CONCRETE HOUSES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 27, 26 July 1911, Page 7

CONCRETE HOUSES.

AX AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM. Almost simultaneous with the news of Edison's achievement comes the announcement that i'u Australia a process has been patented for the building of houses in two pieces. Which surpasses any otherr method that' has been tried in America or elsewhere. It is known as the mono-situ concrete method, by which it is claimed that houses can be erected at 11 reduction of 30 per cent, on present building costs. The 'builder can work from any design no matter how it may be embellished, and in order to demonstrate what can be one under the system, a number of smart villas will be built, at Carlton, Sydney, in a few week's time. "Experiments were carried out for some time in easting walls in moulds and en*ting them with cranes (says a Sydney writer in describing .the system). But this idea wa.s abandoned in favor of a cheaper method, which docs not entail the use of costly moulds. The mono-situ plant merely consists of some lin. boarding and a number of steel compression clamps, which pinch 4 the boards on to the course which has previously been pinched into place. Between the boards are collapsible cores for making the cavities in the walls. These cores are expanded before the concrete is poured in, and after the concrete has been tamped down the cores are contracted and easily lifted out and put on ahead of the work. The filling then continues. After a joint of the board is passed the boards are taken away immediately and the next course can be gone on with. The concrete used is of a semi-dry nature, and it is tamped in, getting rid of most of the moisture almost immediately and hardening rapidly. Another advantage is that with the exception of the floors very little steel i'eiii,forcei»cjit is iwd. Steel bars are placed over and under door and window openings in order to overcome the effects of expansion and contraction. Concrete walls, up to two storeys, need little reinforcement, as the .strength of concrete is greater than that of bricks. The abolition of the .steel reinforcements cheapens the cost considerably." "A saving of more than 30 per cent.,'' he says, "can be made in the co<t of walls, exclusive of the saving of plastering. Tbe system is suitable for low-cost buildings, and iwhcn it is understood will no douibt be widely adopted." The advantage of the system lies in the fact that any architect's plans can b<> followed, no matter how intricate or ornate .mav be the desbrn. and the plant to build all classes .of building? need not cost more than .•CilO.