much of our island architecture involves this homely building material.
Cement block. There's a lot of it decorating Hawaii.
“I've never seen so much cement block in my life,” I said, looking at the barren red dirt of a former pineapple field, held in check by several tiered walls of untreated, unpainted, unpretty cinderblock, the setting of our “fixer-upper” house on Maui fourteen years ago.
This was what the wall around our yard looked like. No live grass. Pretty!
Now if you think about it, this propensity for cement block (also called hollow brick sometimes, or breeze brick in the UK) makes a lot of sense. We have a sand quarry on Maui, and make cement here in such amounts we actually send it elsewhere. Hawaii is one of the most expensive states to construct in because EVERYTHING must be flown or shipped in; here was a (relatively) cheap, plentiful building material made locally. It's also nice because it's cool in summer, warm in winter (not that that's a problem) and the area where I live is hilly, and it makes an ideal terracing material.
*yawn* I know I lost you, I almost fell asleep myself. Sorry!
This one has it all- cinderblock wall, mailbox, and lurid paint job. I like the plastic chair under the palm tree-a little bit o' paradise.
Anyway, I've lived in this “local color” neighborhood fourteen years and still haven't got over the sheer balls-out ugliness of it. In the mainland they use a lot of cement block, but they cover it with plaster and call it “Mediterranean” or “Spanish” like this:
Underneath, everything, I mean everything, is just cement block.
So that's the part I haven't got used to. I've tried to pretty it up at my house, and here are some of my strategies:
I'm trying to grow stuff over it. Grow! Grow! Grow!
We painted it with “stone paint” and grew greenery. Lots of greenery. Nalu, above, looks askance at this project.
More attempts at growing, only the #$@!! yard dude cut my disguise back.
I painted it, and keep a cat in front at all times as a visual distraction. Also more greenery.
But my neighborhood…they have just succumbed. Lock, stock, and block.
A cement block trash can holder. Classy!
Yeah. Why? I don't know. So the cans don't blow over? It's windy here.
Graffiti is not good. Neighbor will no doubt get rid of it soon and maybe even paint!
Note the decorative cement block at the top. I want me some of that!
Typical cement block rental in my neighborhood. Nice and cool inside, no AC needed!
The county park buildings- you guessed it, cement block!
So there you go. We've got a lot of sand here, and we're turning it into our town. I just wish there was some way to pretty it up a little more.
What are the building materials like in your part of the world?
P.S. I just had to give you a couple more mailboxes:
The whale topiary from another angle.
I call this one “Homemade Lava Rock Mountain”- the dogs are unimpressed.
Aren't you wondering by now, what I'm coming up with next? And don't forget to answer about local building materials in your area.
I’m surprised that you (meaning those of you in Hawaii) don’t have and use what is known as split-faced block in some of the constructon. When in placed in a structure it takes on a more organic look. My husband built a fireplace with one years ago, because the homeowner couldn’t afford the granite he wanted but he needed the fireplace, so they used split-faced block which will later be faced with granite. Here in New England we build with wood, but there is one house in our city that is made of concrete block, and my husband worked on it because he was a masonry contractor at the time, and he was contracted to construct all of the interior walls. The joke among his employees was that the man was building a bomb shelter, but in fact he was constructing a lovely four-bedroom home in the Portuguese style which was what he knew from his childhood in the Azores. It didn’t really fit the neighborhood of colonial and Cape Cod style wood-frame houses when it was originally built, but it has mellowed over time, perhaps because of the trees in the yard, and on a hot summer evening when I am out walking I look at that house (the house is not far from mine), I think that they must be cool and comfortable in their gracious block home.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful, knowledgeable reply, and its true when someone in a neighborhood builds somehting different, it stands out. I think money is the reason things aren’t plastered or fronted better around here. I love the story about the Portuguese house!
I’m by no means an expert on building materials, but as far as I know, brick is still the most common one here, at least for houses.
I think the stone paint is a great idea, and I’d just plant more stuff over and around it. I don’t know if honeysuckle grows well in your part of the world, but that might be a good choice as it only needs a little opening to be planted in and then it grows abundantly (and smells so sweet, especially at night.)
You are so kind to my sad little stairs. I really like that idea, though…I have a LOT of vines going on in my yard for various disguising purposes. Wadelia in front hung all the way to the ground on the front walkway until the yard guy trimmed it. The back has lilikoi vines (passion fruit) covering 20 ft height.
My problems from that are, rats who come from the cane fields to eat the lilikoi and too much of it.
Oh well, the cinderblock is nicely covered.
I’ve seen a lot of homes on the Hilo side of the Big Island built with cement blocks. We do have some in Kona and the trend seems to be taking off more. That and vinyl siding. When I was a kid, everything was built on stilts. I believe the stilts are for flood prevention. Not sure about Maui, but it is expensive to build basements in Kona because of the blue rock. So maybe that’s why people resort to building so high above ground. Gardening is a challenge as well. When I had one, I had to elevate it and buy copious amounts of potting soil.
My mom dressed up her cement steps with sparkly gems (like you would buy in the floral section of WalMart). It looks nice. 🙂
Thanks for showing us the art of cement block decorating.
I thought you might enjoy that! Jewels on the stairs sounds fun!
Some of the nicest block walls I’ve seen had either a mural painted on it or mosaic tile. I think I pinned a couple on my Pinterest and that’s a good place to search for block wall ideas.
Morocco has the most cement block I ‘be seen. When you complete your house there you are taxed so no one does. The cement blocks have all the rebates sticking out. By comparison Hawaii cement block looks civilized ugly.
That was rebar
Yeah, I was wondering…rebates? Chalked it up to cultural differences. TY for the Pinterest tip. Painting and growing is kind of working for me…that or I’m just getting used to it after 14 years…
I’ve seen somewhere about painting stone faces with a yoghurt mixture – that encourages the growth of moss and algae to make the stone look less bare. I know some people “paint” old stone sinks in their garden with it to make them look a little less sterile. Here in UK, most of our buildings are brick, part from industrial units which tend to be cement block. Brick buildings look warm and cozy. Cement can look cold – but if you live in a warm climate then obviously that’s what you need. Our home (built nearly 40 years ago) has breeze block interior walls, many homes built now have only plasterboard (for cheapness and because they are quick to install no doubt). I love the insights you give us into Hawaiian culture Toby, please keep them coming.
I may still tackle the ugly walls everywhere in my yard–vines have been my friend!
Maybe Wyland will see your blog and come paint you a beautiful mural.
Here in the Midwest we all have basements made of that lovely block. In one half of my moms basement the walls were never finished (laundry furnace area); however somewhere in time someone did paint the brick an aqua color. You are not alone!
Come on Wyland, I’d love me a whale wall!
In Hawi just across the channel from you our house has a block foundation that the previous owners painted with wooden walls above. I am pretty sure the painter must have had a liquid breakfast and lunch because it is the worst paint job I have ever seen. Here in Delaware older houses are almost always wooden but the new ones are built of what ever strikes the owners fancy…The ones with lots of stone are funny to me because there is almost NO stone or rock anywhere in the whole state. We are a beach front area and no matter where you dig all I fund is SAND !
Yup. I think the key is, these are the places where “real people” live!
I remember those homes on Oahu, but they were rare in the 1970s. The houses in Kaimuki and Manoa were the old style wood on stilts, though my rental near UH was a Craftsman bungalow with a crawl space from the 1920s. When I visited in 2005, I saw more of the concrete. My house on Kokohead was wood-built during WW II for Navy wives, but the walls were lava rock. Hilo was the same. Wood.
Now one interesting thing about homes on the Big Island. We went through a 7.3 earthquake in the 1970s (1976?) that killed two people, caused a beach to collapse, a tsunami and the volcano to go off. Wood homes did fine in the quake. Cement lanais cracked badly. Very fun post, Toby.
Yeah I think the price and availability has made cement block more appealing.
We built a home and pool in the Puna area of the Big Island from aerated concrete blocks held together with glue, “Super Block” from Thailand. I had never built a home before and neither had my brother in law. We finished both fairly soon and inexpensive. The home has no wood except the trusses on the roof. The benefits of having solid walls throughout the house left no room for mould and kept the house cooler. It also kept the home really quiet from the Night Birds, “Coqui Frogs” and Roosters crowing until dawn. We stuccoed the outside and plastered the pool to hide and seal the blocks. Once the pool was backfilled and lanscaped you would never know it was an above ground pool to start with.
Lots of good reasons to use the material, hence it’s popularity! It’s just… not pretty. I think with stucco over it, it looks great. Sounds like a cool project!
There’s a lot of stucco in my area, including my house, which I hate. But it has more character than vinyl siding. The building material I love the most is brick, but it’s pricey, so we don’t see a lot of houses built with it in my city. There’s a lot more in Toronto.
Funny how brick is so beautiful and cement block can be so ugly. What’s the big difference between them, other than colour?
Color, texture, heft and durability too! We have virtually no brick here.