Thought exercise...Building for longevity

[jhambley]

I want to build a home that will last as long as possible with minimal maintenance. I'm not talking a building that will just last my lifetime, but one that could serve three or four generations to come.  Short of building a pyramid, does anyone have any thoughts on the best building materials/methods.

[MountainDon]

Well, I'll have to give some more thought, but the first thought that comes to mind is to keep water on the outside. Lots of thought as to how water flows over the building, top to bottom, and to keep it moving to the outside if any gets past the first defenses.

That and start on a good solid foundation. Which may necessitate hiring a soils engineer if you are in an area off the beaten track.

Do you have any particular features that are a must include or anything that you absolutely do not want to be included?  One story? Basement? Two story?

[jhambley]

No basement. Slab foundation. I'm thinking of building what might resemble a dairy barn with a gambrel roof. The first floor interior would be completely open except for sliding barn doors that could be used as partitions when privacy is required. It would have a central wood stove as well as a wood cook stove in the kitchen. Everything except a couple of bedrooms would be on the first floor. A large country kitchen and pantry. We live in east central Kansas so one of the rooms would be made a safe room for tornado protection. We own a small cattle operation and plan to build the house overlooking one of our stock ponds on 80 acres. We will position it with southern exposure on the front of the house. Plan to use metal roofing to feed a cistern as a backup to our well.

[MushCreek]

Purely as a thought exercise, stone wins hands-down. All of the ancient buildings in the world are stone. Timber frame structures seem to be the longest lasting wood buildings. I think the real key is keeping the elements out- water, sun, termites, etc.

I'm building with ICF walls, fiber cement siding, and a metal roof, all of which should provide longevity with reasonable care.

[Dimitri]

Stone is over rated. Emperor Justinian thought the same till Isidore of Miletus decided to make the Hagia Sophia more out of brick and mortar then just stone.

The building is still there 1,500 years later, other then the domes, it has survived, several large 7+ earth quakes, a ransacking by the Crusaders of the 4th crusade, and being changed hands a few times.

Reason? The entire outer wall is actually not ridge by more of a flexible composition in nature. The original builders used too much mortar, and had crushed brick into the mortar itself, giving it a strong elastic property, which allowed the outer walls to flex when subjected to lateral loading such as from a earthquake.

They also used a lot of steel in the building to tie everything together. Something that was never done to such a scale before.

Dimitri

[jhambley]

Jay,

Are you doing the pour yourself? Are you using the blocks?

Jerry

[Squirl]

Stone with as little mortar as possible.
Probably exterior foam insulation.
maybe Vinyl windows.
Copper or slate roof. 

Concrete lasts a while, but I think modern portland cement normally has a 50-100 year life span.

[Don_P]

I suppose on the architectural side, beauty, timeless design. People do not love or maintain ugly buildings. From that perspective using a gambrel roof on a residence, while it has been done, and well, certainly presents challanges. For it to be cherished into lasting the long haul it is about whether they like it.

Overhangs, keep the water out and away. Elevate above the splash and moisture, raise the slab up on a pedestal of masonry. No Decks.

The windows, doors and claddings will come and go, allow for that. Stock sizes and details that allow wear components to be exchanged independently whenever possible. The frame must be there under it for it to last, good bones, borated.

http://www.greatistanbul.com/hagia_sophia.htm

[flyingvan]

Rammed earth!  People who build rammed earth structures consider cinder block a temporary material.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth   the method of making really beefy forms, tumbling native soil with cement, and mechanically tamping it makes for beautiful structures.  I want to point out, though, that Paul Revere's stick built house in Boston is still standing after 240 years-  easily 8 generations

[MountainDon]

Paul Revere's stick built house in Boston is still standing after 240 years-

Probably kept the water/weather on the outside.

[MushCreek]

Jay,

Are you doing the pour yourself? Are you using the blocks?

Jerry

The actual pour is the only thing I'm not doing. I'm paying a professional to pour it and be responsible for the results. I am using Fox ICF all the way up.

[Squirl]

Don makes a good point about maintaining ugly things.

I have visited a few old buildings and houses in the U.S. (300 + years).  The amount of maintenance that has and goes into them is tremendous.  Many are historic landmarks, so they get large amounts of funding and the power of a community or donations that the average house would not get.  I have watched a little bit of these restorations.  After enough of them over the 300+ years, you would be surprised how little of the buildings is the original materials.  Bricks, roofing, door, windows, framings, all gets replaced to the same specifications, but may not be the original material.

I am always a little fascinated by bricks.  I have heard of ancient structures of brick work, but I don't know how they did it.  I have lived in a few brick houses of 80-100 plus years old.  I could walk around the basement and sweep up the 6 inch deep piles of brick dust and a year later there would be 4-6 inch piles again.  All of the brick (red) that I have seen starts to turn to dust at around 100 years.

I am interested to see how some of the modern day plastics will weather.  Many talk about how many thousands of years they will take to biodegrade.  I wonder how long it will take for them to no longer be functional.

[paul s]

my dad's barn just turned 124 years old this spring.  12 posts  12"x12"  x 16 feet  of hemlock, beams on top of that are  12"x12" x 44 feet long white pine.  The posts sit on a few rocks on the ground near syracuse ny.  nothing that resembles a foundation
1 x 12 Inch  boards for siding that have long since shrunk to a 1" s[ace between them.  the floors are 3" thick  8" wide double toung and groved  white oak.  every thing is level to plus or minus an inch.  I interviewed a man in 1969 who was 93 years old and at age 12 he drove a team of oxen to pull logs out of the nearby woods.   the rotting big white pine stumps were still there in 1969 i was 13.  the old man told me it was a bent peg design the fram was designed to flex a bit.

[paul s]

ok it is on its 3 rd roof covering
1st cedar, then asphalt now metal