A method for constructing a bolt and beam wall structure, comprising:
- i) preparatory steps, which may be performed simultaneously or in any order, including
- a) selecting a site;
- b) designing a specific predetermined bolt array system for supporting and aligning one or more walls in the wall structure;
- c) selecting materials and dimensions;
- and
- ii) construction steps to be performed, including
- a) preparing a foundation plate forming a base for said wall structure;
- b) mounting a plurality of top brackets and bottom bracket in pairs, each pair comprising one of said plurality of top brackets and one of said plurality of bottom brackets, each of said top and bottom brackets in said pairs having an alignment slot, on said foundation plate to form an alignment system corresponding to said predetermined bolt array;
- c) placing and securing a bolt segment in said alignment slot of each corresponding pair of said top and bottom brackets such that each said bolt segment extends vertically upward and is aligned with a particular bolt anchor location in said bolt array;
- d) said foundation plate receives and secures said bolt segments in said bolt array so as to fix in place each of said bolt segments;
- e) placing a series of layers of beam segments serially upward upon said bolt segments, extending said bolt segments when the desired vertical extent of said walls exceeds the length of one vertical bolt by inserting bolt couplings and additional bolt segments, until a desired height of a said wall structure including an uppermost beam segment having at least one vertically-oriented side is achieved;
- each said beam segment having a flat top surface parallel to a flat bottom surface, both surfaces extending lengthwise between opposite beam ends;
- and
- f) tightening each said nut of said bolt segments on the uppermost beam segment so as to compress adjoining layers of beam segments in said series together, forming a wall comprising a multiplicity of beam segments—which functions as a single unit wall segment;
- the multiplicity of beam segments comprising a subset designated as cross beam segments and a subset designated as transverse beam segments;
- g) as part of step (ii) e), constructing multiple ones of said wall segments including cross beam segments and transverse beam segments, at least some of which cross beam segments and transverse beam segments intersect at least one respective corner to form a corner having an apex, and
- h) at least one corner bolt in said bolt array extends only through either a cross beam segment or a transverse beam segment in alternating adjacent layers at said corner;
- and
- i) wherein in alternating layers at each said corner, one of said cross beam segments extends across said corner and one of said transverse beam segments has an end which abuts flush against said cross beam segment, while on vertically adjacent layers, one of said transverse beam segments extends across said corner and one of said corresponding cross beam segments has an end which abuts flush against said transverse beam segment.