Architects and contractors are often confrontedwith a client who wants a large home withmany luxury feature s, but whose budgetd o e s n’t stretch to cover all these desira b l e

t h i n g s. Tilt-up concrete construction proved the answe rfor a house in Ve n t u ra, Ca l i f o rnia. The architect wasFred Hummel and the contractor was Dean L. Weeks.

The house has 3,600 square feet of living space whichincludes 4 bedro o m s, 21⁄2 b a t h s, family room and re c re-ation room. The cost per square foot was $11.09. In theVe n t u ra area standard architect-designed homes usual-ly cost about $15 per square foot. Without radiant heat-ing, wall-hung toilets, custom cabinets throughout andmany other luxury features Mr. Hummel and Mr. We e k sb e l i e ve the cost could have been reduced to $9.00 pers q u a re foot, or less.

An outstanding design feature is the use of nativerocks set into the panels. Mr. Hummel selected the ro c k swhich we re placed by hand in pre - a r ranged patterns inthe slabs. The careful planning which went into thisphase of the construction is apparent in the beautifulwalls which demonstrate again what can be achieve dwith the imaginative use of concre t e.

A 4-foot module was used as the basic element, ex-tending to glass panels in bedrooms and facade, two 4-foot modules for the beams, and even for the decora t i ve

Tilt-up concrete house—low cost luxury

Ready mixed concrete is placed in form for one of thepanels. The project required 200 cubic yards of concrete.

Wall panel is lifted up by crane. One crane tilted all the walls into position in 6 hours.

s c reen along the bedroom wing. The 13 tilt-up wallsranged in size from the 20- by 23-foot living room wall( weighing 23 tons) to three 4- by 11-foot walls for theb e d room wing.

The frames used as forms for the concrete panels we resteel channels. The channels we re the thickness of thewall and we re used only on the ve rtical edges. The form

on the top edge of the wall remained in place as a topplate for anchorage of the roof diaphragm. The concre t ewas tied to the channels by spot welding #3 bars to theinside of the channels.

The load bearing walls support the roof. Most of thei n t e rior walls also are of concre t e. Ap p roximately 200 cu-bic yards of ready mixed concrete went into the pro j e c t .

Walls we re 8 inches thick with about 2 inches of pene-t ration for smaller exposed rock and 4 inches for thel a rgest stones. The builder used a sand setting bed forimbedding the stones. The sand contributed a ro u g ht e x t u re to the surface and there f o re re q u i red no sepa-rating membra n e. The panels we re cast in a mirror im-age and we re designed in that manner. All of the panelsf e a t u red exposed rock with some exposing the rock tothe interi o r, providing an interesting wall finish.

One truck crane tilted the walls in 6 hours and thepanels we re then joined at corners with a continuousweld. Welds we re ground smooth and the channelsp a i n t e d .

Expansion and contraction have not been pro b l e m s,because of the design methods used. There are no sec-tions where either expansion or contraction could causef a i l u re. No sweating has occurred, since the walls arewell insulated, the climate mild, and the radiant heatinghelps to pre vent creation of moisture.

Exposed aggregate concrete in entrance hall, stairs andlanding complements the decorative wall panels.

P U B L I C AT I O N# C 6 3 0 0 4 1Copyright © 1963, The Aberdeen Gro u p

All rights re s e r v e d