Masonry Magazine April 2006 Page. 52
BLOCK
Tankersley said the choice to use concrete masonry was simply the history of common sense.
The Adams residence is anything but square with many curves and turns throughout the design. Some of the features achieved with concrete masonry in the house include a colonnade wall with columns, four fireplaces, a full vault ceiling, a safe room, a 90'x60° (27 x 18 m) zero-entry pool and a grotto with waterfalls. "We also have a sitting room with a dome that we did out of eight-inch (203 mm) block in a perfect radius with windows all the way around," Hartzog said.
The Wilson Residence
THE STORY of the Wilson residence on Stallworth Plantation in Walton County, Fla., reads much the same way as the Adams house, withstanding three hurricanes and a tropical storm while under construction.
"It is usually not even a question about the type of material used directly on the Gulf. We build in concrete masonry because it can withstand anything," said Greg Tankersley, one of the principals of McAlpine Tankersley Architecture in Montgomery, Ala, who designed the 6,700-square-foot (622 m2) house.
The Wilson house sits on 118 concrete pilings. The entire exterior is standard 8"x8"x16" (203x203x406 mm) CMUs.
According to builder Tommy Norred of W. T. Norred Construction Co., who has been working on the house for two years, there have been no issues with the house during or after the hurricanes, not even water penetration.
"This house is built like a fort," he said. "All the concrete blocks are solid grouted units, reinforced No. 5 (No. 16 M) at 16 inch (406 mm) on center from bottom to top. So there is one bar in every concrete block and all those blocks are filled with grout. Then all around there are two courses of lintels with No. 5 (No. 16 M), like a belt around the house, every six feet (1.8 m) vertically."
Tankersley said the choice to use concrete masonry was simply the history of common sense. "You go down to Florida and parts of the Panhandle where there are some structures that have been there forever and they are concrete masonry houses," he said. "So you look at what has been around and is still standing and that is concrete masonry, so we are not trying to reinvent the wheel."
Tankersley also said that using concrete masonry never limits his design capabilities. "The Wilson house, which is far from a box house, is on a fairly small footprint and made up of a bunch of out buildings. Using standard block material does not limit the design at all." The house is three separate structures: the main house, a separate two-bedroom apartment and a two-car garage with a bedroom on top.
Like Hartzog, Norred has had to prepare the site each time a hurricane was forecast, policing the area to make sure everything had been picked up, having the dumpster removed, and putting up plywood over the windows. He said they usually store a lot of the materials and equipment inside the house "because we know it will be safe there."
"As soon as we see it coming we treat it like it is coming right here. Unfortunately we have been right too many
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