Mudbrick making

Its been a long while since we last posted here, our apologies!  Progress has been slow and steady with the focus mostly on the making and laying of mudbricks for our internal walls (the external walls are strawbale for insulation, the internal are mudbrick for thermal mass).  We have just completed the first 2 curved walls, which has been a great milestone for us and a real sense of achievement - especially considering there are over 100 hours (200 people hours) of solid work involved in those 2 walls!

one of our big curved walls finished.

We have been using the same mix of mud we have been using to render the walls, but just working it into balls and then placing those into our mudbrick 'press' which just pushes the mud nicely into shape and squeezes out the excess water.  Our bricks have been of a really high standard, without cracking and have stood up to the building process fantastically.

mudbricks, in various stages of drying - in summer they dry in a few weeks.

Our friend Ivor has been enjoying the hands on process of making mudbricks.

making mud balls to place in the press (on the right hand side of the photo)

To lay the bricks we have used the same mix (a little wetter maybe), wetting down the previous course of bricks and just placing balls of mud on top and then mudbricks which we wet down as well on top.  Its just incredible how well they go together.  Another great thing is that all the mess the bits of brick that get cut off or the blobs of mud that fall to the ground can just be reincorporated into the mud mix and reused, so its a zero waste building method, which we are really loving!

laying bricks.

smoothing the mortar - no tools required!

We are enjoying the hands on process of building our home, even if it takes longer than your standard mass produced choose-from-a-catalog type house. Each part has memories (something you can't buy no matter how much money you have), our kids have been there every step of the way, and have helped out as they have been able to, and there have certainly been fun times (maybe even a little mud throwing).  Its also an incredibly satisfying process to look back on the house and know that almost all of it has been built by our own bare hands (and a bit by those of some of our friends and family).

We know that we could both work high pay (and high stress) jobs, we could pay people or mechanize the work and the whole process could have been over ages ago, but what would the fun be in that?  There wouldn't be many fun memories (just a big mortgage to remind us), our kids wouldn't learn that they have the ability to do things for themselves and the stress would probably be too much for us all.

Building this house is a real family affair, and we talk and joke and have a great time, no one is stressed about finishing, we are just loving every moment!

Lining the ceiling

Its a few weeks now (time really does get away from you sometimes) since we finished lining the ceiling.  We decided to use ordinary pine lining boards (V-groove), as a reasonably eco-friendly material (Radiata Pine is plantation grown - and although there is some potential that the plantation was planted on what was previously old growth forest, most of the pine plantations I know are on what was previously degraded farmland, and it is renewable).

nailing the first board!

The lining boards were hand nailed to the bottom of the purlins, which allowed us enough space to put in some serious insulation (R5 batts), which  added to the wool blanket on the sisalation that was put in when the roof went on gives us (we think) a total of R7 insulation in the ceiling.  Not too bad, and will complement the high insulation qualities of the strawbale walls.

putting in the insulation batts as the boards go up.

It took us about one day to line each 'wedge' of the ceiling, working between our main beams that form the post and beam frame.  So sadly now much of that heavy timber is not visible, but a good insulated roof is more important that showing off big timber.  We got quicker in our methods, pre-cutting the angles on the boards (since each wedge is the exactly the same there were only two angles to cut, the centre angle and the outer facia angle).  The full ceiling is lined completely, including what will be eaves.

So about ten days in weekends, and its another big job done.  Its nice to start seeing 'finished' parts come together instead of digging away at trenches that will be filled in with concrete!

All done!

Now onto the most exciting part of building a strawbale house, the walls!

all the posts and main beams are up

We finally finished putting up all the posts and main beams recently.  It was a proud moment to get the last post and beam up.  A job, that before we started it seemed 'too hard', got done fairly easily and simply (we were lucky to get a bit of help from friends and family which is greatly appreciated!).  We didn't need to hire a crane or borrow a tractor to lift the timber, just a bit of ancient 'technology'! 

These posts were prepared a little differently to the the 'inner' posts.  Instead of having a bracket at the top of the posts, a slot big enough to fit the main beam was cut out of the top.  All the posts sat on top of the stirrups that were concreted into the ground.

Its nice to see most of the timber up in the air, where its supposed to be, rather than in a stack waiting to be prepared and put up.  Now we have the 'small' timber to deal with - the purlins and fascia boards, timber that we can carry by hand!!  What a novelty that will be!!!!  This timber doesn't need to have slots cut into it, more or less just cut to length and put up, so it should be a much quicker process. 

sort of like a giant wheel....

With the help of Brad's brother Paul, we have gotten the 10 'inner main beams' up - which was the next step of the house frame.  These beams were about 4.5m long, and pretty heavy to move about.  It took about a day (although it was in 2 half days) to get them all up and it was a bit fiddly fititng them in once a few were up. 

Firstly we built a tower out of the standard house framing pine timber, and got the collar up on top of it (we used our trusty 'lifter').  Then it was just a matter of lifting each beam up with the lifter, and jiggling it till it got into the right spot so that the bolts would feed through the holes in the collar and the bracket.  Again, I say its a credit to Brad that it all fitted together so well.  There is alot of maths involved in building a round house!  And with timber like this you really do want to follow the rule 'measure twice, cut once' or in our case 'calculated twice, cut once'.

the centre of the roof - note that when the photo was taken, the 'tower' was still in place.

 

So the frame is really starting to take shape now, it looks fantastic, so photogenic against the amaing blue skies we are having.  Very proud, and very happy with it!

Since the photos were taken the central tower was partially removed, and the frame is self supporting.  The next stage will involve putting up the 'outer posts' and the connecting beams to the brackets seen in the above photo.

A frame rises up!

Over one and a bit days (we probably could have sqeezed it into one LONG day) we got the inner ring of posts and the connecting ring beams up, as part of the house frame.  I was determined to not see the year end without having anything up, so we went ahead, despite the forcast for a very hot day today (luckily we finished up by 10:30am!).

Despite the weight of the timbers, and the complexity of the angles involved this first stage went up quite easily.  We used a home made 'lifter' which was built of timber and used a boat winch (all rated to well above the weights in our timber).  This worked quite well, the hardest part about using it was dragging it around the house site (nothing Brad builds is lightweight!!!!). 

The bracket on the post, this connects the post to the ring beam and the main beams, and involves several angles.

first post going up! 

We put up the first post, and found that the slots needed to be cleaned out a little with our electric chainsaw, to get them to sit down far enough on the stirrup to feed the bolts through the pre-drilled holes. 

Cleaning out the slots for a better fit. 

 Most of the other posts were cleaned out before they went up, but a few had to be done whilst hanging there....  After bracing the first post, we put up the second, and then the ring beam that holds together the inner ring of posts. 

The first ring beam in place

the frame taking shape

 The ring beam is structurally one of the most important parts of the our house design, as it stops the weight of the roof from spreading out the posts and collapsing.  From then on it was just a process of putting up a post and then the connecting ring beam, around the circle.  10 posts and 10 ring beams all up.  We were lucky to have my mother down to entertain the kids and a couple of friends helped for the afternoon/evening with actual building.  Thanks so much!

the beauty of natural timbers

the last beam 'slips' into place

This stage was a bit of a test of the design and our accuracy with everything we have done so far.  If any calculations had been done incorrectly, it would not have gone together properly (if at all!).  The stirrups were concreted into the ground and we could not test the fit of the posts on the holes until we actually started to put them up (they were just too heavy to move around too much).  Its a credit to Brad that this part of the frame went together almost perfectly (we had to fiddle around with a few posts/beams to get the bolt through - but nothing serious).

Yep, we are excited!

So the first stage is done, next stage is to get the main beams from these posts to the central collar.  That stage will involve a tower, pullies, and a few other low tech gadgets!

the central collar

Mud and wheelbarrows - the footings

We were incredibly fortunate to have a small group of helpers (both family and friends) to assist us with our first concrete pour last weekend.  We were incredibly unfortunate to have ALOT of rain the night before the pour, so after concerns about it being too hot to pour, we had concerns it would be too wet!!!

Our stirrups - these things are built to last!

We spent most of a week preparing the site, and having our site inspection (which we passed!).  To make sure that all our stirrups would be lined up perfectly and would be easy to get right and check once the concrete was poured, we spent many nights discussing and brainstorming how to make it work on the day.  We decided on bolting 2 pieces of timber to each stirrup shank, tight enough so that it would not move.  This timber would sit on the ground, and the height could be adjusted by loosening off the nuts, and pulling the stirrup up or down.  This meant that the height would be right.  To make sure the exact location within the hole was right we set up a string line with marks on it, and once they were all 'perfect' we sprayed the ground and the wood with marking paint, so that the position was clear, even if the stirrups were removed from the hole.

How we braced the stirrups and lined them up ready for the concrete.

As it turned out, we had enough people so that some were to push barrows full of concrete, while 2 would stand of the timber supports to hold the stirrup in place as the concrete was poured in.  The 'holding person' also was able to help with tipping the barrow.  Although the stirrups and the supports got a bit in the way, the whole thing barely moved, so it was just a matter of going through and double checking them all after the concrete was poured, and reduced the stress levels considerably, as we didn't have to stuff around putting stirrups into concrete and lining them all up afterwards.

Pushing wheelbarrows full of concrete through the mud, not an easy task.

We had 20 holes all up (so therefore 20 stirrups), in two circles, which we call the inner circle and the outer circle.  At each of these we will fix our posts and then the beams will radiate around to a central collar.

double checking the distances after the concrete was poured.

Our concrete pour was a fun day.  It was muddy and difficult (the mud clogged up the wheels of the barrows, so they were really hard to push or control), but there is a sense of comradery when doing a task like that with a group of people, especially when everyone can work well together as a team.  We are indebted to all that helped us that day.  It was all over within an hour or so, but it was fast paced and challenging at the time. 

How the wheel of a wheelbarrow looks after numerous trips through the mud.

Next step - the frame!


A huge thank you to Paul, Grant, Pete, Karhen, Claude and Margit for your help!