Traditional adobe walls need bolstering. Steel-reinforced concrete columns, lintels and bond beams add shear strength and carry point loads beyond adobe's capacity. Similar columns placed at corners stiffen the walls and add the shear strength needed to resist lateral loads. Adjacent adobe walls join to the block columns with ladder-type steel reinforcing wire laid between the courses. A continuous reinforced-concrete bond beam ties the adobe walls together and offers solid bearing for the vigas.
Most interior walls are adobe.
Supporting an adobe wall here was problematic, so these walls are framed conventionally and plastered. Parallel-strand beams support these walls. The blend of materials made this house tricky to build. The expertise of structural engineer Paul Endres and builder Mark Johnson was critical. Polyurethane foam insulates and waterproofs the house.