Hi There, I’ve been very excited to learn about WikiHouse - what a great concept!
If I were to start a pull request for an imperial version of the Skylark blocks (for North America), would we be able to merge it into the main branch? Or should I start it as a separate project?
The Skylark 250 blocks are close to 24” on center, and I could imagine a 16” on center version to work with standard construction materials
Hi @stefan-webb. Good suggestion! I think a separate branch/project for now is probably the right approach, as it’s essentially a fork of Skylark and may well need it’s own (North American) bird name.
In terms of the 24" versus 16" set out, it’s worth finding a balance between standard construction materials available locally and the dimensional size of the plywood/OSB structural sheets (which I believe are generally still 8ft x 4ft in the US?). Other people have also raised the idea of creating a Skylark version for 3/4" plywood (~19mm), whereas in Europe the standard is 18mm.
I’m just learning about wikihouse but agree that an imperial version would be appealing for US based construction. I’m interested in learning how I can help with the conversion – let me know if you decide to make a fork and are looking for help.
@ivy4cat Glad to hear you’re interested too! I investigated converting a basic wall block to something that would work with standard rockwool insulation batts and I think some small modifications in the dimensions would make it work.
I’m going to start some (parametrized) designs in Fusion 360 on a fork next week, but feel free to start yourself if you want to get going quicker!
@Clayton if the wall units were slightly thinner at 220mm rather than 250mm would this still allow you to build several story constructions? If you used 3/4" 4’ x 8’ sheets of structural plywood, then a wall unit that was 8.75" would fit an R30 Rockwool Comfortbatt perfectly!
@stefan-webb There is structural capacity information for the narrower 200mm wall blocks in the structural engineering guide. Yes, in theory even the SKYLARK200 series should be able to support multiple storeys, but it’s really down to your local structural engineer to assess this for your conditions.