Illustrated books about house construction

November 14, 2012 3:01 PM

I'd like to know of some other books similar to Francis D. K. Ching's "BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ILLUSTRATED"

One thing I wish for is a book which has a good illustrated section dealing with the formwork and pouring of the concrete foundation.

Also, although I know that the book I mentioned above is a classic masterwork, I find the skinny strange 30-degree isometric pencil drawings to be maddening. I love the black and white and the line art, but I wish for another book which is very much like it, but with better and more readable illustrations.

posted by shipbreaker to home & garden (2 answers total)

My old and dated copy of "Basic Construction Techniques for Houses and Small Buildings Simply Explained" (U S Bureau of Naval Personnel) has an entire chapter devoted to concrete, and another to "Foundation Construction and Floor and Wall Framing." Illustrated.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:12 PM on November 14, 2012

Rob Thallon's book "Graphic Guide to Frame Construction" is fantastic. It's got a nice section on foundations. Now, it doesn't tell you how to build them but it shows you all the parts and has several common building scenarios for each section. Of course, you need to reference your own local building codes and local conditions (frost zone, etc.), but I've found it to be invaluable as a reference.

A book that I have out from the library right now that I may purchase because it has been pretty cool is "The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling." I just flipped through the foundations section and it looks to have more in-depth info -- figures and charts on various conditions -- but nothing about formwork specifically.

For "how-to," I usually look in the Fine Homebuilding or the Taunton Press series. Formwork is tricky business and the people that do foundations for a living have stuff that they use again and again for formwork that makes the costs more reasonable than a one-time thing. But, that's where I would go. Check out the whole mess of books from your library and then flip through them to see if you find what you want. I see a couple online at my library called "Concrete formwork" by Leonard Koel and "Formwork for concrete structures" by Robert L. Peurifoy, Garold D. Oberlender.
posted by amanda at 5:16 PM on November 14, 2012