Do-It-Yourself Construction of Resilient Houses in Disaster Prone Environments

Abstract

An orthogonal framework including L shaped brackets connected to a hollow support tube by bolts and press nuts with the short leg of the brackets against the tube and the long legs extending therefrom and a pair of beams bolted to the long legs of the brackets provides an exceptionally strong framework made of exceptionally light structural elements which can be readily mass produced and assembled.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An orthogonal framework comprising:
 a hollow square connecting tube having first and second ends,   a plurality of bolt holes formed therein and press nuts secured in the interior of the tube aligned with said bolt holes,   means in at least one end of said connecting tube for connecting a hollow square post to the connecting tube,   a pair of L shaped brackets each having a long leg and a short leg, said legs having a plurality of bolt holes formed therein;   a first plurality of bolts received in the bolt holes of said short legs of said brackets and threadedly engaged with the press nuts in the connecting tube;   at least one pair of beams having opposed ends each having bolt holes therein aligned with the bolt holes on the long legs of said brackets; and   a second plurality of bolts and cooperating nuts, said second plurality of bolts being installed in the boll holes of said long legs of the brackets and the aligned holes in said beams and engaged with said nuts.   
     
     
         2 . An orthogonal framework as defined in  claim 1  including a hollow square post having at least one end dimensioned to fit over and receive said connecting tube. 
     
     
         3 . An orthogonal framework as defined in  claim 2  wherein said at least one end of the post has bolt holes formed therein to allow bolting of the post to the tube. 
     
     
         4 . An orthogonal framework as defined in  claim 3  including means for securing a wall panel to said beams, post and tube.