Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Finished the second row of tires!
We finished filling and tamping the second level of tires this morning, and this afternoon we poured the concrete half tires and spacers on the second level.
The last five days have been busy as we charged ahead packing and filling tires. Our best day so far is over thirty tires packed, and we have been averaging around twenty.
The packer works well. With one person operating the packer, and one person supplying dirt we can get a lot of tires filled. A third (and sometimes 4th) person follows behind the packer crew filling and tamping the centres of the tires that have just been packed. One of the welds did break on the packer and I re-welded the joint that evening (hopefully better).
We are definitely finding that no two tires are the same, particularly when made by different manufacturers. Add in variations in remaining tire tread and sidewall condition and our 'bricks' have minor variations in height and wall coverage. Not a huge deal but you do have to take time levelling and matching adjacent tires. For the next round there are a few spots where I may use slightly thicker or thinner tires to adjust for these variations.
Yesterday afternoon we started preparing for pouring the concrete half blocks. We started by laying wire mesh around the location of the half block. The mesh is attached to the surrounding tires using 2" roofing nails. We also used tin roofing screws (because I have some leftover from other jobs), and these were very effective in securing the mesh. We also attached a hay wire tie from the mesh to the tire to help strengthen the mesh while the concrete was being poured and curing.
We actually poured our first half tire yesterday evening. Just as we were finishing the pour we got caught in a rain storm and had to get everything put away and covered for the night. To make matters worse the storm knocked out the electrical power and we did not have any water pressure while cleaning up. BC Hydro did not get power restored until around 10:30 am today. Breakfast was poached eggs and toast on the barbecue, and we started packing tires in the morning using the generator. Incentive to get the earthship done and off the electrical grid!
We poured the concrete using a portable mixer, screened gravel/sand off the site, and portland cement (3/4/5 ratio).
We added engineered fibres to each batch of concrete to increase the tensile strength of the concrete.
By the end of the day this is what the site looked like!
More detailed photos and captions courtesy of Sandra.
Concrete 1/2 block
forms using 
mesh.
Here's Sean finishing up a mesh form.
Filling the second row of tires: Line with cardboard (and plastic if rainy/wet) fill with dirt, same ole, same ole!!! As many others have discovered before us, getting a perfect cardboard circle is not only difficult, it is hard to stuff in the tire! We consulted the book and started shoving two rectangles in the hole. In the rain and dampness we used thin, used lumber wrap to line the cardboard, otherwise the cardboard was soaking through before we could compact the tire.
Here's Stephen in the blue jacket filling a second row tire!
The last five days have been busy as we charged ahead packing and filling tires. Our best day so far is over thirty tires packed, and we have been averaging around twenty.
The packer works well. With one person operating the packer, and one person supplying dirt we can get a lot of tires filled. A third (and sometimes 4th) person follows behind the packer crew filling and tamping the centres of the tires that have just been packed. One of the welds did break on the packer and I re-welded the joint that evening (hopefully better).
We are definitely finding that no two tires are the same, particularly when made by different manufacturers. Add in variations in remaining tire tread and sidewall condition and our 'bricks' have minor variations in height and wall coverage. Not a huge deal but you do have to take time levelling and matching adjacent tires. For the next round there are a few spots where I may use slightly thicker or thinner tires to adjust for these variations.
Yesterday afternoon we started preparing for pouring the concrete half blocks. We started by laying wire mesh around the location of the half block. The mesh is attached to the surrounding tires using 2" roofing nails. We also used tin roofing screws (because I have some leftover from other jobs), and these were very effective in securing the mesh. We also attached a hay wire tie from the mesh to the tire to help strengthen the mesh while the concrete was being poured and curing.
We actually poured our first half tire yesterday evening. Just as we were finishing the pour we got caught in a rain storm and had to get everything put away and covered for the night. To make matters worse the storm knocked out the electrical power and we did not have any water pressure while cleaning up. BC Hydro did not get power restored until around 10:30 am today. Breakfast was poached eggs and toast on the barbecue, and we started packing tires in the morning using the generator. Incentive to get the earthship done and off the electrical grid!
We poured the concrete using a portable mixer, screened gravel/sand off the site, and portland cement (3/4/5 ratio).
We added engineered fibres to each batch of concrete to increase the tensile strength of the concrete.
By the end of the day this is what the site looked like!More detailed photos and captions courtesy of Sandra.
Concrete 1/2 block
forms using 
mesh.
Here's Sean finishing up a mesh form.
Filling the second row of tires: Line with cardboard (and plastic if rainy/wet) fill with dirt, same ole, same ole!!! As many others have discovered before us, getting a perfect cardboard circle is not only difficult, it is hard to stuff in the tire! We consulted the book and started shoving two rectangles in the hole. In the rain and dampness we used thin, used lumber wrap to line the cardboard, otherwise the cardboard was soaking through before we could compact the tire.
Here's Stephen in the blue jacket filling a second row tire!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Flower Mystery Solved!
Stephen's student teacher posted a reply to our mystery! The flowers are called Livingston Daisies and she purchased the seeds at Art Knapps.
It's a small world. I was in at the Royal Bank in Kamloops today and I noticed the lady helping us had the last name of Curle, which isn't common. I asked if she was related to Stephen's student teacher and it turned out she was her mom! I left Stephen's email address and this blog address with her. Jillian had just returned from Asia and took a look at the picture on the blog tonight!
Jillian just received her teaching certificate this spring! Congratulations! I know all the students in Mrs. Fraser's Grade 4 class loved her. Here's to finding a job quickly, Jillian!
It's a small world. I was in at the Royal Bank in Kamloops today and I noticed the lady helping us had the last name of Curle, which isn't common. I asked if she was related to Stephen's student teacher and it turned out she was her mom! I left Stephen's email address and this blog address with her. Jillian had just returned from Asia and took a look at the picture on the blog tonight!
Jillian just received her teaching certificate this spring! Congratulations! I know all the students in Mrs. Fraser's Grade 4 class loved her. Here's to finding a job quickly, Jillian!
Cardboard Scavanging
Today we spent the day in Kamloops tending to errands, grocery shopping and some materials shopping for the house. We needed to get the material to pour small concrete "half blocks" for infilling in the tires. Chris will probably elaborate on that later.
Our other mission was to round up more cardboard, which is used on the second round and every subsequent round, to prevent the dirt from falling to the round below. Essentially we need a large "plug" for each tire. I had already made the round of our local stores in Barriere.
I wasn't prepared to be stunned by our cardboard search in Kamloops. Much like our first foray into tire gathering, I hadn't realized how much cardboard there is in our consumer lives! We first went to The Future Shop, figuring that a large appliance store would have big pieces. The appliance salesperson gamely disappeared into the back room and came back, somewhat apologetically, with 5 or 6 medium sized boxes. Apparently the stack of cardboard had just been "crushed". I asked him what day would be best to come and when did they "crush" their stack? Apparently any time somebody walked by and felt like compacting it.
I didn't really clue in yet but after I pulled up to the shipping bay of Sears and sent Chris in, only to see him come out shaking his head, we started our education. Chris told me that he and another gentleman were both after cardboard but they could hear the crusher start up as they approached the door. No go at Sears.
Next we pulled up to the Bay and Chris waited for a bit while an employee loaded a patio table into somebody's truck. I watched the fellow shake his head at Chris. After he got into the car I was beginning to think that these crushers must be hydraulic and make a lot of really cool noise, if they were crushing so often!
Next we went to Home Depot. I'm going to digress. We humans have a really fine tuned ability to select the information that is important to us. Despite having been at the Home Depot many times, as well as other large stores, I couldn't think where each store's shipping department would be. Some were so obvious it was amazing I didn't notice them before! But I guess when one's mind is on its target (the product to purchase) one does not think of the input/output part of the equation.
At Home Depot Chris came out with another 4 or 5 decent sized boxes. Then to my least favourite store, Wal-Mart (blech). I wish I'd had a camera. Lined up in their shipping lane were about 20 pallets with the crushed cardboard waiting for removal. These "crushers" do a really compact job. While Chris was in trying to wheedle some cardboard out of them, I was trying to decide if taking a whole bale of cardboard on our trailer on a subsequent visit would yield enough of the stiffer cardboard to make it worthwhile. Still not sure.
No luck at Wal-Mart, although Chris did ask how they handled their waste cardboard. At Wal-Mart, they distribute grey bins (we've all seen them!) around the store and as they fill they get wheeled to the back and immediately crushed. So our window of opportunity is pretty small.
Off to Superstore for grocery shopping but first to the shipping department for cardboard. Here, their policy is not to give cardboard to ANYBODY (???)
Once we'd packed in groceries and lamb feed, we were pretty full so we headed home.
On the return trip I was comparing our tire hunt to our cardboard hunt. Each waste material was waaaayyy more plentiful than even I imagined...AND even with cardboard it felt like showing up right after the tire recyclers had visited our suppliers!
Sean and Anna stayed behind and slogged away at tire pounding (in between downpours). They WANTED to; we're not slave drivers! We left them with some cardboard, which we had been finding blew out the bottom once it got water soaked (remember we were damping our dirt to help fill the tires). We also left some old lumber wrap so they could try lining the cardboard to prevent sogginess. I had also suggested some of our old advertising signs, which were on core-plast, a plastic version of cardboard. The core-plast was a winner! Unfortunately we don't have enough to do a whole house! My next project is to call around to the sign makers and see if they have any used core-plast they want us to take off their hands.
Coming up soon: Pictures of how we fill tires now that we are using the tire "press" and an updated expenses posting now that we picked up material to pour a little concrete. This expenses exercise is very good for us. It forces us to organize our receipts which is necessary when we complete the house. In Canada when you build a new home that is your primary residence, you can claim back all your GST, which is a 5 percent tax.
Our other mission was to round up more cardboard, which is used on the second round and every subsequent round, to prevent the dirt from falling to the round below. Essentially we need a large "plug" for each tire. I had already made the round of our local stores in Barriere.
I wasn't prepared to be stunned by our cardboard search in Kamloops. Much like our first foray into tire gathering, I hadn't realized how much cardboard there is in our consumer lives! We first went to The Future Shop, figuring that a large appliance store would have big pieces. The appliance salesperson gamely disappeared into the back room and came back, somewhat apologetically, with 5 or 6 medium sized boxes. Apparently the stack of cardboard had just been "crushed". I asked him what day would be best to come and when did they "crush" their stack? Apparently any time somebody walked by and felt like compacting it.
I didn't really clue in yet but after I pulled up to the shipping bay of Sears and sent Chris in, only to see him come out shaking his head, we started our education. Chris told me that he and another gentleman were both after cardboard but they could hear the crusher start up as they approached the door. No go at Sears.
Next we pulled up to the Bay and Chris waited for a bit while an employee loaded a patio table into somebody's truck. I watched the fellow shake his head at Chris. After he got into the car I was beginning to think that these crushers must be hydraulic and make a lot of really cool noise, if they were crushing so often!
Next we went to Home Depot. I'm going to digress. We humans have a really fine tuned ability to select the information that is important to us. Despite having been at the Home Depot many times, as well as other large stores, I couldn't think where each store's shipping department would be. Some were so obvious it was amazing I didn't notice them before! But I guess when one's mind is on its target (the product to purchase) one does not think of the input/output part of the equation.
At Home Depot Chris came out with another 4 or 5 decent sized boxes. Then to my least favourite store, Wal-Mart (blech). I wish I'd had a camera. Lined up in their shipping lane were about 20 pallets with the crushed cardboard waiting for removal. These "crushers" do a really compact job. While Chris was in trying to wheedle some cardboard out of them, I was trying to decide if taking a whole bale of cardboard on our trailer on a subsequent visit would yield enough of the stiffer cardboard to make it worthwhile. Still not sure.
No luck at Wal-Mart, although Chris did ask how they handled their waste cardboard. At Wal-Mart, they distribute grey bins (we've all seen them!) around the store and as they fill they get wheeled to the back and immediately crushed. So our window of opportunity is pretty small.
Off to Superstore for grocery shopping but first to the shipping department for cardboard. Here, their policy is not to give cardboard to ANYBODY (???)
Once we'd packed in groceries and lamb feed, we were pretty full so we headed home.
On the return trip I was comparing our tire hunt to our cardboard hunt. Each waste material was waaaayyy more plentiful than even I imagined...AND even with cardboard it felt like showing up right after the tire recyclers had visited our suppliers!
Sean and Anna stayed behind and slogged away at tire pounding (in between downpours). They WANTED to; we're not slave drivers! We left them with some cardboard, which we had been finding blew out the bottom once it got water soaked (remember we were damping our dirt to help fill the tires). We also left some old lumber wrap so they could try lining the cardboard to prevent sogginess. I had also suggested some of our old advertising signs, which were on core-plast, a plastic version of cardboard. The core-plast was a winner! Unfortunately we don't have enough to do a whole house! My next project is to call around to the sign makers and see if they have any used core-plast they want us to take off their hands.
Coming up soon: Pictures of how we fill tires now that we are using the tire "press" and an updated expenses posting now that we picked up material to pour a little concrete. This expenses exercise is very good for us. It forces us to organize our receipts which is necessary when we complete the house. In Canada when you build a new home that is your primary residence, you can claim back all your GST, which is a 5 percent tax.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Expenses to Date
I wanted to update our expenses to date, so that I don't lose track of where we are. As you can see more than half our costs are permits, with most of the other half being excavation expense. We got huge value out of the excavation; it remains to be seen if we will see the value in the permit costs!!!
We are now onto the second round of tires and in a few rounds will put in the perimeter drainage system and lay in our services to be buried in the back wall berm. We are thinking ahead and putting in a few more conduits, but essentially we are allowing for: electrical wire for net metering, electrical wiring for the renewable services (solar and wind which we will probably install on our shop roof, it's huge), water line from our existing deep well, water line for our harvested water, ethernet and telephone wire and a gas line for our propane appliances (maybe).
We expect to pay a few thousand dollars to accomplish the above, but after that it is all free tires, cardboard and dirt (with a bit of concrete for the half tire blocks).
We are now onto the second round of tires and in a few rounds will put in the perimeter drainage system and lay in our services to be buried in the back wall berm. We are thinking ahead and putting in a few more conduits, but essentially we are allowing for: electrical wire for net metering, electrical wiring for the renewable services (solar and wind which we will probably install on our shop roof, it's huge), water line from our existing deep well, water line for our harvested water, ethernet and telephone wire and a gas line for our propane appliances (maybe).
We expect to pay a few thousand dollars to accomplish the above, but after that it is all free tires, cardboard and dirt (with a bit of concrete for the half tire blocks).
| PERMITS | ||
| HPO | $425.00 | |
| Building Permit | $1,504.00 | |
| Septic Approval | $157.50 | |
| $2,086.50 | ||
| PREP COSTS | ||
| Excavation | $1,950.00 | |
| $1,950.00 | ||
| MATERIALS | ||
| 6 mil poly (under tires) | $107.20 | |
| 10' 4" drain | $22.46 | |
| Tires | $0.00 | |
| Dirt | $0.00 | |
| Tire press | $0.00 | |
| Cardboard | $0.00 | |
| $129.66 | ||
| Sub Total | $4,166.16 |
Sunday, July 5, 2009
We Are Getting Serious ...
Over the last week we have been busy pounding the base layer of tires for the earthship.Sean and Anna Renaud arrived on the 1st of July and for the next couple of days we pounded tires as I described in my last post. Speaking for myself (although I suspect everyone else will agree) I was exhausted after a couple of days of this activity. Each tire was taking a good half hour to fill and compress and the pounding was brutal. Everybody laughed on the third day when I told them that I crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep ... but I really was not joking!
There had to be a better way ... I searched fruitlessly on the internet for a couple of evenings and did not come up with any obvious solutions. I did establish from a couple of different blogs that the tire size we are using is large and other people have struggled to pound tires this large as well.
Anna actually solved the problem by telling me to visit this web site (http://homepages.callplus.net.nz/~b.gubb/tyre_press.html).
I started by scrounging available materials on hand. I borrowed the hydraulic drive from our band resaw, found a small hydraulic cylinder in my spare parts (bought it at an industrial auction years ago), a 16" diameter steel pipe from some scrap steel, and miscellaneous hydraulic fittings I had on hand. Bear in mind that we have been operating a log house and planing business for the last ten years.
I cut two curved packing plates from the steel pipe (generally I would recommend wearing long pants when doing this step). I welded a packing plate on each end of the cylinder, hooked everything up and ...
We had an indefatiguable tire packer.The packer worked but it had some problems; it was difficult to load dirt into the tire around it because it was too big, and the packing plates were so big that it was difficult to position the packer in the tire.
I made some modifications ...I truly appreciate the expression "we are cooking with gas" now because we are packing with oil and man is life easier!
We do find that the gravel we are packing needs to be damp, and that the packer does not work well with clay.
We packed 27 tires today and it was a lot of work, but not impossible work.
We hope to finish the base round of tires tomorrow (83 tires total) then we will be starting the second layer and the perimeter drain.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Zen or the Art of Pounding Tires ...
We finally got to pound tires today!
The kids and I moved enough tires for the first tier of the building yesterday morning, and spent the afternoon laying out rooms. The kids struggled with rolling tires, but were very impressed when I dumped tires out of the back of the dump truck.
Every time we design and lay out a building it always seems too small when the shell is initially laid out. As Sandra says you always worry that the rooms are big enough for their intended use, and feel badly for the customer. By the time everything is closed in (the walls are complete and the roof is on) your perspective changes and everything looks fine. This building is no different ... every thing looks too small only this time we are the customers! On the assumption that everything will go back to its proper size when it is closed in we have decided to take a deep breath and carry on ...
This morning I used the backhoe to level the ground for the retaining wall wings, and this afternoon Sandra and I double checked all the measurements and straightness of the walls. Everything looked good so we put a double layer of 6 mm vapour barrier under the first couple of tires and started pounding.
Lots of people have expressed opinions on the experience of filling around 900 tires with compacted earth using a sledge hammer. These opinions have ranged from skepticism about the process to suggestions that this might be suitable work for a chain gang. I admit to approaching my first tire anxiously ... my hopeful attitude is that it is cheaper than a gym membership and a good opportunity for meditation while focusing on a repetitive task.
The first step in the process is to shovel dirt into the tire. This was quite easy ... as I remarked to Sandra in those first five minutes I could do this all day. Shoveling dirt is physical work but not particularly hard (I say this after ten years of handling 300 pound plus timbers for a living). I could already feel my mind wandering as I settled into the repetitive task of shoveling and had to remind myself to stay in the meditative moment.
Once the centre of the tire is full of dirt the next step is to push the dirt into the casing using your hands. This was still pretty easy and a lot like gardening. You continue shoveling and pushing until you can get no more dirt into the tire. I still had no complaints, I can easily lose an hour weeding the garden.
The third step is compacting the soil in the tire. Compaction is accomplished by swinging an 8 lb sledge hammer repeatedly into the casing while moving around the tire to ensure uniform compaction. As the soil compacts more dirt is shoveled in and you repeat the process with the sledge hammer.
By the end of 10 minutes of wildly swinging my sledge hammer and sending dirt everywhere we had packed our first tire. I was sweating heavily, my arms felt weak and I had definitely lost the moment. My thoughts ranged from wild schemes to automate the process to wondering if we could switch to straw bale at this point in the construction project.
Experience has taught us that succeeding at repetitive physical labour requires working at a pace that you can sustain for a couple of hours and staying focused enough on the task that you do not risk hurting yourself. By both counts I was in trouble.
Sandra did more of the packing on the second tire while I went back to my happy place shoveling dirt. She did not wave her sledge around nearly as much as I did and there was not as much dirt flying around but at the end the tire looked (and felt) pretty much the same. Lesson learned (I think I LOOKED more impressive packing the first tire though)! We finished off by packing one more tire to make sure we were getting a feel for the whole process.
Sandra and I packed three tires and we spent about twenty minutes packing each tire. The estimates I have read state that a compacted tire takes approximately 3 wheel barrows of dirt and weighs around 300 lbs. So ... we have about 897 more tires to pack, that is a lot of free exercise and meditation time.
We are planning to work in the mornings and evenings when it is cooler, and take the middle of the day off. Personally, I am planning to spend this time off thinking of more reasons why this is a great experience. I will start by exploring the many evils of automating this process and the environmental benefits of packing each one of those tires by hand ... with a sledge hammer.
.
The work is really quite enjoyable; you get a great work out (for free), and you can achieve a state of mind that people strive their entire lives for. Frankly I cannot think why anybody would not want to do this, and we will probably have to insist that some people go home when we get overwhelmed by volunteers.
Really.
The kids and I moved enough tires for the first tier of the building yesterday morning, and spent the afternoon laying out rooms. The kids struggled with rolling tires, but were very impressed when I dumped tires out of the back of the dump truck.
Every time we design and lay out a building it always seems too small when the shell is initially laid out. As Sandra says you always worry that the rooms are big enough for their intended use, and feel badly for the customer. By the time everything is closed in (the walls are complete and the roof is on) your perspective changes and everything looks fine. This building is no different ... every thing looks too small only this time we are the customers! On the assumption that everything will go back to its proper size when it is closed in we have decided to take a deep breath and carry on ...
This morning I used the backhoe to level the ground for the retaining wall wings, and this afternoon Sandra and I double checked all the measurements and straightness of the walls. Everything looked good so we put a double layer of 6 mm vapour barrier under the first couple of tires and started pounding.
Lots of people have expressed opinions on the experience of filling around 900 tires with compacted earth using a sledge hammer. These opinions have ranged from skepticism about the process to suggestions that this might be suitable work for a chain gang. I admit to approaching my first tire anxiously ... my hopeful attitude is that it is cheaper than a gym membership and a good opportunity for meditation while focusing on a repetitive task.
The first step in the process is to shovel dirt into the tire. This was quite easy ... as I remarked to Sandra in those first five minutes I could do this all day. Shoveling dirt is physical work but not particularly hard (I say this after ten years of handling 300 pound plus timbers for a living). I could already feel my mind wandering as I settled into the repetitive task of shoveling and had to remind myself to stay in the meditative moment.
Once the centre of the tire is full of dirt the next step is to push the dirt into the casing using your hands. This was still pretty easy and a lot like gardening. You continue shoveling and pushing until you can get no more dirt into the tire. I still had no complaints, I can easily lose an hour weeding the garden.
The third step is compacting the soil in the tire. Compaction is accomplished by swinging an 8 lb sledge hammer repeatedly into the casing while moving around the tire to ensure uniform compaction. As the soil compacts more dirt is shoveled in and you repeat the process with the sledge hammer.
By the end of 10 minutes of wildly swinging my sledge hammer and sending dirt everywhere we had packed our first tire. I was sweating heavily, my arms felt weak and I had definitely lost the moment. My thoughts ranged from wild schemes to automate the process to wondering if we could switch to straw bale at this point in the construction project.
Experience has taught us that succeeding at repetitive physical labour requires working at a pace that you can sustain for a couple of hours and staying focused enough on the task that you do not risk hurting yourself. By both counts I was in trouble.
Sandra did more of the packing on the second tire while I went back to my happy place shoveling dirt. She did not wave her sledge around nearly as much as I did and there was not as much dirt flying around but at the end the tire looked (and felt) pretty much the same. Lesson learned (I think I LOOKED more impressive packing the first tire though)! We finished off by packing one more tire to make sure we were getting a feel for the whole process.
Sandra and I packed three tires and we spent about twenty minutes packing each tire. The estimates I have read state that a compacted tire takes approximately 3 wheel barrows of dirt and weighs around 300 lbs. So ... we have about 897 more tires to pack, that is a lot of free exercise and meditation time.
We are planning to work in the mornings and evenings when it is cooler, and take the middle of the day off. Personally, I am planning to spend this time off thinking of more reasons why this is a great experience. I will start by exploring the many evils of automating this process and the environmental benefits of packing each one of those tires by hand ... with a sledge hammer.
.
The work is really quite enjoyable; you get a great work out (for free), and you can achieve a state of mind that people strive their entire lives for. Frankly I cannot think why anybody would not want to do this, and we will probably have to insist that some people go home when we get overwhelmed by volunteers.
Really.
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