long term shelter

[J & D Goldman]

This is interesting Dick.  Steve Miller was perfecting dome
construction using sheets of plywood, a similar concept.
  One question I had though - corrugated steel is often used for
simple quonsets. A dome would have greater footprint area for the
quantity of steel used, than a quonset, but are there any other
advantages?
    In the US we could just use screws to join the panels, even put
sealer putty on the edges like they use in grain bins to make them
somewhat air tight.  What do you figure using in remote areas?  I know
there are some adhesives available now that are so strong they are now
used to join panels on semi truck boxes, replacing rivets.  Maybe a
few cans of that?

- Dan G.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Fischbeck <dick_fischbeck at yahoo.com>
To: domesteading at sculptors.com <domesteading at sculptors.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 5:19 PM
Subject: re:long term shelter


>> Subject: Re: Emergency shelter vs temporary housing
>>
>> Some more thoughts on this one:
>>
>> I'll try to go through and summarize some of the points you all
raised
>> in a later messge.  A few additional things occurred to me after
>> reviewing the discussion.
>>
>> 1) We probably need to clearly distinguish "emergency shelter" from
>> "temporary housing".  The news reports that continue to come out of
>> Pakistan make it very clear, even having some decent tents would
help
>> prevent the horrible illness and death in that situation.
>>
>> 2) Perhaps the concept of a community storm shelter(s) has a place
>> here. Years ago, an area church was the one well-built structure in
>> the area where people would go during a bad storm, not just for
>> spiritual reasons, but for physical protection.  Some trailer parks
in
>> the US are now required to provide tornado shelter for their
>> residents, although tornados come and go very quickly.
>>   If the world is going to spend millions and even billions on
"aid",
>> perhaps if the earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. are going to be more
>> routine now, some thought will be given to more long term
solutions.
>> I don't know if it makes sense to think about earthquake resistant
>> structures (how would a concrete dome(s) do?) in places like these
>> remote villages in Pakistan or not, but they might elsewhere.
>>
>> As far as emergency shelter, I started a mental list of what one
>> needs, realizing as I went how easy it is to overlook important
issues
>> until its too late.  The pluses and minuses of domes vs. various
other
>> structures can be considered - for both Em. shelter and temporary
>> housing.
>>
>> Protection from:
>> Wind - Anchorage, impact resistance
>> Rain, hail, snow
>> Cold
>> Fire
>> Heat/Sun
>> Humidity
>> Insects, rodents, birds, reptiles, monkeys, other animal issues?
>>   (I'm told the round shape of domes really frustrates bears in
>> Alaska. Even when left unoccupied for long periods of time, domes
seem
>> immune to their attack.  The bears go around so many times looking
for
>> an entrance they wear a path in the ground and eventually give up
and
>> leave.)
>> Noise, sound?
>> Flood?
>> Toxic gases, odor?
>>
>> Livability
>> Cleanliness, sanitation issues?
>> Sectionability for quarantine/illnesses
>>
>> Logistics
>> Ease of assembly, relocation
>> Deliverability, storeability -fold/knock down
>> Reuseable, disposal, conversion of materials from Emergency use to
>> Temporary Housing.
>>
>> Comments on additions, deletions and changes to the list welcome.
>>
>> -Dan G.
>
>This is great and very thought list of criterion for long term
shelter. In other words, we might
>say we need an ultra-low-cost, light weight,
fire+bug+rot+earthquake-proof structure. The
>interesting thing is pretty much everyone everywhere needs something
like this and they don't need
>to wait for a disaster to understand this.
>
>Here's a picture of a playing-card model of a barrel dome I am
working on. I plan to build one out
>of corrugated steel which is available a home depot.
>
>http://www.freewebtown.com/randome/dual.element.barrel.jpg
>
>Here is an earlier version of a barrel dome.
>
>http://www.freewebtown.com/randome/barreldome1.jpg
>
>
>
>
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