The Portland Cement Association's Guide to Concrete Homebuilding Systems

Book Description

Your one-source guide to Concrete-Based Homebuilding Systems. Residential contractors, architects, and developers will welcome this first total guide to the latest concrete-based homebuilding systems (CBHSs). With lumber costs still on the rise after doubling the early '90s, The Portland Cement Association Guide to Concrete Homes, by Peter VanderWerf and W. Keith Munsel, can deliver, durable, cost-efficient, esthetically pleasing alternative building materials and construction methods. It's all spelled out in an authoritative sourcebook that explains and compares the various types of CBHSs and lists special materials and tools for building them--provides case histories of concrete homes already built and in use--and contains data vital to building professionals who want to learn tomorrow's techniques today.

Customer Reviews:

Bang your drum.......2007-03-04

This is as another reviewer stated, "Advertising." Completely unpractical from either an engineer or buildler's point of view. Steer clear.

A great synopsis of professional understanding.......2004-02-14

As we may note upon reading this tome, it is written primarily for one who is articulate with the construction trade. However it is onomonopoetic in its scope. As you read you find yourself absorbing and understanding far more than seems possible. One gets it quickly and is allowed to dream of design possibilities. I love a good book. Learning at an exponential rate is exhilerating.

Just browsing CHS for myself.......2003-09-09

Remember, this book is almost TEN years old because it is based on research done in 1993 and published in '95. So there have been advances and experience that go well beyond this book. Dwell magazine has often tickled me with various new building techniques and I wanted to learn more about what might be appropriate for me and the Midwestern climate. This book will give you an overview of SOME of the styles (mortarless, poured-in-place, etc.), and also indicate what might be appropriate for your situation. I'm not a builder or an architect but I wanted to design my own house, so this book did help me to recognize and comprehend the different catagories of techniques. At the same time, this topic could really use an update that you won't find from the Portland Cement Association. My advice to people like me is to keep looking and seek out small-scale builders who will familiarize you with their technique that they know best. There are dozens, and the most difficult thing is getting a crew that doesn't have to be trained for a new technique but has already completed several homes using a proven method.

This book, even though it is somewhat old will give you a good sense of what to expect from building codes and prices, but it's just not enough, and there are no pretty pictures.

Ugly Duckling........2002-12-17

This book is an Ugly Duckling for now. Hopefully in the future they will put out a new edition with lots of colour photo's to show us what a finished project can look like. It does seem to cover most systems for building concrete structures. It is written for contractors, but with a little work it could be just as well suited for the potential home owner.

For Contractors.......2001-07-24

I bought this book because I am thinking of building my own house. This book is geared toward contractors and not homeowner-builders.

Percutaneous Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty

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Percutaneous Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387290788

Book Description

This Second Edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect recent advances in the field of percutaneous vertebroplasty. Obsolete sections have been replaced with cutting-edge material, such as an in-depth look at the latest bone cements and devices. Chapters outline spine anatomy, medical management, and patient selection. The text is enhanced by a wealth of illustrations. The addition of practical and challenging case studies furthers the focus of the previous edition by bridging the gap between theory and practice for spine interventionalists, radiologists, neuroradiologists, orthopedic surgeons, and neurosurgeons. New to the Second Edition: - New data on alternate routes for therapy, sacroplasty, and treating tumors - New treatment techniques - Updated examination of biomechanics - New material on complications - Inclusion of vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty cases - Expanded presentation of ACR and SIR care standards - New figures and color images

Concrete Systems for Homes and Low-Rise Construction (Portland Cement Association)

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Concrete Systems for Homes and Low-Rise Construction (Portland Cement Association)
Portland Cement Association , and Inc. Building Works
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0071452362

Book Description

Whether evaluating concrete systems for low-rise buildings or managing projects, this one-stop resource is a huge time and money saver. Coverage for each system includes: properties and advantages, logistics of construction, logistics of connecting to other concrete systems, costs of installation, code and regulatory status, technical and testing information, and sources of additional information.

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Short and bittersweet
A Twisted Tale
kids without parents
The Cement Garden/Our Mother's House
Beware the child-welfare agencies!!!

The Cement Garden
Ian Mcewan
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679750185
Release Date: 1994-01-13

Book Description

In this tour de force of psychological unease--now a major motion picture starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sinead Cusack--McEwan excavates the ruins of childhood and uncovers things that most adults have spent a lifetime forgetting--or denying. "Possesses the suspense and chilling impact of Lord of the Flies."--Washington Post Book World.

Customer Reviews:

Short and bittersweet.......2007-09-06

I just, like three minutes ago, finished reading this book for the second time. As I did so, I was surprised at how little I had noticed about it the first time.

As you are no doubt aware, one of the major themes in this book is sibling incest. Even though it's not consumated until very, very late in the book, the overtones go throughout it.

But I was surprised to find that, even though that was the focus of my attention the first time I read it, the second time I didn't even really notice it.

No, what I noticed instead is the slow disintegration of the lives of four children, particularly the youngest, as they try to cover-up the death of their mother (fearing the state would take them away). It's interesting also to read about how the house itself starts to reflect the mental states of all four kids, living their insular lives inside this home, hardly venturing out for anything but food.

During this second read, it was actually Tom's infantilism that caught my attention. First he begins dressing as a girl because he thinks life will be better, and then starts acting more and more like a baby. To me that was far more unhealthy than what Jack and Julie had going on.

As I mentioned before, the sibling incest (sibcest?), draws a lot of attention, and many people seem to think that, had their parents not died the older kids wouldn't have gotten up to what they got up to. Pretty clearly, it likely would've happend anyhow once their father died. Their mom was clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and they were basically raising themselves before she died. Even if she had lived, I think a great deal of the book would've turned out the same.

Anyhow, the only real complaint I have about the book is that it was quite short (more of a novella, really), and ended on a rather uncertain note. I wouldn't mind finding out what became of the characters, but I don't think that's likely. Meantime, I'll just hope the DVD of the movie goes back into print soon. Ironically, it took me longer to watch the film than to read the book.

A Twisted Tale.......2007-07-16

Having been introduced to McEwan recently, this book officially made me a McEwan addict!

Jack and his siblings are suddenly orphaned. They take drastic measures to maintain the only life they know, which is a life together. McEwan makes even the most bizarre circumstances seem completely justified. A quick read, but a lot of depth beneath the surface.

kids without parents.......2007-07-16

This just gets a four from me. It was an enjoyable read, as all McEwan books are, if only for the prose. But the depth he gives to the initial situation of the father's personality, and the children's attitudes concerning his death, is immense. I felt sad while reading most of this book at the neglect of the children and wondered at the extraordinary cold selfishness of the narrator, Jack. The abnormality of the children's behaviour becomes seemingly normal in the claustrophopic sense of there being very little of the outside world with which to compare it; rather like an abused child's life seeming normal, if unpleasant, to the child itself. It is more a themed book rather than a plot-driven one. I'd advise you buy and enjoy the prose and the theme.

The Cement Garden/Our Mother's House.......2007-07-01

While reading a review of The Cement Garden, I had the uncanny feeling that I'd read this book before, then found the name of the book I was thinking of in a customer review at Amazon--Our Mother's House, by Julian Gloag. I had to order them both to read/reread/compare. Both are books about kids whose mothers die of unnamed wasting diseases who decide to dispose of the bodies and continue living as a family. On one hand, this is the set-up of a fairy tale... because the first general rule of a fairy tale is that your mother dies. But these are Gothic stories, with a house, a virgin and a secret.

Our Mother's House older, published in the seventies, the story of seven--seven!--kids. "Mother" was a vicar's daughter, a keeper of a neat, harmonious household in a decaying neighborhood. There was a husband, unknown to the kids and condemned by the mother. Support comes from monthly checks that one of the younger boys, an artistic genius, endorses in his mother's hand. The story is told in tightly focused third person, and Hugh is the point of most of the focus. Hugh craves (and helps to create a semblance of) order. Two of the other kids embrace religion feverishly when their mother dies, and commit some gross evil in the name of righteousness, the tragic results of which bond the kids even further in the name of complicity. They were blameless in the death of their mother but they do not remain blameless, and so their chance of asking for help has passed. The kids are worried about a neighbor, the housekeeper and gardener (who they fire), and a nosy teacher, Miss Deke, who puts her head in now and then, demanding to see their mother. For a while they are helped by an adult who is really just helping himself to their money and home. They live for over a year until, well, the inevitable. Because discovery is inevitable, right? Discovery is rescue, and we can't stand for kids to live in parentless squalor forever, their sheets unwashed, their hair matted, their lives degenerating.

The four Cement Garden kids are more isolated, living in a neighborhood where most homes were condemned for a never-built roadway. Their parents are offered up in more detail. The father is a difficult character, the mother yielding and excusing of his fussy, demanding, rigid ways. The narrating character, Jack, is in collusion with his two sisters. They all look after his younger brother, Tom, treating him less like a child than a simple-minded, small peer. The older three children have responded to the general air of repression and frustration in their home with sex games that fuel Jack's longing for his older sister, Julie. Though Jack is a social outcast going through a particularly pimpled adolescence, it is less the sex that thrills him and more the sense of collusion, of togetherness in a world in which they have their own secrets. This sense is lost when their parents die. Each child spirals off into his or her own private world, mimicking their parents' isolation from each other and their kids.

This made me think about how, as kids, parents seem to exist as something to unite against. They are the safety net and the oppressors, security and prison all in one. In following what happens to the kids in these books, I guess Lord of the Flies sets the expected pattern. I expected that some kids would want to follow the old rules, while others would descend into "savagery." But these kids don't want to be detected, so the old forms must be followed.

In Our Mother's House, the older girl Elsa (age 13) becomes the mother, firmly insisting that the rules and patterns must abide. Dunstan, the oldest boy, installs himself as a religious martinet (though lying, drinking, snooping and death are all terrifying to the kids, religion is the only great Evil in this book). The mother in this book was loving and present. The life she's created for her kids is full of love, pattern, small rituals, physical affection, order. As a result, her kids actually fare better, psychologically. They are lost and grasping without that love, but at least they had it at one point. It's clear that their needs had been met, that they had been loved.

The Cement Garden kids are not as fortunate. They operated in unison against their parents. They were belittled by their father, and their father was protected by their mother. When the parents die, the kids are splintered, there is no more unity because there is nothing left to unite against. They follow separate, strange, eerie paths to self-definition and preservation. I don't want to wreck either book for possible readers, but the Cement Garden kids fascinate me. Every step they take is so wrong, and yet inexorable. Inadequately parented kids are inadequate to the task of parenting themselves--or each other. Especially each other. Julie's attempts devolve into grotesquerie.

In both these books, the confusion and yearning for order and care are followed by an occasional Bacchanalian sense of celebration that there is none. Comparisons have been made to Lord of the Flies, but I don't see those as apt for two reasons; one, despite what blurbers have to say, there is no chilling, inexorable evil (aside from religion, which is discarded by Dunstan) asserted in either book, and two, adults, and the civilizing forces they represent are always available to both families. They are not lost on islands, there are neighbors, friends, various busybodies aplenty in both books. The isolation is chosen. This gives an interesting element to both books--in the element of choice, and in the examination of the parents involved. How did they set up their kids for this particular choice?

I've been looking at the books, trying to figure out the key to the parenting. I think I've found it in the gardens. The garden in Our Mother's House is shaggy, untamed. There's a pile of old yellow brick near a hole that's been dug, a promised "sunken garden" for the kids. Swing, trees, a large patch of Lilies of the Valley, under which they will bury their mother. When they dig, they find the earth is full of stones. Their garden stands in direct contrast to their neighbor Mr. Halpert's garden, tidy and boxed and in possession of an automatic sprinkler. But it's a welcoming place for children, where they can play and exist and be kids. it goes wild after the mother dies, it becomes a contained but salvageable wilderness around the reminder of her grave. The garden, like the children, can recover. But the plans for the titular cement garden are in effect the blueprint for the lives the children will live after their parents die.

To quote:

"He had constructed rather than cultivated his garden according to some plans he sometimes spread out on the kitchen table while we peered over his shoulder. There were narrow flagstone paths which made elaborate curves to visit flower beds that were only a few feet away. One path spiralled up round a rockery as though it were a mountain pass. It annoyed him to see Tom walking straight up the side of the rockery, using the path like a short path of stairs. "Walk it properly," he shouted out the kitchen window. There was a lawn the size of a card table raised a couple of feet on a pile of rocks. Round the edge of the lawn there was just space for a single row of marigolds. He alone called it the hanging garden. In the very center of the hanging garden was a plaster stature of a dancing Pan. Here and there were sudden flights of steps, down, and then up. There was a pond with a blue plastic bottom. One day he brought home two goldfish in a plastic bag. The birds ate them on the first day. The paths were so narrow it was possible to lose your footing and fall into the flower beds. He chose flowers for their neatness and symmetry. He liked tulips and planted them well apart. He did not like bushes or ivy or roses. He would have nothing that tangled. On either side of us the houses had been cleared and in summer the vacant sites grew lush with weeds and their flowers. Before his first heart attack he had intended to build a high wall round his special world."

Ah, well. Pointless, paved over, smashed down, this is a garden where nothing will ever bloom. Of the two, Cement Garden is the better book, but it's also the sadder book.

Beware the child-welfare agencies!!!.......2006-08-25

As a good Christian and upstanding Republican it warmed my heart to read this book and its charming story of four resourceful children wisely heeding the dying wishes of their parents not to notify authorities of their orphan-hood. Indeed, had they run to the authorities they would have been separated from each other and not experienced the oneness and unity which concludes this book in the best finishing scene since "The Waltons" back in the seventies. And yes, as many have pointed out, this book is a ripoff of that heartwarming scouting tale "Lord of the Flies". Yeah, so Led Zeppelin's "the Lemon Song" is also a ripoff of Howlin' Wolf's "the Killing Floor". Some things bear repeating.

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Fibre Cement: Technology and Design
Jan R. Krause
Manufacturer: Birkhäuser Basel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3764375914

Book Description

Fiber cement—primarily known by the brand name Eternit in many countries—has been enjoying a renaissance for a decade. Structures by Günter Behnisch, Bearth & Deplazes, Coop Himmelblau, MVRDV, Morphosis, and many others exploit its tremendous formal and chromatic versatility at a time when elegant minimalism and flexible practicality are highly prized commodities in architecture. Also, the new generation of fiber cement slabs has air and water permeability characteristics that make it unrivaled for certain purposes. In ever expanding realms of home and workplace, it is also used for individual aesthetic design (e.g. interior house walls, exhibition architecture, and functional and industrial structures).

This book introduces the technology of fiber cement and its material and architectural history and presents some thirky outstanding new and recent projects from Europe and the United States, practically organized by principal applications—facade, roof, interior architecture, and object design.

Engineered Concrete Mix Design and Test Methods (Concrete Technology Series)

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Engineered Concrete Mix Design and Test Methods (Concrete Technology Series)
Irving Kett
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0849322774

Book Description

The Romans used an early type of concrete made with natural pozzuolanic cement more than 2,000 years ago. Today, Portland Cement Concrete is the most important material of construction. Yet few books, if any, exist that offer an in-depth analysis of the mixing and testing methods of this vital hydraulic cement. Until now that is. Engineered Concrete: Mix Design and Test Methods helps engineers, as well as laboratory technicians, grasp a better understanding of Portland Cement and Portland Cement Concrete. The book is divided into several sections, with the first, Mix Design Procedures, explaining how concrete batches are designed, mixed, and measured for various consistencies. Another section details the tests of the primary component materials of concrete other than water - namely Portland Cement, aggregates, and mortar - while the final section includes some of the fundamental concrete testing procedures for different strength parameters in conformity with the standards of the American Society for Testing Materials. While focusing solely on Portland Cement, the book also includes information on other hydraulic cementitious materials and additives because of their modern applications. Solidly researched and written, Engineered Concrete: Mix Design and Test Methods provides a clear understanding of mix design and testing of Portland Cement Concrete. As every civil engineer knows, it is the most versatile and important material of construction, and will probably remain so as far into the future as we can see.

Construction and Design of Cement Grouting: A Guide to Grouting in Rock Foundations (Wiley Series of Practical Construction Guides)

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Construction and Design of Cement Grouting: A Guide to Grouting in Rock Foundations (Wiley Series of Practical Construction Guides)
A. C. Houlsby
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471516295

Book Description

Provides exhaustive coverage of cement grouting in rock foundations, outlining all types of cement grout, comparing their suitabilities and describing various ways cement grouting is used in engineering construction. Written and arranged in an easy-to-read manner, the book is arranged as a reference manual with numerous cross-references. Step-by-step explanations on grouting techniques are given in considerable detail and written with both the novice and experienced practitioner in mind. Also covers advanced technology, including the current state of computer use in grouting operations; the latest grouting materials such as microfine; and the use of superplasticizers in cement grout. Chapters are arranged from elementary to advanced technology.

Color Illustrated Guide to Carbonate Rock Constituents, Textures, Cements, and Porosities (27)

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Color Illustrated Guide to Carbonate Rock Constituents, Textures, Cements, and Porosities (27)
Peter A. Scholle
Manufacturer: Amer Assn of Petroleum Geologists
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Binding: Hardcover

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Carbonate Depositional Environments (Aapg Memoir)

ASIN: 0891813039

Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures (13th ed) (EB-001)

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The Bible of Concrete Engineering

Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures (13th ed) (EB-001)
Portland Cement Association
Manufacturer: Portland Cement Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0893120871

Customer Reviews:

The Bible of Concrete Engineering.......2000-02-02

The Design and Control of Concrete Admixtures is no stranger to the world of construction and engineering. It is a must for all engineers and superintendants who have the slightest desire to construct projects from this incredibly dynamic material. Understanding this book and having it in your tool bag will give you incredible leverage through the understanding of what you can and can't do with concrete and concrete admixtures. For those working in the world of concrete this book is "THE" reference for concrete and concrete mixes.

The Cement of Society: A Survey of Social Order (Studies in Rationality and Social Change)

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Another Junk work for this professor to put on his resume

The Cement of Society: A Survey of Social Order (Studies in Rationality and Social Change)
Jon Elster
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521376076

Book Description

The question addressed in this challenging new book is: What binds societies together and prevents them from disintegrating into chaos and war? Elster analyzes two concepts of social order: stable, predictable patterns of behavior, and cooperative behavior. The book examines various aspects of collective action and bargaining from the perspective of rational choice theory and the theory of social norms. It is a fundamental assumption of the book that social norms provide an important kind of motivation for action that is irreducible to rationality.

Customer Reviews:

Another Junk work for this professor to put on his resume .......2007-08-24

This is a sociology book thats written in dense, deliberately wordy, intended to used on this professors resume to impress employers who probably wouldn't read the book rather flip through it and read a paragraph or two and come to the conclusion that "oh this is technical, he must be very smart", no doubt. Having read this book I can say its junk. Its hard to read and the points the author makes are trivial. Its one of those books you'll only find stashed away in a college library, never to be used or referenced by anyone. 287 pages of paper wasted. Don't waste you're money. It's an expense waste of money.

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