- last edited on by
Rubia Torres
Brian, wrote:I thought I'd respond here in case others have looked at insulating concrete form systems such as Durisol:
Hi Karl. I did a quick search on Durisol, and and found one post that briefly mentions this material.
1. I would like to create an exterior wall made of Durisol block with brick finish. I want each on a different layer so I can display either one to demonstrate different stages of construction.
2. Would be nice as well to have ArchiCAD output the number of Durisol blocks required for construction, their sizes, and types.
If you could provide some direction on the approach I should take, I would really appreciate it. I was thinking to model the block in GDL. Have you already done this? I'm assuming a GDL model of Durisol would be very similar to a GDL model of a CMU? Is there a library I can purchase that would speed up the drawing process? I also need to account for the mortar joints.
http://www.durisolbuild.com/
Durisol blocks are made from Portland cement-coated wood chips. The recycled wood chips (from palettes, etc.) are coated with a mineral clay and formed into standard-sized blocks, easily managed by a single person which have a variety of useful construction properties (see web site above). I first learned of this material from Dale Bates of Living Architecture in Sun Valley.
Because of the wood content, you can screw support forms and non-structural walls directly into the blocks. (Structural ledgers, etc., require connection to the concrete core.) A single person can stack together wall systems. The stacked blocks do not require any foam or glue to prevent leaks during the concrete pump. Blowouts are rare if the lift is within tolerances and the blocks have not been cut or damaged. (Temporary plywood zip screwed into the surface supports any cut or damaged areas during the pour.)
The system supports the notion of a breathable wall with thermal mass. Without a vapor barrier, the blocks can be coated directly with stucco on the outside and plaster on the inside... the surface is rough enough to not require any lathe. Electrical cables are run either in groves cut with a router in the surface, or in conduit inside the cores.
The blocks can have rock wool insulation inserts factory inserted in the cores, to increase R value.
Of course, the blocks can have conventional gyp interior and arbitrary exterior sidings added, such as the brick that Brian asks about. There is greater economy and environmental benefit by going the stucco/plaster route though IMHO.
So...to Brian's questions:
1. The question of brick and Durisol on different layers is the same thing we all fight with in ArchiCAD with composite walls. Since ArchiCAD composites have no layer visibility management, we have to use tricks to show structural walls only in one plan and structural with veneers in another.
The easiest solution is to apply a Wall Accessory (Extras menu) Mouldings and Panels object with all mouldings turned off and the panel set to the thickness of the brick and airspace veneer. (Note: brick ties have to extend into the concrete core. The Durisol block itself is non-structural.) This will result in all window and door openings being automatically cut in the brick veneer. However, you have little control over the reveals, and none over the 2D presentation: you cannot show skins, e.g., for air space vs brick.
The alternative isn’t a pretty thing. You have to model the brick as separate walls, offset from the Durisol by the air gap, and create empty openings in brick to match each window and door in the main wall.
In either option, the door trim will be all wrong in 2D and 3D. You can get the trim and jambs right using the new SE library parts … but then the wall will be a composite and you won’t be able to turn the brick off.
So… I don’t know of any solution that produces proper drawings.
2. Getting a list of block quantities and types. Well, this would take longer than I have time to type. The easiest thing is to note that Durisol comes in standard sizes and the project will assemble most easily if the walls are even Durisol-units. So, if you use the wall tool, set up a snap grid based on the block dimensions and make wall heights an even number of feet to avoid cutting. At that point, a wall surface area take off (which subtracts out openings) will give a good estimate. With more work, a Property Object for these walls could compute the block take-off.
The alternative, that you suggest, is to model each block as a GDL object. This would allow you to ‘build’ the walls with each type of block just as they will be built on site and to easily produce a block count. Since the walls would not be AC “Walls”, you could not place windows or doors, but would have to cut holes in the block (where whole blocks need cutting) using Solid Element Op subtraction. (You can fake the Windows and Doors with a thinner ‘host wall’ that is centered in the Durisol GDL-block wall and into which you insert the windows and doors.) At door/window openings, you have to allow room for treated wood bucks in the GDL-wall to form the structural opening and block the flow of concrete during the pour.
An advantage of the GDL block-layout approach (or – gasp – linework or custom fills), is that you can create color-coded plans for the crew that indicate the types of blocks used. (This is something else I saw the Living Architecture group do.)
I modeled Durisol blocks in 3D dwg 10 years ago. Doing it in GDL is so much easier: just make them with the slab tool. If you have a 2D dwg for each block type, just magic wand the dwg into a 1’ tall mass and save as object from the File | GDL Objects menu. Use multiply with the elevate option to stack them. Then delete blocks in 3D where you have openings.
Your last comment on mortar joints: there are no mortar joints in Durisol. It is dry stacked. The stacking ‘slop’ is a combination of manufacturing tolerance and human/dirt/grit interference preventing a perfect fit.
Hope that helps,
Karl
Hi Karl
Just wondering if this might help you at all. Door and Window Builder (available from CadImage) has an option to turn wall skins in or out. Haven't had the chance to use it yet myself, but it might be just what you're looking for?
(test run below, not perfect but getting there, used with composite wall, you choose how many skins of comp to turn in(or out)).
Cheers
Just wondering if this might help you at all. Door and Window Builder (available from CadImage) has an option to turn wall skins in or out. Haven't had the chance to use it yet myself, but it might be just what you're looking for?
(test run below, not perfect but getting there, used with composite wall, you choose how many skins of comp to turn in(or out)).
Cheers
As it seems I could only add 1 attachment at a time I am posting a view of a project I did with the CadImage Accessories on all of the walls shown. All of the horizontal, door & window trims are part of the wall surface. As these are on there own layer I can turn them on of off depending on what I want to show.
Still looking?
