Hello,

I am planning on building a keep type home when I retire. It's always been a dream of mine since I as a young teenager. I was in the SCA as a youngster, but quit a long time ago. What I plan to build will not be a true castle, I admit, but I have to make it in a cost effective, energy efficient manner which will allow me to do as much work as possible on it myself. I also have to make it a place my wife is willing to live in and where I can have the eventual hordes of grandchildren visit. I'll be eligible to retire from the Air Force in 10 years and must retire after 18 years. So one way or another I have time to plan this right. I know proper prior preparation prevents p*$# poor performance, so I'd like to discuss ideas with people on this forum. I've looked at various castle related sites on the internet including the cinderblock castle in West Virginia. I plan on stucco and wood interior. I don't like the look of cinder block, even the split face stuff. I am considering slip form rebar reinforced concrete with internal insulation panels embedded in the concrete and tied to an eventual real stone front. Slip form concrete seems to be a favorite for the do it yourself alternative home builders, but I haven't seen anybody tie the concrete to a stone wall front. I'm not talking about just a facade an inch thick, but a stone wall. Has anyone used slip forms in this way?

regards
Rich Grove

I've seen a few castles with the outer wall facade served as the form and the interior wall was made with slip forms, or appeared to be.
This tied the outer wall which usually broke away or shattered under a heavy impact into the poured inner core making for a stronger combination.
The outer wall was constructed of lime mortar and the stone was set in a way that a few every so many feet penetrated into the lime cement core and of course the rougher side of the facade stones was placed to the inside helping the bonding.
Although the inner core was poured and of a different consistency then normal castle walls that were hand layered the walls resembled greatly slip forming, and built somewhere from the 12th to the 14th C.

To know how large and high will your keep be and how thick the walls some one might be able to give a few pointers.

Every body here will give what help or suggestions we can.

Well, I've been playing with sketch up and originally sketched out 2 20' square towers (35' to top of battlements) flanking the ends of a rectangular keep/house with a roof (apprximately 30' to top of roofline, 2 stories but attic space) that goes back about 40' and then meets a rectangular tower occupying the final 20' of the rectangle and going up to about 40' above ground level to the top of the rectangulr tower battlement. Wish I could import my sketchup file but I don't know how to do that so it would be viewable by others without sketchup. I'm wondering about the best material to use and whether I can even do most of this myself. I sure hope so. I have some years to learn basic construction skills and take some trade shool classes.
regards
Rich

Things just got crazy busy around here back as soon as I can this evening

Hey there Rich,

I'm not familiar with sketchup but their site does say you can print a hard copy so a scan could be made and then put into a file that could be accessed by this forum using the browse button in the add a reply.
Not sure where sketchup keeps their files with in their programme but if you can check that folder you can make a note and then access it here.
Is that any help?



Most everyone can learn the construction trade and sometimes its even enjoyable.

IMHO ---- Your idea of using the slip forms and a stone wall should work fine and there are variants to even that technique.

One is to place the stone within the forms before laying the core binder (Lime or Portland cement). It slows things down somewhat but has less labor in the end.

I hope you can post an image it would help me to visualize your project better.

It sounds like a well thought out design and should work.

Well, I'll give it a try. This current mock up is under revision, I don't like the way the chimneys in the draing block the rearward view form the flanking towers.

regards
Rich

Not havoing any luck with this upload thingy _I'll try again.....

I think the files may be too big, the JPGs are each about a megabyte and a third.. maybe that's too big for the board to handle?

Yup will need to reduce them. Average size is about 800 x 600

Okay, I'll try again.....Click to view attachment

Okay, I'll try again.....Click to view attachment



This seems to work now....Click to view attachment

This is much better
Interesting design too

It reminds me a little of the basic layout at Borthwick, though your centre block is wider. I hope you're not going to test local criminals by making them jump from tower to tower!

That is totally cool design ,now you have my brain trying to turn over, I must find me a drawing board

I need to find someone to just design my place from a pencil sketch floor plan! LOL

What program did you use to draw, those plans ?

Sorry an oversight on my part, the total has been raised to 3500 kb's, but in a few more posts your member group will change to a higher setting alowing for more room to expand

GREAT, thanks, I've got one more view I wanted to post....Click to view attachment

The one thing that stands out to me is the ground approach is covered which I think is a important aspect to security now a days as it was during the castle building era.
I also like the large Hall? accessed by the tower blocks. Well Done

Nice and simple layout for sure (to my simple mind!) One thing that stands out though is the fireplace chimney placement on the keep tower. It's right in the middle of the entranceway instead of the rear of the tower. Is that done intentionally or just an early sketch oversight? Are there working fireplaces on each floor or just the ground one?

Also just curious as to stair placement for the front towers...one central or one for each tower?

Well, the large tower is actually going to house the master bedroom suite on the ground floor. I have to consider how I'm going to live there in my old age, so I need the MB on the ground floor. So the fireplace you are asking about will be two sided or there will be two separate fireplaces sharing the chimney, one in the MB and one in the great hall.

There is probably going to be a single stairway with a wheelchair lift installed for when we get old ( an elevator would add at least another $20,000 to the eventual cost so I don't think I want to do that.

The main entry is between the smaller two towers which will open onto a large "great hall" actually a fairly open design, high ceilinged kitchen/living room/dining room area. I am revising the plans to put a small gate house in between the two towers (really a glorified porch to allow visitors to be out of the rain while they ring the doorbell (I might even put a murder hole in the ceiling of the porch, just for fun).

I plan to have lots of working fireplaces, but the placement of the chimneys in the two smaller towers flanking the entrance has to be revised to retain a clear field of fire over all the sides of the castle.

Of course in all likelihood, when I retire, I'll probably only be able to afford to build myself a single watchtower to use as a guest house rather than this large a project. It all depends on how long I can spend working on it, how old I'll be when I retire, and whether or not my wife and I have the financial resources to do this. We might be able to do smething like this, depending on how things shake out.
regards
Rich

Got it thanks! Well done on thinking these parts through. Yeah I figured that it was a primary sketch and design and other factors would come up and change things like capital and time.

Good idea on the shared fireplace design...so I assume you'll have swinging doors on either side to the MB for privacy then. Good luck!

I can testify that much can be done on a very limited budget and it depends on how much a person really wants something done.
Meg and I are like many others that have only what we bring in and not wealthy or even well to do.
Building dreams takes time.
A very hard lesson that I'm still learning.

Theres several castles that have twin flanking towers like yours with a upper arch and enclosed battlement that might fit your plans for a porch.
I'll try to find an image around here of one.

I Like the murder hole idea and my plans have them, say .... for when a friend comes over in the hot Oklahoma summer I can drop water balloons.
But It would be my luck The Cleave will have brought his portable Trebuchet

So how is the progress on your dream coming? Where are the posts on your progress, I saw some old posts but nothing very current. Am I looking in the wrong threads?
regads
Rich

The project is coming alone not near fast enough for me since I'm impatient about this.
We stop work during the winter and consolidate whats been done letting things settle also it gives us time to recoup our funds.
The outer web pages do need a overall true just hadn't had time to work on them.
I don't say alot about things in public due to the problems we have had in the past.