Purpose of the One Day House
Our One Day Houses are designed to address the massive global need for houses that are safe, durable and hygienic.
Our houses are earthquake resistant, flood resistant and hurricane resistant.
Walls and ceilings are insulated to keep the houses warm in winter and cool in summer.
The houses are also designed to be maintenance free for a long time.
Roof sheets are the components in the structures that have the shortest life expectancy.
And the galvalume pre-painted sheets we use are guaranteed to for 20 years.
Mass Production and Job Creation
Our houses combine mass production of critical components with on-site work by semi-skilled and unskilled workers.This ensures the quality of the structures while providing employment opportunities for on-site construction workers.
The Need
Many, many cities and towns around the world have large squatter camps or informal settlements associated with them.Even in areas where people have chosen to remain in villages and rural districts, many people are unable to afford forms of housing or shelter that are durable, safe and hygienic.
Because people who are in desperate need for shelter will tend to use any available material to construct their shacks or huts, the structures can very often be extremely vulnerable to destruction by fire.
And in windy environments where fires can spread very rapidly, there can often be significant loss of life.
Unsanitary conditions inside the huts and shacks also tend to encourage the spread of serious diseases.
Features of the Design
Foundations
Our houses are held together by steel connectors and steel mesh.
The main purpose of the foundation is to anchor the house in place and to prevent any movement caused by high winds or flooding.
Our foundations typically consist of 12-inch wide trenches that are 18 inches deep.
The trenches are filled with concrete or with large rocks and cement grout.
Each wall panel is tied to the foundation using wire or steel bands.
The level of the floor is usually at least 12 inches above the outside ground level.
The floor consists of 3 inches of concrete sitting on 6 to 9 inches of fill.
A single row of hollow concrete blocks, 9 inches high, is placed ouround the outside walls of the house at ground level.
This prevents outward bulging of the walls that could be caused by the inside fill.
The row of blocks also provides additional mass of material to hold the house in place.
Wall Panels
There are 14 walls in each house. The panels are 2.44 meters high and 1.5 meters wide.Nine of the panels have frames made of 32 mm square steel tubing as shown in the diagram on the page entitled: "Wall Panel Details".
A single layer of wire mesh (2.44 meters by 1.5 meters) is welded to the frame.
The mesh consists of 2.5 mm wire with 50 mm x 50 mm square spacing.
The remaining 5 panels contain frames for 3 windows and 2 doors.
The door frames are constructed using 50 mm x 50 mm square tube.
And the window frames are constructed using 60 mm x 25 mm square tubing.