Construction

People that know me well know that I love construction, architecture, and engineering.  I used to sit for hours combing through my father's books about cathedrals and castles and their construction.  Fascinating stuff!  In fact, my original career choice was architectural engineering or construction.  I ultimately chose a different path but I'm still so fascinated by the way things are built and I just love the work that goes into building.  Naturally, I'm drawn to the way things are built here in Poland.  It's profoundly different and in the long run, better and more economical in my opinion.

Two things we've noticed, most homes in Poland do not have air conditioning.  It is becoming more popular but with the way homes are built, it's rarely even necessary.  We've also noticed that our home here is fairly quiet most of the time since the walls are super thick.  During incredibly windy days, it is virtual unnoticeable from the inside of our house.  The walls and windows don't move or make noise.  I find it fascinating to look outside and see the trees bowing in the wind and yet, our block house stands firm and unnoticing.

I don't fully grasp all the details so I can only share pictures and bits and pieces of what I've learned or what I've seen.  Regardless of my understanding, it is fascinating and I sort of wish we could transfer these ideas and materials back to the states.  Here, homes and commercial buildings are built with similar methods and materials just on different scales.

This building is under construction close to our church.  Notice the blocks being used.  These are not cinder blocks.  They are significantly lighter and slightly larger than our traditional blocks.

This is a support column.  Long rebar rods with poured concrete are used to reinforce load bearing areas.

You can see in these pictures that another building already exists next to this site and there are doors in anticipation of this building's completion.

This picture from the front of our new church under construction shows the foam outer layer being applied.  This foam blocking is glued to the exterior and provides incredible insulation.  You can also see that once the blocks are finished on the exterior, windows and doors can be installed.

Once the foam block is on, a mesh layer is applied over the top.  It is on top of this layer that the final stucco like outer layer is added.

This is the stucco on the outside of our home.  It is textured and painted.

Windows here are quite fantastic.  You will notice right away that there are no screens.  In Indiana with all the bugs, this could be an issue.  In Poland, it's not a big deal.  Windows can open from just the top as you can see here.

When it rains, we can leave our windows open at the top usually unless it's terribly gusty.

For most of the summer, we left at least one of our windows completely open at night and often even our deck door.  Mosquitoes weren't an issue this year and birds don't even attempt to come in.

For us, the icing on the cake are the blinds.  These are an optional install on the outside of the windows.  If you want your room to be cool in the summer, simply drop the blinds completely during times of full sun.  No air conditioning needed.

It's also nice to have these blinds if you are a miner or someone working an off shift job.  These blinds can let in a little light through the small slots like shown here or they can be closed completely for a black out effect.  These exterior blinds are also nice for shutting out the nighttime city lights.

In this picture, you can see that electrical cables are placed after all the walls are placed.  Where the cables are run, a place is chiseled out of the wall.  Later, the walls will be smoothed out with plaster and these channels in the wall will be completely unnoticeable.  

Cables for electric hanging from ceiling in our new church common area.

Here Ed is working on the last bit of roofing on the new church.  It's similar to the metal roofing in the U.S. with the look of tile.  Some homes have actual tile roofs but it appears the colored sheet metal is more common now.

It is common for homes to be built in long rows with connecting walls.  You can see here that each home has a unique color palette with different roof tiles, window types, garage doors, and colors.  It's really pretty.

 In an attempt to dress up the apartment buildings built during Russian occupation, the city has undergone a colorful face-lift.  Most apartment buildings both old and new have vibrant colors.

Since the exterior of buildings is a stucco, all sorts of geometrical shapes and lines are used to create interesting designs on these apartments all across Lubin.

 This building has yet to be painted.  It desperately needs it!

 It appears to be next on the list for a face lift.  They have scaffolding sitting next to the building.  For the sake of the residents, I hope to see some pretty updates.

All the apartment complexes are very clearly labeled with the addresses on the outside such as this one.  This makes finding people so easy.