Sonorama Rammed Earth Home: June 2006

friday the 30th of June, day 43

Friday the 30th--the day before Alec Setten marries Mrs. Alec Setten and the day before Canada Day. Today was a short day so as to really stretch out the long weekend.

We did get wall B stripped, however. Though it looks the same color as wall C, it should lighten considerably.

Here is a picture of wall B from the front. Near the top towards the middle right you can see a "box" for a wall sconce, and below it a "box" for a switch. Down at the very bottom, in an area that will eventually be obscured by the bathroom vanity, we conducted a test wherein we put a flat piece of granite.

It seemed to work, and so will put some marble that we salvaged from this place and that in the living room as a kind of "baseboard." Even if the rammed earth doesn't hold it (the granite wasn't chamfered in any meaningful way) I imagine it will be easy enough to affix using some miracle product or another.

In other news, we put in a chamfer at the outside base of the wall. The past few walls met the foundation like so:

With this new chamfer the wall/foundation get together is a little more slick--even if it does expose the tar everyone hates.

The next few blog entries promise to be some pretty thin gruel, as there is a great deal of sleep to be done.

thursday the 42nd day of June.

Wall B is rammed. It will protect us from the sun. The ramming went well. The ramming part was done by 4:30pm. Not 10:15 pm, but 4:30 pm. That was a good thing, and G-d willing, the way it shall be forevermore. Slow and steady really does win the race. Working smart beats working hard.

Speaking of walls, here is another look at wall E

And speaking of walls, here's three in a row.

In other news, the compressor got a "water separator." For it to really work, the water separator needs to be a distance of ten feet (via a hose) from the compressor--that way the water has a chance to condence, thus allowing the water separator to do its job. Jim explained it all to us. The next accesory is an "oiler." That introduces a bit of oil to the air stream, thus keeping the tampers lubricated. Who knew?

Roland insisted that this photo be shared with our viewership. The state of the stakes after tangling with our ultra compressed pad.

Tomorrow, we strip the form on wall B. The day after, we celebrate Canada, and the wedding of Alec Setten and Mrs. Alec Setten. Mabruk!

special out of sequence wall photo blog #3

green this one.

groovy.

All manner of fun little "dipsy doodles"

Here is a picture of the insulation peeking out from the rammed earth wall. Not to worry, people, everything is under control. There will be glass bricks up against this--it won't be seen. More to the point, you can see quite clearly the 4" of insulation between the two 7" rammed earth wythes.

wednesday day 41

Good times!

There will be more about that in the wall 3 picture post.

Pepe made the scene.

Jim's last minute repair is holding strong

And it's still hot.

So tomorrow we ram wall B. It is the wall on the west side of the house. It will give nice shade in the afternoon.

tuesday day 40

No really, where is the digital camera?

Day 40. 4 + 0 = 4.

Four is a number that the Chinese, who know a thing or two about numbers, don't much care for. You can get all the particulars in Douglas Coupland's City of Glass.

Indeed, day 40 was a tough one. A long one. A hot one. A late one. Under the cloak of darkness, 15 some hours later, the wall was completed.

The day was a "teacher." The lesson learned is that ramming days are for ramming and forming days are for forming and never ever ever again shall the two meet.

Today we build form work until it is ready, tomorrow we ram the completed formwork.

Simple.

As Mr. Quinlan always said "it's better to know what you don't know than to know what you know."

And now we know.

Now, if we only knew where the digital camera was...

monday day 39

Where the hell did that camera go?

No matter. It was 100 degrees, and despite working from 7:30am to 6:30pm and then from 8:00 pm to 10:00pm, the wall didn't get formed to completion.

(Where the hell is that "win some lose some" link?)

The past is over; tomorrow we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try all over again to get the wall ready for ramming. Perhaps we'll even consummate the ramming act.

sunday, the anti christmas, day 38

Today was a bigger day at the laundry than it was at the site.

And our project has absolutely been eclipsed by a front end repair Jim is doing on his friends 2003 Honda Goldwing. People make rammed earth houses all over the world, all the time, all kinds of ways (you knew that silly) but how often do you get to check out a tear down and rebuilding of a Goldwing?

Tomorrow it is our hope that we can get these two walls all formed up, ready to roll so we can start ramming at "8 bells" on Tuesday morning.

This one (wall E) is pretty close to being ready.

Below is where wall B is going to go. Personally, I can't wait to get that one done, as it will afford us a little bit of shelter from the pounding sun for the rest of the summer (and for the next several hundred years.)

Speaking of the next several hundred years, the chalk board was cleaned and re drawn. The hope is that we can complete 3 walls every 5 day work junket. It's a tall order, but we got a great crew. With a little bit of "slow and steady" peppered with "measure twice, cut once" I bet it can happen.

Saturday June 24, day 37

Apart from the unveiling of the wall, the decision was made for form wall E. After E is done, we will move to wall B. After wall B, it's on to wall A. Inch by inch, row by row as they say.

The thermometer (we keep in the shade) read 90 degrees. To keep the newly birthed wall from totally freaking out, we put on a wall burqa and kept it wet.

We took the burqa off wall C. That let us get a better look at it.

This embed worked. No class necessary.

We did a bit of drilling, until the drill melted. It's not every day you melt a drill.

The dogs made the scene. Tyco decided he would sit on Turbo. And why not?

special out of sequence wall photo blog #2

Wall G revealeth, all 11550 lbs of it. Now there are two walls standing proud.

Here are a few photos. I'll shut up while you look at them.

As with the other wall, there are numerous "embeds" and other delights for the eye. I shall endeavor to put them all on the flickr site. When I do, I'll post the link for your convenience.

Friday June 23, day 36

So as you may have heard, we stripped the first wall.

We did a bunch of other things too, like eat watermelon! Megan did a great job with the watermelon saw.

Megan also did a great job with the insulation.
Rammed Earth Builder Mike Wilson of Terra-Sol has made the request that we share with the world the story of this insulation.
This insulation comes from Happy Harry's.
I'm sure you've seen those (unfortunately often times hideous) doors with the aluminium exterior, the insulated middle and the large rectangular window in the middle. Rather than let them accumulate at the bottom of the ocean, Happy Harry acquires the centers of those doors once they've been cut out to accomodate the window. Some of the panels are made into Happy Harry's signature "Happy Shack". Some of the panels are simply stripped of the aluminium sheathing, revealing a 2" thick 2' x5' strip of polyisocyanurate --perfect for the middle of the rammed earth walls. Megan combined them to make 4" thick batts, wrapped the edges with tape, and put old screws through the batts to hold them together. Megan also came up with the genius concept to label the insulation for easy access. Let's hear it for Megan! Let's hear it for lo-fi! The best part is this: had we purchased the insulation at Deth Kulture Tools R Us, it would have been $4,000. Happy Harry's was 1/10th that.

And we rammed. Oh how we rammed. The whole gang was there. Roland worked through his cold with aplomb. Roland also pointed the now functioning rammers at the so-called "clouds" of so-called "water vapor" that turned a beautiful blue morning into white out conditions.

No matter, we got that PMA, and so we rammed to the top, poured the puddled earth cap and were home by 8pm--for most of us a quick 12 and a half hour day. For Grant, the morning mixer, a lucky 13.

Cherries were eaten. A Volvo drove its final mile. Tomorrow taking down and building up. Alpha and Omega--that sort of thing.

special out of sequence wall photo blog #1

Thumbs up! Wall "C" revealed!

17,010 pounds! (Which is to say, we shoveled 17,010 lbs of material by hand--your hand would look funny too.)

Here's a close look:

These photos were taken (somewhat) early in the morning. You are seeing eastern morning light hitting the wall. The long face is 11 feet and the short one is 2 feet 6 inches.

Here you can see the colors against the hills.

Mind you, the wall will lighten to approximately what you see on the form ply to the right.

A stain appeared on one of the chamfers . More exciting than that is the bright blue sky in the background. Look at that! That is what the sky should look like!

We were in a rush to start ramming "wall G" so we didn't take a lot of portrait like pictures--just some evidence to prove the baby lived. There will be more "portrait" like photos of the wall tomorrow.

p.s. (I think) you can click on the photos and make them larger.

thursday june 22 day 35

Tomorrow this...

...is going into this.

A green wall--that's the plan for tomorrow. It won't be as green as what you see in the buckets, but it will be green.

Today we finished the south west corner and prepared the next wall and the site for ramming.

Hopefully everything will work in the tools department (one tamper is officially "tits up) One of the hoses coming from the compressor blew. The clamps attaching the hose to the nozzle unit thing just weren't burly enough. Jim was neither fazed nor flapped.

The gas gauge on the compressor *and* on the bobcat are also both broken.

In light of this, "what would they do on Gilligan's Island?" has become a common query. WWGD (what would Gilligan do?)

JUNE 21

The Solstice. They don't call it the longest day of the year for nothing!
Today is Bambi Nonymous' birthday. Let's have a shout out to our dear friend and supporter.

Today ended at 9:00 pm. We weren't able to start until we found the right oil for the compressor. Plenty got done, though--it was the FIRST DAY OF RAMMING!

Here's the first pile, described as "a mocha, southwesty, brown what ever the hell you call it." And here's a little secret: there's at least 6 distinct different soil colors in the wall. There's also many different lift heights and we let the lift lines get as wiggly as they wanted. It will be so exciting to take it out of the formwork.