Progress You Can See

It finally happened!


With help from our friends at Interior Ready-Mix, we moved the larch 6x8s to the site.
We're going to use them as a ring beam to join the walls together at the top (kind of an aerial foundation).
Some of those suckers weigh 200 lbs! It' s really going to be something to hoist them atop our 8 ft walls, drill them, mark the top of wall, move the larch out of the way, drill into the puddled earth cap, pound a concrete anchor into the hole, repeat as necessary, replace the larch and set the anchor bolts in the hole! Did I mention 200 lbs? Did I mention 8ft in the air? What an excellent plan!

It was fun to discover we can now drive a one ton flat bed all the way to our bathroom. In the event that one of us becomes so morbidly obese that we'll have to be hoisted out the window in an emergency, rescue personnel will have no trouble at all.
Now that's good design....

Our Rammed Earth Forms

This is the end view of an end panel that was used as part of our rammed earth form system.

Some readers have asked how we made the fancy bevel at the end of each wall.
That was accomplished by installing "chamfer strips" in the end panels of our rammed earth form work.

For sturdiness, you don't want a 90 degree corner made of rammed earth, it's bound to chip off. Better to install a small piece of wood in the corner of the form to blunt the edges of the wall. By using a thick piece of lumber at the end, we cut off another corner and double the bevels. This extra feature didn't noticeably increase the amount of hand- tamping required in the corners.


We used a "sandwich system" where the form ply is clamped to the end panels and footing with pipe clamps and walers. (All you concrete form-workers out there, no snickering)

This is by no means the only way to build a form work for rammed earth construction , but it certainly was economical for an owner-builder project of modest size such as this one.

Here is an exploded view of one of our end panels:



DIY enthusiasts might like to know that we used 57 3" screws and 63 2" screws in one panel. Double that comes to $1.50 for two end panels. There might have been some finish nails to attach the chamfer strips, maybe fifty cents worth. (All prices are approximate and in Canadian funds, of course)



We also used:
4 – 9’ pieces of 2x4 $4.00
4 -8' pieces of 2x4 $5.00
4 – 9’pieces of 2x6 $10.00
1 or 2 sheets of ¾”4'x8' paper faced Crezone signboard $60 each
(Two 19.5” by 8’ pieces per panel plus extra for chamfer strips)
for each set of end panels.

It took about a day to make two sets. Call that anywhere from zero to $100 to $400 in labour, depending on who you know.
Let's say $400 to make a set of end panels.

We found at this price it was economical to construct two sets of end panels (four total) so we were able to let a freshly rammed wall sit in the form work until we had finished forming the subsequent one.

In addition to the cost of end panels we also needed form ply. (You can't form a wall with just end panels, silly...)
We chose to use Crezone sign board because it gives a nice smooth finish but it's not cheap at $60 a sheet. We used 20 for our modest project.

Sticklers for extremely fine finishes should budget for fresh form-ply for each wall. Those with more restricted funds can just get used to the rough and ready look that serves our colleagues in Germany and Australia so well..

We used about 16 14' 2x10s ($15.50 apiece) per wall for the walers. We also needed an assortment of shorter sized pieces to form the corners. $500 pretty much covered it.

Pipe clamps were about $20 apiece and we used two per waler, so about $360 for them.

Doing the math very loosely, one could spend under $3000 and have a *complete* rammed earth form system that would last through a house or two, maybe a few garden walls, depending on how smooth a finish was required.

When you didn't need the materials for ramming any longer you can still use the wood for regular old boring stick frame construction. You can give the pipe clamps to friends as gifts when you are finished with them. Who doesn't need a pipe clamp?

What we did on Sunday...

We went to Henry Yorke Mann's home, estate? spread? ranch?


(It's hard to know what to call his property but Lovely.)

Henry was having a party to celebrate his 76th birthday and the erection, in his yard, of two large granite slabs, let's call them menhirs, that he's had his eye on for years.

That's the belly dancer you can faintly make out between the two stones.

I was thrilled to be able to get a look at some of the construction details of the wood and masonry portions of his house.



Yep, that's just humble old concrete block, artfully laid.

We're going back up there tomorrow to check out the construction of Henry's new office.

After we eat at the new Vietnamese restaurant in Penticton, of course....

The Last Week (Thick Slices)

A small amount of recovery from the building of walls was in order. We were all very tired.


A visit from Mike, PJ and Nick, culminating in a day trip to Vancouver went along way in wiping the slate clean for the next phase of building.


But before the next phase can really begin, there is a world of tidying and grading to do. Now that we've got the footing buried (for the most part) the North East corner has really come into its own.


What tidying session is complete without emptying and returning the 'can?'


Now that we got that bit of spinach out from between our teeth, take a look at our smile from these new angles.


Yes, it is like a rainbow.


And through the magic of computers, enjoy this composite interior view.


There have been forest fires in the region which have made the skies a color different than blue. Spooky.


As mentioned, the rammed earth portion of the show is now over. Everything from now on is things connecting to rammed earth. That isn't going to be quite as fast paced and exciting as the wall building, and as a result, the postings may be a bit fewer and further between. We apologize ahead of time for any inconvenience.

August 3rd

A lady walked by today and asked," Is this going to be a church?"

This was taken as a compliment.

The marble in the underfills turned out pretty well.


Time to add some more back fill and then we're on to the larch double header.