Each time I work on one of these I am sure that it will be easier than the last time, not so yet. Summer is continuing to be in full swing complete with out of state license plates, no seats at the Merc (a most popular restaurant around these here parts) and long lines of people most everywhere you go.
The Earthship building is moving slowly but surely. We have poured the concrete slab. This required many hours of prep work before the actual pour. We laid down a vapor barrier, 3 inches of foam board insulation, 4-140 foot runs of pex tubing, one layer of metal mesh and miscellaneous rebar all over the place... Then the concrete trucks arrived and it was a crazy couple of hours. We started with 3 people and had 6 by the end of the pour. Then it started raining(of course) and my husband and a friend stayed up till 5 am trying to get a nice finish on the pad. They ended up putting up a visqeen tent over the entire house and working with the headlights of their trucks all night. Luckily, I came down with a cold and was sent home after the pour. When my husband arrived home, he was covered head to toe in concrete and was soaking wet. But it's in, and we can now move forward again. Sometimes this process seems like a lot of hurry up and waiting. The gravel and concrete pads were two BIG steps in the building of our home. Now, comes more of the fun stuff. Tire pounding will be resuming and we will start to assemble the post and beam part of the south wall.
Before we move on however, lets talk about the concrete pad some more. In the Earthship books, they recommend putting your flooring on the ground. They have formulated a mixture of the naturally occurring soils that they use like concrete. However, here in Alaska that would be a cold floor! The temperature of the ground here is around 40 degrees where as in other places the temperature of the ground is more like 60. Many homes in Alaska(and probably other places) use warm water/glycol circulating under their flooring to achieve a comfortable environment. This is a more passive form of heat than say a monitor or forced air heating system, it also is more efficient as your are heating a mass that holds heat longer. It seems to me that our culture is so bent on heating air and keeping it hot, that we forget that people(and animals) have been using thermal mass to stay warm for as long as well, time.(Think lizard on a rock, cave dwellers etc) I also find heating air to be an apt metaphor for our lifestyles in general. We spend so much energy on making money to pay our bills which keep stacking up, all the while spending less time with our families which leads our children to believe that they have to go to college to get the highest paying job they can so they can support their families when the time comes. I have recently been learning more and more that "opting out" is a possibility. If we look at how many hours we spend every month on each bill(ex. food bill 700$ 35 hours @ 20.00$/hour) , I think we would see that those hours could be spent on growing food... Which expenses are necessary? That is up to each individual person. I think we can all find things we could opt out of. If we as a culture decided to simplify and reduce our needs, many of which are a necessity of the 40+ hour work week and the convenience lifestyle, I think it would be beneficial.
A closed loop under floor heating system will be one of our houses forms of heat. The water/glycol(we're not sure which yet(any input is welcome)) will be in a closed loop system that runs a couple of laps in the masonry stove. The masonry stove will be our other form of heat. Once again an ancient technology, a masonry stove is a big pile of rock with a firebox. When you burn a roaring fire for a small amount of time, the rocks hold the heat for up to a couple of days. If you were to hire someone to build you a masonry stove, it would cost thousands of dollars, but the concepts are pretty simple. One of the reasons for the high cost of manufactured masonry stoves is that the materials are often shipped. And who wants to ship a big pile of rocks anywhere? I have yet to travel anywhere that didn't have rocks, so this seems kind of goofy to me. I am going to leave off for now and keep working on the house, We'll see you next time!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
And Now, for the first course
Memorial Day weekend Schmemorial Day weekend. I have made a ground breaking decision. I will no longer state on the blog when I will next be posting. Apparently exactly a month has passed since my last post. Summer is in full swing here in Alaska which pretty much means that you have to decide if you want to sleep in late or go to bed early. Or go to bed late and get up early! I seem to be perenially awake at this time of year. So much light, so many things happening, so much live music! Somehow around all of this, we are making progress on the house. At this point we are 11% complete on the tire pounding stage. What this means is that we have pounded exactly 60 tires. People say "so by pound you mean like........" We smile and say" like with a hammer"
Before the description follows, a disclaimer. If you are planning on building a structure out of recycled materials, I strongly urge you to beg, borrow or purchase all the books you can get your hands on relating to earthships(Micheal Reynolds), green building, food growing, greenhouses, small space building, positivity and self help(to help with the mantra of "everything always works out for the best" or "close one door and another will open" etc.)I am only providing a basic explanation of what we are doing and I don't want anyone to feel misled by the seeming ease of taking these matters into your hands. Don't feel discouraged, just know the that the reality of the situation is that Anyone can build themselves a functioning, sustainable home as long as they pay attention to the amply recorded mistakes of others. We can be sure that errors will always occur, but if we make new ones, then we will continue to learn.
The process for pounding a tire is as follows:
1) Start with a good compact foundation. (If you need more info about foundations, read the previous blog entry "the pad before the pad before "The Pad"", OR contact a professional(not specifically in that order))
2) Layout your tires _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <--- they will look something like that
3) Choose your tire to start on, preferably one on the end of a wall, remove it from its place and use a level to assure that the ground beneath the tire is level all the way around. Lay your tire down and dump a full wheelbarrow of dirt in it. Use your hands to spread the dirt out into the walls of the tire. Get another wheelbarrow and keep adding dirt and packing it into the walls of the tires until you can't cram anymore in with your hands.
4) Pick up that sledgehammer you knew you would need sooner or later and swing it down into the tire so that the head of the sledgehammer pounds dirt under the lip of the wall of the tire. Repeat while moving around the tire in a circle adding more dirt when needed. Continue this until the tire walls start to swell upward and get hard. Once there is no give at all, get a level out and make sure the top of the tire is level all the way around. If it isn't you will have to pound more dirt in on the low side to bring that up to level. Once the top of the tire is level all the way around, top off the hole and you're good to go! One down, 517 to go....
We have had 2 pounding sessions with friends and family and are starting to get our flow going. If you have been interested in coming out to help, now is a great time to do it. Once you get a couple or 6 people pounding, shoveling and keeping things going, the time flies! As far as the house goes, there isn't much new to report. We have our work cut out for us, but each day brings progress and the neat thing about this style of building is that once you fill a tire, it is finished. All you have to do is cover it with stucco or your locale specific mud product and doesn't need much more attention. This brings about a real feeling of accomplishment as the sweat is rolling down your face and breathing is ragged and you think, did I really need to dance until 3am last night? But then you look down at that beautiful row of tires and it is all worth it.
Before the description follows, a disclaimer. If you are planning on building a structure out of recycled materials, I strongly urge you to beg, borrow or purchase all the books you can get your hands on relating to earthships(Micheal Reynolds), green building, food growing, greenhouses, small space building, positivity and self help(to help with the mantra of "everything always works out for the best" or "close one door and another will open" etc.)I am only providing a basic explanation of what we are doing and I don't want anyone to feel misled by the seeming ease of taking these matters into your hands. Don't feel discouraged, just know the that the reality of the situation is that Anyone can build themselves a functioning, sustainable home as long as they pay attention to the amply recorded mistakes of others. We can be sure that errors will always occur, but if we make new ones, then we will continue to learn.
The process for pounding a tire is as follows:
1) Start with a good compact foundation. (If you need more info about foundations, read the previous blog entry "the pad before the pad before "The Pad"", OR contact a professional(not specifically in that order))
2) Layout your tires _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <--- they will look something like that
3) Choose your tire to start on, preferably one on the end of a wall, remove it from its place and use a level to assure that the ground beneath the tire is level all the way around. Lay your tire down and dump a full wheelbarrow of dirt in it. Use your hands to spread the dirt out into the walls of the tire. Get another wheelbarrow and keep adding dirt and packing it into the walls of the tires until you can't cram anymore in with your hands.
4) Pick up that sledgehammer you knew you would need sooner or later and swing it down into the tire so that the head of the sledgehammer pounds dirt under the lip of the wall of the tire. Repeat while moving around the tire in a circle adding more dirt when needed. Continue this until the tire walls start to swell upward and get hard. Once there is no give at all, get a level out and make sure the top of the tire is level all the way around. If it isn't you will have to pound more dirt in on the low side to bring that up to level. Once the top of the tire is level all the way around, top off the hole and you're good to go! One down, 517 to go....
We have had 2 pounding sessions with friends and family and are starting to get our flow going. If you have been interested in coming out to help, now is a great time to do it. Once you get a couple or 6 people pounding, shoveling and keeping things going, the time flies! As far as the house goes, there isn't much new to report. We have our work cut out for us, but each day brings progress and the neat thing about this style of building is that once you fill a tire, it is finished. All you have to do is cover it with stucco or your locale specific mud product and doesn't need much more attention. This brings about a real feeling of accomplishment as the sweat is rolling down your face and breathing is ragged and you think, did I really need to dance until 3am last night? But then you look down at that beautiful row of tires and it is all worth it.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Pad before the Pad before the Pad.
Life 101
Everything is a production.
House 101
Foundation- the basis or groundwork of anything; see above
I walked into my room, reached into my medical supplies and pulled out my vial of WILLPOWER just a few minutes ago. Yes, I really did!..but before we go any further, I am going to get side tracked for a minute.
This is my 1st time writing a blog. I've pondered it before but never really have been able to pinpoint exactly what I wanted to write about.....Food, happiness, $$ or lack thereof, sustainability, the earth..... My list could go on and on, however in my brain everything is connected. For instance I have come to learn that so many of the problems facing our planet are directly related to food. Growing, eating, feeding, politics, pollution when applied on a global scale have wreaked havoc on our planet. If this subject appeals to you, some good books to look at are Animal Vegetable Miracle and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story of B by Daniel Quinn, The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I have found that as much as 95% of the food eaten in Alaska is imported. In fact, I have just discovered that if I get too far into this, my blog will turn into a food blog. So suffice it to say that the earthship was an answer to my prayers.
In November our log home burned, very little was left intact. However, the kids were at school, my husband and I were at work, the baby was taken care of and our neighbors saw the smoke and let the dogs out of the burning house. So though we lost our stuff, we didn't lose anybody. We had insurance too so that was a relief... Once the initial shock wore off, we started talking about what was next. Moving, staying, building , buying, sailing off into the sunset: anything was possible. We moved into an apartment with cable tv, wifi and a washer and dryer! One night I was channel surfing @ 2 am and there was a movie on called "The Garbage Warrior". It was actually a documentary about Michael Reynolds, a man in Taos, New Mexico who has pioneered methods of building with trash. He calls his building materials " The natural resources of the modern humanity" as they are already available most everywhere. The homes being built by Earthship biotecture were not only beautiful inside and out, but supply food, heat and shelter independently of any outside systems. Earthships have been evolving for 30+ years now and will continue to do so. I watched the documentary with my jaw on my chest and at the end, I knew what it was we would be doing for the next step in our bigger picture. We bought all of the books written by Michael Reynolds and quite a few not written by him and have now spent the last 7ish months reading, planning, talking to people, collecting things for the house(windows, cabinets, bathtub, sinks, tile and of course the requisite tires, bottles and cans) and preparing to build our new home. We have found some great deals....a lot of Craigslisting, garage sales etc. have supplied our building materials. However, we recently realized that in order to utilize all of our great stuff, we had to build a foundation strong enough to hold it all up. Our finished earthship could weigh in the neighborhood of 400,000 pounds! This was not within our comfort zone , but we eventually decided to do it ourselves anyway. So with the aid of a 20,000 # excavator, a skidsteer, a humongous roller compactor, approximately 250 yards of pit run gravel and our wonderful family who took the kids for almost 3 days straight, we dug a 5ish foot deep hole about 40x60 and proceeded to fill it in approximately 1 foot "lift" intervals. Each layer was heavily compacted. After knocking down our power line with the excavator, crunching the back of our 4 wheeler with the skidsteer and crunching the cooling unit of the skidsteer with the excavator bucket when pulling it out, as it was mired in thick clay, ground level was finally attained! The only thing left to do to finish is to "shoot the grade" which means bringing up the foundation to the level we want to build the house off of and doing the final compacting, making sure that the pad is perfectly level all the way across. By the end of memorial day weekend we should be ready to begin the long awaited tire pounding stage! So have a happy weekend, stay in touch and we will continue next week!
Everything is a production.
House 101
Foundation- the basis or groundwork of anything; see above
I walked into my room, reached into my medical supplies and pulled out my vial of WILLPOWER just a few minutes ago. Yes, I really did!..but before we go any further, I am going to get side tracked for a minute.
This is my 1st time writing a blog. I've pondered it before but never really have been able to pinpoint exactly what I wanted to write about.....Food, happiness, $$ or lack thereof, sustainability, the earth..... My list could go on and on, however in my brain everything is connected. For instance I have come to learn that so many of the problems facing our planet are directly related to food. Growing, eating, feeding, politics, pollution when applied on a global scale have wreaked havoc on our planet. If this subject appeals to you, some good books to look at are Animal Vegetable Miracle and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story of B by Daniel Quinn, The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I have found that as much as 95% of the food eaten in Alaska is imported. In fact, I have just discovered that if I get too far into this, my blog will turn into a food blog. So suffice it to say that the earthship was an answer to my prayers.
In November our log home burned, very little was left intact. However, the kids were at school, my husband and I were at work, the baby was taken care of and our neighbors saw the smoke and let the dogs out of the burning house. So though we lost our stuff, we didn't lose anybody. We had insurance too so that was a relief... Once the initial shock wore off, we started talking about what was next. Moving, staying, building , buying, sailing off into the sunset: anything was possible. We moved into an apartment with cable tv, wifi and a washer and dryer! One night I was channel surfing @ 2 am and there was a movie on called "The Garbage Warrior". It was actually a documentary about Michael Reynolds, a man in Taos, New Mexico who has pioneered methods of building with trash. He calls his building materials " The natural resources of the modern humanity" as they are already available most everywhere. The homes being built by Earthship biotecture were not only beautiful inside and out, but supply food, heat and shelter independently of any outside systems. Earthships have been evolving for 30+ years now and will continue to do so. I watched the documentary with my jaw on my chest and at the end, I knew what it was we would be doing for the next step in our bigger picture. We bought all of the books written by Michael Reynolds and quite a few not written by him and have now spent the last 7ish months reading, planning, talking to people, collecting things for the house(windows, cabinets, bathtub, sinks, tile and of course the requisite tires, bottles and cans) and preparing to build our new home. We have found some great deals....a lot of Craigslisting, garage sales etc. have supplied our building materials. However, we recently realized that in order to utilize all of our great stuff, we had to build a foundation strong enough to hold it all up. Our finished earthship could weigh in the neighborhood of 400,000 pounds! This was not within our comfort zone , but we eventually decided to do it ourselves anyway. So with the aid of a 20,000 # excavator, a skidsteer, a humongous roller compactor, approximately 250 yards of pit run gravel and our wonderful family who took the kids for almost 3 days straight, we dug a 5ish foot deep hole about 40x60 and proceeded to fill it in approximately 1 foot "lift" intervals. Each layer was heavily compacted. After knocking down our power line with the excavator, crunching the back of our 4 wheeler with the skidsteer and crunching the cooling unit of the skidsteer with the excavator bucket when pulling it out, as it was mired in thick clay, ground level was finally attained! The only thing left to do to finish is to "shoot the grade" which means bringing up the foundation to the level we want to build the house off of and doing the final compacting, making sure that the pad is perfectly level all the way across. By the end of memorial day weekend we should be ready to begin the long awaited tire pounding stage! So have a happy weekend, stay in touch and we will continue next week!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
One small step for man....
It all comes down to the house. What came before, what comes next must wait. We are embarking on a journey. A journey that will open the door to many previously uncharted paths. A journey aboard an earthship! (Cue epic music)
What is an earthship? you may ask. I think we can safely surmise that it is a dwelling. But it is a dwelling unlike many others. Aboard an earthship are all the systems needed to keep the human traveler thriving. Instead of shedding water as most houses do, it collects it. Instead of pumping water fouled by one use into the sewer/septic, it reuses it 3-4 times. Instead of using ever dwindling “natural resources” in its construction, it makes use of modern humanities natural resource; trash. Tires, Bottles, Cans, what else can we salvage from the ever growing piles of castoffs spanning the globe? There may be lumber shortages as we continue to decimate forests in pursuit of the allmighty dollar, but there are no tire shortages. Here in Alaska where we live, Recycle bins are made available, but it has long since been decided that it is too expensive to ship recyclables out of state for processing.
However, we are not here to bemoan the shortcomings of our modern society. Let us instead feel grateful that we inhabit the planet at a time so ripe for change. We live in the age of information and there is nothing we cannot learn if we can only find the right questions to ask. Maybe some new questions are in order.
Back on track now...So far we know that an earthship is a dwelling, it’s built with recycled materials (tires, bottles, cans....), concrete/plaster/mortar mixed of local earth and additives, and south facing glass. Some wood is used, but can be a very minimized amount. Many are built into hills, some are not. (Point of interest; our land is NOT hilly) For the ones that are not, berming on the cool side of the house is an option up for strong consideration. The structural walls are made of tires pounded full with earth. This process includes a strong back, a sledgehammer and a lot of dirt. Non structural walls are made of bottles and cans used as bricks with mortar between. The roof is an area with much room for exploration. Roofs are shaped in a way that will encourage water catchment. Some are flat and/or straight with metal coverings, some are shaped like hippie spaceships with various other finishes. One handy thought to keep in mind is “Form follows Function”; an earthship is built is such a way that all of the benefits of the building materials used are brought to their full potential. Lost Yet? Isn’t SOP just to slap together 4 walls, a roof and plug in a heater? Not so aboard the earthship fleet. Roofs catch water, tire walls catch heat from the South facing windows, food(plants) grow downhill from your grey water sources and their runoff flushes the toilet. Solar and Wind energies are harnessed for minimized electrical needs. Sound Interesting?
My husband and I with the help of our three children, two dogs and a communities worth of help are going to build one this summer (2010)! As a person newly immersed in the idea that a house could be more than a box, I am beyond excited to see what comes next. The purpose of this blog will be to record the process of building our earthship. We are conducting an experiment in sustainable living. How much will it cost us to build something that once standing, will have little to no utility bills, grow bananas in Alaska and keep our family warm year round without any fossil fuel usage (as well as being the house of our dreams!)? We are gathering as many of the components as possible 2nd hand and are asking heavily for donations of time from interested members of our communities. However, I am no slave driver and we are planning on a summer long building party including kids, food, beer, bonfire and an overall good time had by all. Should we succeed(Or should I say When), we will be happy to return the time borrowed to help others find their paths on the the road to Sustainablity. I am not suggesting that everyone needs an earthship, but there are methods in the building of one that everyone can use. We all need to learn to supply our own food, and stop fouling the planets water. Water shortages lead to stress on all levels of the food chain, but it is running off roofs all over the world. When we think of new, valid questions to be asking, we may stumble upon new ways to walk lighter upon the world. Isn’t this exciting?
What is an earthship? you may ask. I think we can safely surmise that it is a dwelling. But it is a dwelling unlike many others. Aboard an earthship are all the systems needed to keep the human traveler thriving. Instead of shedding water as most houses do, it collects it. Instead of pumping water fouled by one use into the sewer/septic, it reuses it 3-4 times. Instead of using ever dwindling “natural resources” in its construction, it makes use of modern humanities natural resource; trash. Tires, Bottles, Cans, what else can we salvage from the ever growing piles of castoffs spanning the globe? There may be lumber shortages as we continue to decimate forests in pursuit of the allmighty dollar, but there are no tire shortages. Here in Alaska where we live, Recycle bins are made available, but it has long since been decided that it is too expensive to ship recyclables out of state for processing.
However, we are not here to bemoan the shortcomings of our modern society. Let us instead feel grateful that we inhabit the planet at a time so ripe for change. We live in the age of information and there is nothing we cannot learn if we can only find the right questions to ask. Maybe some new questions are in order.
Back on track now...So far we know that an earthship is a dwelling, it’s built with recycled materials (tires, bottles, cans....), concrete/plaster/mortar mixed of local earth and additives, and south facing glass. Some wood is used, but can be a very minimized amount. Many are built into hills, some are not. (Point of interest; our land is NOT hilly) For the ones that are not, berming on the cool side of the house is an option up for strong consideration. The structural walls are made of tires pounded full with earth. This process includes a strong back, a sledgehammer and a lot of dirt. Non structural walls are made of bottles and cans used as bricks with mortar between. The roof is an area with much room for exploration. Roofs are shaped in a way that will encourage water catchment. Some are flat and/or straight with metal coverings, some are shaped like hippie spaceships with various other finishes. One handy thought to keep in mind is “Form follows Function”; an earthship is built is such a way that all of the benefits of the building materials used are brought to their full potential. Lost Yet? Isn’t SOP just to slap together 4 walls, a roof and plug in a heater? Not so aboard the earthship fleet. Roofs catch water, tire walls catch heat from the South facing windows, food(plants) grow downhill from your grey water sources and their runoff flushes the toilet. Solar and Wind energies are harnessed for minimized electrical needs. Sound Interesting?
My husband and I with the help of our three children, two dogs and a communities worth of help are going to build one this summer (2010)! As a person newly immersed in the idea that a house could be more than a box, I am beyond excited to see what comes next. The purpose of this blog will be to record the process of building our earthship. We are conducting an experiment in sustainable living. How much will it cost us to build something that once standing, will have little to no utility bills, grow bananas in Alaska and keep our family warm year round without any fossil fuel usage (as well as being the house of our dreams!)? We are gathering as many of the components as possible 2nd hand and are asking heavily for donations of time from interested members of our communities. However, I am no slave driver and we are planning on a summer long building party including kids, food, beer, bonfire and an overall good time had by all. Should we succeed(Or should I say When), we will be happy to return the time borrowed to help others find their paths on the the road to Sustainablity. I am not suggesting that everyone needs an earthship, but there are methods in the building of one that everyone can use. We all need to learn to supply our own food, and stop fouling the planets water. Water shortages lead to stress on all levels of the food chain, but it is running off roofs all over the world. When we think of new, valid questions to be asking, we may stumble upon new ways to walk lighter upon the world. Isn’t this exciting?
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