Massing and site placement look good, way-excessive ornamentation cluttering exterior spoils it. Probably allright from a construction standpoint. But..what's a house like this doing with a composition roof!? Better to have gone with a more sparing use of stone ornament and put on slate or flat tile roof with the savings.
I don't think the ornamentation is excessive at all. It's in keeping with style of architecture. It's absolutely fantastic! I wonder how many sq. ft that thing is.
+1 That's distinctly French Canadian. At least it appears so to me - looks like some of the great buildings in Quebec and Northeast Ontario.
Guys, i didn't expect such positive reaction from you. Let me try to answer some of your questions and concerns... In terms of affordability... it's very affordable. The concrete walls cost around $28-30 Canadian dollars per square foot, regardless if there are window/door openings or not. All the decorative elements and moldings can be changed and there are a lot of different designs that are possible. Each 10" pillar is around $2000 CAD. Half pillars are around $850 CAD. The house that you see in the first two phots is about 56x95 feet and it's irregularly shaped. Living surface is approximately 3800 sq ft. The total cost of the walls was $350k CAD including installation. Installation is done by crane and crane rates range from $400-700 CAD per hour, depending if you need a big crane or not. Second house is around 6000 sq ft and the walls cost around 250-300k for it when it was built in 2002. Comparing cost of this construction method to wooden framing method is not always easy. Initially the costs could be 10-20% higher, but if you are planning to build a highly detailed house with wooden framing method, it'll be more expensive than the precast concrete method. If you like a lot of fancy things, precast concrete is the way to go. Another great advantage is that the whole house wall structure can be erected in 1-2 days. There are also less contractors to deal with. You can just deal with one company to precast your walls and assemble them on site. The less contractors to deal with, the less uncertainty there is. I'm currently in the process of designing my second house and i am going with the precast concrete method because it's just less stress and my calculations will be more precise. In terms of stonework... the the house is made out of different panels. If yo look at the first photo where the garage is, you'll see that there are 6 distinct concrete panels. 2 panels on first floor (one with garage door, another with 3 windows). Second floor has two panls with 2 windows each. The roof has 2 dormers, which are separate panels. Panels are designed and precast at a factory with unique design elements. This includes all the window/door surround and all the mouldings.
Here are more photos... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I don't do that stone work. The last photos i posted are with the same manufacturing method. Just shows you how much variation there can be in terms of design.
It is expensive to buy and hard (expensive) to work with. Next time i am in a local town i will take some pics of a recently built house that you will probably like. The stone details that the owner has incorperated are totally stunning, even the chimney stacks would have cost 10's of thousands of pounds each i would imagine.
Beautiful! Is the exterior of the wall part of the actual concrete cast or is it a stone veneer on the concrete poured wall? How many interior walls are load bearing if any? What material is the 2nd floor made out of? What is the roof's frame made of, steel? Hopefully I didn't ask too many questions. Thanks.
Exterior wall panels are cast as a whole. There's no veneer. They are 6 inch thick and they have all the window/door openings and decorative details. Once the walls are erected, interior framing can begin. A house can be designed without any interior load bearing walls but it depends how large you'd like your spans to be. You can go with either metal or wooden framing inside. If you look at the fourth photo i posted where there are double arches inside, that's a load bearing interior wall. By second floor material, do you mean actual structure and exterior walls or second floor platform? Second floor platform is made the same way it is made in a traditional wooden frame construction. Joists with plywood (or other subfloor material) resting on top. Walls are made out of the same concrete panels. They are stacked on top of first floor panels and bolted together. Roof is made out of wooden trusses. Roof trusses and floor joists are attached to concrete walls with painted steel brackets. Once the trusses and floor joists are installed, exterior concrete walls are sprayed with 3" of urethane for insulation. Each standard exterior panel allows finished ceiling heights of between 9 to 10 ft 4 inches, because there are two standard panel heights. Higher ceiling heights are possible but you'd have to stack one panel on top of another. I'm currently working on a house plan for myself and it would have 20.8 ft high living room ceiling. Check out some installation photos. It'll give you an idea how easy construction is. Are there any companies in the states that use similar construction technique? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I like this type of construction. I used to build tilt-up concrete commercial and stick-frame residential. The concrete precast details have really advanced and are superior to stick-framed in a lot of ways. I would go with radiant heated floors using lightweight concrete/radiant tube. You would have a really solid quiet house.
I hadn't seen this until I moved to Vegas, where there are a lot of 2-4 story commercial buildings going up (or were, since many are still vacant), I would see them building and wonder, "why the heck are they raising 3 story walls with no structure to attach it to!?!" They put the cement walls up then build the iron frame inside. A contractor friend eventually explained it to me why it's done that way.
Samimi: The houses above are not mine. I'm in the initial stages of building a 3000-4000 sq ft home with precast concrete panels and i'm going with the same company. ryalex: There's no iron frame inside. Just platforms for the floor made with regular wooden or metal joists. Exterior walls are load-bearing and need no additional support. teak360: You'd have concrete floors? Which areas would you have heated? i did not reach that planning stage yet.
I live in Colorado and heat my whole house with radiant. The basement is concrete slab over foam insulation, the rest of the floors are lightweight 1 1/2" air-entrained concrete over standard wood subfloor. Radiant heat is the most comfortable by far. Plus you have no blowing air, no heat registers or ducts, no dust. I will never again build without it. I built my first small radiant addition for a client in 1975, and the first of my own houses in 1982 which used lots of active solar panels (water). Radiant floors are great with active solar by the way because of the relatively low input temperatures required. There is nothing like a warm marble floor in the bathroom when it is below freezing outside.
My friend's parents place has that - it is pretty nice in the winter to walk on warm stone/marble, especially first thing in the morning. Menatep - It was only for commercial that I've seen that method, not residential.
http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?loc=Phoenix%2c+Arizona&ml=4&typ=F&sid=eed73aefed28446481202a8cf734b3c1&lid=1097980797&lsn=2&srcnt=46846 This house strikes me more than any other house I've ever seen. Not that I've seen it in person, but the pictures are fantastic.
Frankly I am a bit embarassed to show my modest little home. That concrete house if amazing. Anyway here are a few Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
