Building An Earthship In Darfield, B.C.

We are a family of five living in Darfield, BC.
Our house is six hundred square feet in total and we are feeling cramped.

We have decided to build an earthship!

So starts the adventure ...

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Bond Beam Continued

We are making excellent progress on the bond beam.  Despite the constant rain today Chris and I placed all the log for a entire U. We are now into the fourth of five total.  With the cancellaton of ski lessons tomorrow (wow, the rain sure does a number on the trails!) we hope to have another U completed.  The weather has stayed above zero degrees Celsius for the last 4 or 5 days and will continue to do so until Tuesday when the overnight temperatures drop below. For us, it means we have until then to finish excavating the tires without potential freeze ups again.  We thought about digging all of them at once, but until the forms are placed, it's kind of like shooting in the dark.

Things we've learned:  The handy protractor tool that we own is actually idiot-proof.  As long as the idiots learn to use it.  It's set up so you don't have to think; unfortunately Chris and I think too much.  We were using the tool and dredging up our grade 11 math while looking at the degrees we'd already cut and subtracting from 90 and 45 and trying to remember what the angles of geometric shapes add up to. I was well in Pythagorean theorem before we realized that the tool does the thinking (and no, we are not tools!).   Chris finally wrested the protractor from me and decided how we should really be using it and since then our angles have been error-free.

Here is what the bond beam form looks like to date...just a few more pieces and we will be ready to tinker with rebar and spacers...if the weather stays warm, we should pour the cement before March!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please be sure you ventilate Properly!!! We were going to build one, researched for years, took the courses, bought all the books. Then we found out the tires leach Gas, which is deadly if your house is not ventilated properly.
so please protect your family and makes sure you have adequate ventilation!!

Sandra said...

I'd be very interested in knowing which study you found that proved this. We did our research, too, and all we could was a University of Wisconsin study that showed the opposite. Plus we looked at anecdotal evidence from Earthship owners who, over 30+ years, never experienced any health issues. Please tell us where you got your evidence, we really are interested in knowing what you've found.