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posted by n1 on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the unaffordable-housing dept.

The Daily Mail reports that:

'The block allows for faster, cheaper, more precise, and stronger building than is available through traditional building methods,' continued the firm.

'Architects consulted in brick development see a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities with the brick for making inexpensive, revolutionary structures, from single homes to multi-storey towers.

'The brick's patented design is flexible enough to be relevant from Vietnam to London.'

Other benefits quoted by the company include a 50 per cent reduction in building costs, controlled room temperatures for significantly lower running costs and 'virtually no debris left at building sites'.

However, it is unclear if mortar is required or if it's based on other familiar toys.

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Elon Musk's Boring Company has been releasing side products mostly unrelated to the company's main purpose, like hats and flamethrowers. The latest product has more to do with boring tunnels since they plan on selling and/or giving away bricks made from dirt dug in the company tunnels.

The Boring Company is now showing a glimpse at how the bricks are being produced. They estimate that the cost of moving the dirt can represent up to 15% of the total cost of a tunnel, which is why they want to turn the dirt into a product itself.

Musk claimed that the bricks are more solid than cinderblocks and he suggested that the company could sell them for just 10 cents in order to get rid of the dirt.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by fliptop on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:16AM

    by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:16AM (#66296) Journal

    TFA shows a crane being used to put them in place. How much does each brick weigh?

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
    • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by davester666 on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:39AM

      by davester666 (155) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:39AM (#66366)

      about 10 kg. americans are getting really fat and weak.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:22PM (#66595)
        From TFA: "..an Israel-based developer has designed Smart Bricks.."
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:45AM (#66301)
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:03AM (#66308)

    stop reading the daily mail, in the uk its known as the daily heil and theres good reason for that.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Jaruzel on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:33PM

      by Jaruzel (812) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:33PM (#66569) Homepage Journal

      Agreed, Daily Mail is awful and should never be considered a trustworthy source.

      Alternative (and original?) link:

      Smart Giant-sized lego bricks for industrial and infrastructure scale projects [nextbigfuture.com]

      -Jar

      --
      This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
    • (Score: 2) by emg on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:02PM

      by emg (3464) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:02PM (#66580)

      "in the uk its known as the daily heil"

      Mostly by Guardian readers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:11PM (#66587)

        I know you think that's a 'zing!', but it's actually one against you.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by gringer on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:11AM

    by gringer (962) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:11AM (#66311)

    This looks pretty neat, but one thought crossed my mind about fixing damage -- if a brick is damaged (most likely during the construction process), how can it be replaced? Presumably they have some way to deal with that that doesn't involve dissolving adhesive and unbuilding everything above the broken brick so that they can slot in a replacement.

    --
    Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:22AM (#66316)

      I'm sure they just cut out the damage and fill it with conventional concrete - either a whole block or just scaffold and pour.

      Like the way you replace a damaged section of hardwood flooring -- there is no way to fit another piece into the tongue-and-grooves without pulling up the whole floor, so you just cleanly cut out the damaged piece, replace it with a piece of wood that does not have the tongue-and-groove edges and glue it to the underlayment. It is slightly weaker but it's only a tiny part of the whole so it is unlikely to be a problem.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Buck Feta on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:54AM

        by Buck Feta (958) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:54AM (#66324) Journal

        > Like the way you replace a damaged section of hardwood flooring

        Or you could do it as my moron B.I.L. fixed his hardwood flooring, with some OSB, Liquid Nails, and a half-rack of MGD.

        --
        - fractious political commentary goes here -
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @12:56PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @12:56PM (#66477)

          ok, BIL is brother in law, OSB is likely Oriented Strand Board.
          But what's a half rack?, and MGD - is that Miller Genuine Draft ?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:04PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:04PM (#66482)

            12 cans of cheap beer

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by mhajicek on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:14AM

    by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:14AM (#66314)

    SIPs, or structural insulated panels, have been around for years and are basically just that.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:39AM

      by anubi (2828) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:39AM (#66321) Journal
      I am familiar with something called "ARXX blocks", which have since been bought out by FOX building materials.. Here's what they look like [foxblocks.com]

      These things are basically big styrofoam legos. You snap them together as you will, for what you have in mind. Fix 'em up just like you want it, then when ready, call the concrete guy in with his pump truck and he will fill up the core with concrete. Once the concrete cures, it won't come apart near as easy as it was to put together.

      The stuff is an excellent thermal insulator. The inside concrete core acts like a big thermal stabilizer, and bugs leave it alone.

      You are then free to lay an interior and exterior layer of whatever over it to make it look like anything you want to make it look like... brick, rock, stucco, whatever. You will never need the termite man or have rot problems.

      I have been in several buildings constructed from these. I can tell you one thing about them... this stuff kills off whatever noise is outside.

      I have been following these guys because if I ever "come into some money", I would like to have a home built of these.
      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:42AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:42AM (#66337) Homepage

        Some similar species of insulative stryobrick is made over yonder in Belgrade, Montana. My architect sister used 'em to insulate her house.

        My question on the bricks of TFA, tho, is -- how stable are they in an earthquake? I expect they'd have the same problems as cinder-block buildings.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday July 09 2014, @11:36AM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 09 2014, @11:36AM (#66452)

          Well, there's no mortar to crumble in a quake, so I'd be fairly optimistic. Then again, being huge, that means you'll end up with some node of vibration where the concrete will be in tension, and concrete's engineering tension limit is ... zero. Yup 0. So you might end up with some new cracks.

          I almost bought a house with these basement panel things, for reasons unrelated to basements I ended up in a different house but I was intrigued and researched the topic.

          If you're in debt for 30 years buying something roughly equal in cost to half your lifetime income you kinda need to consider the durability and thats where the main difference lies. My research indicates the cast in place ones crack as they shrink and settle, and fixing them is real cheap and easy, you just demolish the house above, jackhammer out the foundation, pour a new one, and build a new house on top, LOL. Cheap and simple.

          The precast panels dropped into place are about a thousand times more durable because they are cast and cured outside, so the shrinkage happens before installation, and they tend to be panel shaped so when (not if) settling occurs, the panels kinda earthquake along existing fault lines and continue to be structurally sound, even if they shifted in place relative to one another by a 1/4 inch or whatever. So they leak as well or better than any other basement, they just visually look good and don't crack.

          I have cinder blocks made waaaay before the housing bubble got rolling so the quality level of the whole house, and the basement, is literally unavailable in new construction. There are cracks but not many and vary from barely visible to thinner than a business card but thicker than a sheet of letter paper. Not bad for a 50 year old house. Everything about old house construction is superior to new houses with the possible exception of insulation, of course that is fixable.

          From vast ancestral experience and handed down knowledge of old Germans who all have workshops in their basement, about every quarter to half century you buy this paint made out of white latex paint and some kind of weird hydraulic cement and sand and rock dust and smear it all over the entire basement wall and when it dries the basement is practically air tight, it flows into the cracks and seals them. It also makes the cement, which is a great conductor of water, basically an insulator of water, so the humdity level in the basement drops to about zero, or whatever it is upstairs anyway. This works awesome with cinder blocks. Would be interested to hear if this stuff works on panels, cast in place, etc.

          One of the coolest technological experiences I've had is replacing my dedicated electric branch for lighting my basement, which had like 1200 or so watts of incandescent bulbs, with about 300 or so watts of LEDs. More lumens and less watts, whats not to love? I miss the warmth the old fashioned bulbs provided in the winter.

          I bet a lot of SN people have labs / workshops / office / whatever in their basements. Aside from the "I live in my mom's basement" crowd. This would be a fun ask SN question for a boring weekend. Older guys don't join makerspaces because we have far better shops in our basements, although I am intrigued with the idea of getting access to newer stuff, like laser cutters.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:52PM

            by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:52PM (#66577) Homepage

            Know what you mean about cinder blocks. Old ones weigh 40-50 pounds if not more, vs. 20 pounds for modern blocks (and I came across a site that says some now are as little as 12 pounds!!) Difference being the old ones are pretty much solid cement, and the moderns are half or 2/3rds air. Guess which one cracks in half if you stress it the least little bit wrong. (I've used 'em enough for trailer blocking to be painfully aware.)

            And if you want the best examples of how we used to build better, look at, oh, say, Roman aqueducts still in use today. Over-engineered, yeah, but there's a benefit to that... you don't wind up rebuilding it once a generation. The fate of Paris Gibson Junior High (Great Falls MT) leaps to mind... the old part, sandstone block built in 1896 and seriously over-engineered by today's standards, survived multiple severe earthquakes and still stands today. The brick annex (1913), an early example of "modern engineering", didn't; you can see its final remains blown all over the street in the movie Telethon.

            I'm thinkin' in an earthquake zone, you use these newfangled lego-blocks to replace anything you'd have made of poured or precast concrete anyway, and build the rest as usual. That way you get the benefits without the drawbacks.

            Yep, those old incandescent bulbs were perfect for heating a small or already-insulated space, especially one where you just want to take the chill off or keep a pipe from freezing. Much more energy-efficient, and keeps a steadier temperature, than dedicated heating that has to turn on and off a lot to maintain the same slight warming. It's always more efficient to keep something a little warm all the time, than to have to heat it back up a dozen times a day.

            As to new houses, I absolutely hate the way they're built... and modulars are worse. Just the bare minimum to keep it from blowing away, everything as cheap and minimal as possible, and there's no joy in the workmanship, not even in upscale houses. My granddad was a farmer in North Dakota; he built a house with his own hands back in the early 1900s, and even tho it was just a poor man's farmhouse, it had touches like carved woodwork along the bannister and a stained-glass window in the front entryway. They lost the farm in the 1930s and tho the house stood empty and neglected ever after, it was still standing and reasonably sound 60 years later. With today's houses you'd be lucky if there was any real wood visible anywhere in the house, and the same period of neglect would reduce it to a pile of scrap.

            --
            And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:04PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:04PM (#66483)

          If they lock together properly, they may be slightly safer. Cinder blocks can crack, and break off in a traditional wall, while these may act as containment for damage to keep pieces from falling in a quake.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:10AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:10AM (#66348)

        > I have been following these guys because if I ever "come into some money", I would like to have a home built of these.

        ICF (insulating concrete forms) [wikipedia.org] are roughly 10% more expensive than stick-built construction. At least for walls - floors and even moreso roofs can get cost prohibitive. But going with a SIP roof is a very cost-effective alternative that in some cases can be superior. Depending on the climate, you can quickly make back that 10% extra in construction cost from the difference in reduced utility bills. A mortgage lender that is familiar with ICF may even be able to up their lending limit to cover the 10% because your total monthly outlay is reduced by the improved utilities.

        FYI, it is best to try to get as much of the concrete on the inside of the insulation as possible because of that thermal mass effect you mentioned. The mass on the outside of the house gives no appreciable benefit. These guys have a system that maximizes the external styrofoam. [wikipedia.org] They cost a little bit more than the more "balanced" forms, but they also claim to be easier for DIY installation so you might make up the difference in labor costs.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:13AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @04:13AM (#66349)

          Oops - that last link should have been to these guys:
          http://www.tfsystem.com/Products/TransForm.aspx [tfsystem.com]

          • (Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:19AM

            by anubi (2828) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:19AM (#66383) Journal

            Thanks for the link! I am always looking for stuff like this as I intend not only to use it to insulate a house I want to build, I also want it for building ice-banks, as I have come across some very interesting technologies for heat transfer which allow me to make ice as long as I have the sun available as a heat source to drive it. ( based on ISAAC technologies ).

            If chance gets it I can move to the middle of the boonies for retirement, I want to rig it so I basically go off-grid. As long as I do not go senile, I should be fine, albeit whoever gets my stuff after I am gone will need a pretty good understanding of thermodynamics if he needs to maintain this thing...If I do it right, though, it should run a long long long time all on its lonesome unless someone takes a hammer to it.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:37AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:37AM (#66398)

              Sounds like the plot of The Mosquito Coast. [imdb.com]

              • (Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:14AM

                by anubi (2828) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:14AM (#66408) Journal

                Yes... his technology is very similar! Ammonia absorption. I am using different materials, but the process is the same.

                --
                "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:17PM

          by etherscythe (937) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:17PM (#66740) Journal

          Wikipedia says that has an R-value of 17. This is good by conventional measures, but if you're really interested in heating/cooling efficiency, there's better out there.

          Monolithic Domes [monolithic.org] has a building design (claiming an R-value of 27-30) using an inflatable airform that is internally layered with both a special form of concrete meant to be shot into place basically using a hose, and insulating foam. The dome shape they use is also extremely resistant to all manner of extreme weather, fires, and probably earthquakes.

          I'm not affiliated with the company, I just find it a great design (much the way I admire the Tesla Model S). That said, I could definitely see doing a shed or similar less-used structure out of ICF construction, for its apparent simplicity.

          --
          "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @05:44AM (#66371)

        Seen those before. However, I question the premium they have on them over standard continuous pour molds? As you could still do a standard pour fill and then slap whatever R rated foam on both sides with an adhesive. Or even a standard spray foam? Foam is dead easy to make and cut.

        Though from a labor pov the cost could be lower than a form. Still probably limited on height per pour though.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by EvilJim on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:46AM

    by EvilJim (2501) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:46AM (#66340) Journal

    I propose using giant-er duplo bricks, to improve that 80% improvement by 80% plus 80% uglier

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:22AM

      by anubi (2828) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @08:22AM (#66410) Journal

      Uglier? One is not supposed to see the innards... One is supposed to use a little artistic effort with these and make it look like anything he wants it to look like. There are all sorts of facing material out there. Personally, I want mine to look like a structure built of rock, but in reality it would just be a veneer.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 1) by chinggis on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:42PM

    by chinggis (1521) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:42PM (#66513)

    I question how strong these buildings would be without any steel reinforcement. One of the other articles that someone linked in the comments mentions that steel bars can be "slotted through dedicated channels", but that's going to be useless from a structural standpoint without the steel being properly bonded to the concrete (which won't happen by just sliding the bars into already formed/cured channels).

    • (Score: 2) by jcross on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:14PM

      by jcross (4009) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @02:14PM (#66533)

      The same article also mentions that the blocks have "extraordinary tensile strength", so they may be internally fiber-reinforced. The tensile strength of the adhesive would be another limiting factor. With masonry, tensile reinforcement is mainly there to cope with side-loading, structures that are not laid plumb (by accident or on purpose), or to support openings like windows, doors, and so on. The fact that cathedrals have stood for hundreds of years with almost no tensile strength at their mortar joints would seem to indicate that you don't need a whole lot of reinforcement in a well-designed structure.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by mrchew1982 on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:25PM

      by mrchew1982 (3565) on Wednesday July 09 2014, @06:25PM (#66650)

      There are some specialty epoxies out there that bind to concrete extremely well and end up being stronger than the concrete itself. To wouldn't be hard to coat the rebar with this before insertion or coat the hole so that you end up with a joint stronger that concrete+rebar alone.

      I have also seen steel roof trusses welded to the rebar in hurricane zones. Makes for an extremely tough house!