Testing some crazy ideas

Well, just a short while left in our Alberta summertime, but progress has been made! After many rotten delays, mainly due to very unseasonable rainfall, we had pushed ahead with construction of a unique building, that will hopefully demonstrate the wonderful buildings that can be made with local, inexpensive materials, and not only meet, but exceed the current building standards in every measurable category!

After racking my brain, and making a dozen or so designs on paper, we started construction of our strawbale workshop. Because of the quickly approaching wintertime, and our financial constraints, I elected to use some unconventional techniques to build the foundation and overall structure of our workshop. As it stands now, we have more time and labour than we have money, so we're opting for labour intensive, yet, inexpensive techniques, which I will describe in this blog.

First, a funny story: We rented a small excavator to dig out our foundation, but we could only afford one day's rental, so I needed to really make it worth-while. I had a few projects that I would have like to get to, but the foundation was primary! Unfortunately, there was a horrible turn of events that led to the excavator being trapped in a deep trench (not completely my fault). Only through the wonderful grace of God, and my way cool neighbors with big tractors did we manage to free it! Unfortunately, time was lost doing that, and I spent the next day from 7 am trying to catch up. I managed to get the foundation done, but it was pouring buckets of rain, and I had to stop now and then to scrape off accumulated clay from the bucket. Washing off the excavator took me $40 and almost two hours at the car wash! Then, I broke something on the trailer, which cost me $100 extra too. Even so, I consider that it went well, considering everything that was stacked against me!

My good friends came out to help me slave away, and put in nearly two days of solid work to build an earthbag wall (pictured below), which will serve as the bottom of a rainwater cistern, and will also double as a portion of the foundation.
The Hole. Doesn't look like much, about 5 1/2 feet deep, 11 feet wide at the top. I dug this in about an hour and a half with the backhoe.
Earthbag construction: Literally, filling bags with excavated dirt, placing them on a stack, and ramming them down. Includes barbed wire in between layers to keep them stable. The dirt was simply hacked from a spot on the wall that will become the staircase to the half-basement. One side (seen in picture) is the cistern, the other (off camera) will be a root cellar, and will house the pump and pressure tank.

Twelve layers high forms a good foundation. The wall is curved to give it strength, and will be reinforced with rebar, and wire mesh. The plywood on the ground helps us work in the mud. It rained twice, and is raining right now. In the middle of August...sigh.
I left to purchase cement and sand, and return to find that, not only have my friends placed the rebar, they bent it to fit the shape. With just their hands. I was very impressed!

We left off by placing many tall rods in place, and putting wire mesh against it. This will provide the strength needed in the cement to withstand not only being filled with water, but also the pressure of the dirt and some of the building weight as well. I believe it will be fine, but I'm not taking chances. I'm simply over building as much as possible to avoid any failures! The corner of the cistern that will be under the most strain is curved, which gives it tremendous strength over a flat design. The bags, rebar, wire and cement plaster should hold up better than conventional techniques, yet uses less cement, which is very expensive!

Tommorow, I rent a big 'ol compressor, which will power my plaster sprayer. I bought a truckload of sand for peanuts, and my cement bags are rain-protected. My friends will be back to assist tommorow, and we have two days to get the job done!

I'd like to point out lastly, that we are doing something that has NEVER been done before (as far as I know)! I have never heard of someone using earthbags to build a water cistern, especially not below the ground! When we're finished, hopefully someone will be able to see this, and either use it, or possibly even improve on it.

Just to give you an idea, so far I've spent less than $1500 on the entire project. The entire building will cost around $8000 (or less), and will be more than 800 square feet inside! This is a building that could easily be turned into a small home, or scaled up and made into a bigger home! In fact, if anything were to happen to our main house, I would move my family into this building until more permanent arrangements could be made.

Stay tuned for more pics in a few days!

PS - We're having another baby too! We just found out! We're ECSTATIC!