SB: RE: Re: sb sustainable foundations

["Pacot, Domingo G" <Domingo.Pacot@team.telstra.com>]

The following link is food for thought albeit  developmental 

http://www.earthgarden.com.au/strawbale/footings.html
<http://www.earthgarden.com.au/strawbale/footings.html> 

		Dom Pacot



	-----Original Message-----
	From:	N Leone 
	Sent:	Friday, June 28, 2002 12:39 PM
	To:	milkwitch@nb.aibn.com; strawbale@crest.org
	Subject:	SB: Re: sb sustainable foundations

	Linda says:
	>I would like to know if anyone knows of a site or a book that
	>explores 'sustainable' foundations for buildings?

	Hey Linda,

	I'll add my two cents (or there-abouts) to what everyone else has
said on 
	the topic of sustainable foundations.  (With this disclaimer:  I
have NO 
	experience with building any of them.  At this point I'm in the 
	research/design/permitting phase of my SB home.  I know
notheeeeeng...)  
	When I was researching foundation options for my design, the two
that seemed 
	the most sustainable to me (with 3ft frost depth) were Shallow Frost

	Protected and Rubble Trench. SFPFs don't go down to frost depth,
thereby 
	saving a lot of digging and concrete.  They use insulation around
the heated 
	space to effectively raise the frost depth.  RTFs involve a trench
dug to 
	frost depth and then filled with stone.  A concrete grade beam is
poured on 
	the top to stack the walls on.  Lots of digging, but not a lot of
concrete.  
	Neither, for obvious reasons, will work with a basement.

	Since SFPF are part of code in most places (or at least here in
Ohio), 
	information on them is not too hard to come by.  Unfortunately, they
require 
	the space above them to be heated, which presented some problems for
me, 
	since my design contains both a greenhouse and a sunken in "cold
room" for 
	keeping my Dago Red at just the right temperature. ;) Mixing other
types of 
	foundations with a SFPF was a little more of a technical challenge
than I - 
	with my utter lack of knowledge in the field - was willing to
undertake.

	So I'm going for the rubble trench (except around the cold
room/tornado 
	shelter).  (Which I like better anyway, sharing Mr. Canadian Guy's
concern 
	about the foam board.)  The problem is that I've been able to find
precious 
	little in print on that type of foundation.  The most thorough
published 
	treatment I found on RTFs is a several page chapter in a book called

	something like "Foundations and Concrete Work" published by Fine 
	Homebuilding magazine.  (I think, let me know if you can't track it
down...) 
	  Other than that, most of my information on RTFs came from the 
	archives/recent threads of this discussion group.  (Special thanks
to 
	Speirag in NH.  Your postings were very helpful.  Sorry if I
misspelled your 
	name.)  One tidbit that I got from the archives that the article
doesn't 
	mention is lining the trench with filter fabric to keep soil from
eventually 
	filling the gaps between the rubble.

	Hope it helps.

	Nick
	Way behind.  As usual.

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