all the houses out here have walls around them!"....we were used to the midwestern tradition of little more than a chainlink fence, a hedge...or nothing.... between yards

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

this is a significant reason why you see walls all over the SW....it's a tradition descended from Spanish/Mexican days here... ... ...

Close, but the real reason is high walls provided shade which lowers the ground temperature substantially, thereby lowering the ambient air temps around a home or village. The average home will be 5 to 10 degrees cooler.

[Steve Pickering]

Same reason for all the "Pop-outs" on windows.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Close, but the real reason is high walls provided shade which lowers the ground temperature substantially, thereby lowering the ambient air temps around a home or village. The average home will be 5 to 10 degrees cooler.

Seems like the sun heating up all that concrete block would negate any shade cooling effect it may have. My wall puts off a lot of heat if you get near it.

[Steve Pickering]

But the ground does not and the wall is not by the house is it? There is a reversal in the evenings from the thermal mass. It actually causes a cooling effect also. If you disagree, you will have to take it up with my Archeology professor (2006), and my first degree course work is architectural drafting which include Southwest Design. I have studied the how and why of earth (block) structures in antiquity.

[ReadyFreddy]

Originally Posted by PhxBarb

Not all of us, Ready Freddy. I think the block walls are really ugly, especially if you don't stucco over them, leave them morbid gray, and never paint them a decent color. I still don't understand why this is the norm in AZ, or is it just Phoenix? Does anyone know how this wall thing started here? Why not wood, or something more see through?

Privacy, pet containment, pet safety, privacy, kid containment, privacy, pool safety, home security. And privacy. Sun-proof privacy.

Low-skilled labor here is cheap, so things like block walls and tiling are cost effective.

[Steve Pickering]

Very true and block is a readily availble material that the bugs can't eat.

[HX_Guy]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Same reason for all the "Pop-outs" on windows.

What are "pop-outs"?

[khuntrevor]

I was quoted 30 per linear foot, 6 feet high, and that would be for the 8 inch thick, commercial style block, not that thin stuff the builders throw up.

[mjd2k]

I was quoted about $69/foot for a four foot wall by the builder's landscape guy. That included a poured cement foundation, stucco and paint and hoa approval forms. I thought it was expensive but have not priced anything beyond that first quote. Will be doing that when I'm back down in May.
Anyone else that has quotes - I would also love to see their rates.