Effectively what you want is a wheeled robotic milling machine that can mill it's way into the house and mill out the rooms...Mind it would have to negotiate the stairs.!
I'd love a house made that way 'cos the walls would be flat and true!

It would be rather wasteful as you would be milling/cutting away over 90% of the material...maybe it's better use of the material to just slice it into useable blocks?

Del

Thank you Del..... thats exsactly the problem... A mill would be wasting the oportunity of cutting out different sise blocks and using it in different constructions or selling them outright which could aleviate some of the cost of construction. allthough powdered lava rock is great to mix sement with and is an exsellent fertilyser.

Still the rooms will be dome shape to transfer the roof weight evenley to the side walls cum pillars from floor to floor and so the mill option may be more suited for that effect.

I am so totally convinced though that a modyfied water jet could be a magnificent and ecconomical solution if we could but find the engeneer genious to step up to the chalenge

Water jet technology is probably not "green". You must need a big diesel to power it. From what I've learned here, this technology is very expensive, and I think a meter cut is way beyond what a water jet can do. You need to contact a quarry consultant.

I believe there are people here that know about this stuff.

Thanks bricktop

most areas were looking at have thermal power so we are still green. and as stated before the chalenge is to push the present limitations of the technology to higher parameters

For coal there are already since many years jet cutting systems working at 2000 bar. You do not need to cut 1m deep this will be - I assume - impossible but you can use several passes to reach the required depth. The water can be recovered and the power can come from a net not needing a diesel engine on the spot for the pump. What you should consider is the VERY big power requirement and the possibility to be obliged to work at even higher pressures for a good cutting speed. The problem will also be the wear of the nozzles and the replacement time need which will reduce your overall productivity. As well the high pressure stage will present a relatively high wear rate of the seals. If years ago the water jet had to be generated by oil-water intensifiers to day the advances in water hydraulics may lead to an only water pump design where the oil is used to lubricate the transmission, similar to the pumps used in earth drilling on oil fields.

To day available technology allows it but the economical aspect has still to be analysed.

Hello CALIXMEUS

Del and Bricktop have explained why the concept is impractical at this time, being eco-unfriendly, with a large energy input, huge waste stream, and large costs.

I cannot see that the concept could ever be efficient.

However, if new molten lava could somehow be persuaded to cool into regular sized smooth-sided blocks, right next to where they are going to be used in building construction, all without damage/danger/high cost, we might have an interesting process working.

Kind Regards....

thank you Sparkstation... youre idea of cooling the lava had occured to me... especially in places like hawaii whwer you could cool and bank the lava flow with ocean watter

Yes, this is a GREAT idea, especially in places like Hawaii where you can use the osean watter to build, block and /or mold through its cooling process. Allso there is a more important possibility in this process that has yet to come into the light and that is that by using sufficient watter you can change the consistency of the lava to make it more porous, light weight, thermic and easyer to cut... A GREAT CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL!

By first blocking the lava from - lets say - pouring into the ocean... by solidifying the drop and rederecting the lava flow into near by restricted areas and then immesed continuosly with the ocean watter, you will then bresumably force the lava to 'bubble' as it cools giving you a light weight, stronf building block that will be extremeley thermic, 'huricane proof', fire proof, termite proof ... and with the propr rebar/cement structure... earth quake proof.

In Mexico weve been making cool and very strong buildings and houses for ever with lava rock that have withstood earth quqkes up to 8.5 magnitude... at VERY reasonable costs, and so it is beyond us why there are whole cultures that insist on living in tinderboxes that are - to say the least - several accidents waiting to happen