House Construction

Hard to believe that its Monday evening already.  Looking back, I won't say that I had Friday off.  We didn't work at the new building, so I ended up spending the day in a much different way.



When I was having breakfast on Friday, I was thinking about my day.  All that changed in a hurry.  I heard the generator and it was not running smoothly.  Figured something was up and shortly after that, Pastor Michel came and asked me to have a look at it.  I think I talked about this on Friday, so just a little update.  Looked for the filters on Friday - no luck.  Looked again on Saturday - again, no luck - I know where to find them.  Its a Kubota diesel generator and there is only one place listed in Haiti as a dealer - so I guess only one place to get parts.  Tried to look up part numbers on the internet to see if I could get a substitute - possibly from another application - but no luck on that either.

When businesses are closed, its not always obvious why - is it as a result of the quake - many are still closed even when they don't appear from the outside to be damaged.  I had asked Pastor Michel to try for the parts today, but I don't think that he went in that direction.  Perhaps tomorrow.  We seem to be limping along okay for the time being.

The weekend really turned out to be a work weekend (again).  Even missed my ride with the guys up the mountain on Saturday morning.  Instead, did a bit of maintenance here at the house, a little book work and did some research.

I have been looking into how to build an earthquake resistant house.  There actually seems to be a fair bit of good information available on the internet.  However, it may not be that straight forward to apply here in Haiti.

I am talking about small one room houses that are common in the ravines around us.  They are typically 4M x 4M and about 2.6M high.

I am in the process of designing one.  And the design is not all that different from what you would normally find in the ravine - a few design changes and a few improvements though in terms of workmanship are definitely required.  I think that'll mean close supervision.

There are two basic approaches to building with concrete/block.  The first approach is Reinforced Concrete Frame - basically you erect the frame of the building first - Columns, Beams and floors and then fill in the walls afterward.  The walls are not structural and in fact sometimes negatively influence the Frame of the building.  This approach is more costly, but the best approach for larger buildings.  If NOT properly built, these buildings fall done rather easily in an earthquake!

The second approach is called Confined Masonry - where you build the walls first and fill in the "columns/beams" second.  Confined Masonry is cheaper to build, requires less forming and fewer skills.  The walls are load bearing - the columns are not.  Ideally a good quality clay brick is better suited for this type of construction.  This construction style is ideally suited for 1-2 floors, but there are lots of cases where 4 or even more floors are built using this style.

Confined Masonry is the building style used for most houses and small businesses here in Haiti.  However concrete block is used and not clay brick.  The block is of poor quality as is the workmanship around the iron work, and the mixing and pouring concrete beams and columns. 

We've been surveying our church members and assessing the level of damage sustained to their houses.  There have been reported back to us that about 27 fell down completely and about 1 in 10 is damaged.  We plan to provide assistance in rebuilding and restoring damaged houses and are in the process of determining exactly how that will work.  As an example - the Haitians are afraid to go indoors - especially to sleep.  So, we are thinking that it is not going to help very much if we repair or rebuild a house, but it remains empty because the occupants won't go back inside.  We are also thinking that it could cause a stir in the neighborhoods.  People will be saying why not me?  Emphasis on emotion!

We feel that when we rebuild a house, we should take the extra care to make sure that the house is better able to withstand an earthquake.  Realize though that there is only so much that we can reasonably do to accomplish this.  We are limited to the skills and the materials available.  There has been some rumours that even the material might not be available - that the various levels of gov't might want to close the gravel and sand pits to maintain a supply for rebuilding gov'ts infrastructure.

Oh yes, and I've also started a guestimate of the materials and costs to build one of these houses. 

Anyway - just a little update to let you know what I've been up to lately.

Will likely finish the questimate and do a little more research.  I am not really liking the concrete block option - so thinking about ways to bolster this a little - I've added crepisage as a must (to help strengthen) and thinking about upsizing the block.