[Cob] Quanset roof ?

[Amanda Peck]

Somewhere on line I've seen pictures of quonset type panels  used as a 
roof--from a manufacturer, IIRC, but conceivably somebody's home page.  Kind 
of looked, can't find it right now.  I think it was used as a second story.

But--the whole building will be heavier if you have walls supporting that 
quonset part.  Lots of foundation, in other words.

If I wanted vines, I'd consider using some sort of light mesh, ideally at 
least 6 inches over the high places on the roof.  Condensation on the under 
side of the 6 mil plastic would be my reasoning--if you get any, there's no 
place for it to go.  And I wouldn't much want the vines right next to my 
wall either.  No matter how nice they'd look--and they would look nice.

Might be able to get by with a ring beam instead of a solid concrete 
floor/foundation, fill in with lots of drainage gravel and an earthen floor. 
  My recollection is that they were just put up on a (level, drained, 
reinforced, maybe with thicker edges) concrete slab.  Someplace along the 
line one needed something to keep the arch from spreading and collapsing.

How big is your arch?


..............
Luanna wrote (snipped):
I have an unassembled quanset style steel building.
Due to the cost of having a foundation formed and
poured, I would like to use it as a roof.  Any ideas
on how to tackle this?  It will be heavy, so I need to
be sure that it is well supported.  I would like to
use columns or buttresses in order to have some
windows on the sides, if possible.  I have quite a bit
of stone here as well as sandy clay soil.

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