Clean Site = Safe Site?

We opened up the building site to public on Sunday 12th September as part of the Sustainable House Day. http://www.sustainablehouseday.com/
This involved a lot of cleanup, adding handrails, stairs, and closing human-sized gaps in floors etc etc etc.....

Thanks to the organisers - Solar Dwellings and Shmeco. Huge Thanks in particular to Graham, Paul, Helmuth+ Eugenie Stockmann, Glen Richards, Nigel Saull, Sophie Giles, Bec Carrick for volunteering on the day. You guys counted over 200 visitors – it was a great day and very reassuring to see the positive vibes all around!
We distributed an information page on the house – [will upload soon]
and here are a few photos of the clean site!

a [Final Coat] trial

We had Rendering Pros Phil and Nigel try out the final coat of lime render on our north wall. We are trying this out with white sand instead of the brickies sand. Hope it still works..... (The white sand appears a lot coarser than the others).

Looks dead straight and has survived without cracking so that’s good news.

12 Oct 2010 Update- We know Phil wasn’t quite convinced about not having any cement in the render, but it is still standing – and no cracks yet!

i render thee not so hopeless...

HERE we are as of today, the 8th of August 2010.....
Progress has been slow but steady.
All the straw work is complete, all the external walls are rendered to at least the first coat, and a few walls are also lime-rendered. We are trying to get all the lime render coats onto the external walls before the anticipated precipitation.......

south wall windows adjusted to line up with final coats. one more coat (not by us) on this wall...
clay render on the west walls... two more lime render coats to go...

temporarily covered the gable with ply until we get all the double glazing on the triangulated frames....

yep - this window to be refixed to sit outwards - render too thick!

joists for the deck...

view into the mezannine...

imagine this with the red alpolic offcuts?

:-)

ooo ya!

Ze Coming of Ze Windows

On Friday a sea container was dropped off on madang lane. It had travelled on a ship called the MSC Sabrina halfway across the world from Hamburg Port to Fremantle Port bring us the Pièce de résistance for the project - our timber framed double glazed argon filled tilt and turn windows....
They were by far the biggest and most expensive gamble we have taken on for the house; and after months of waiting, (fingers crossed, holding our breaths), when the container was opened to reveal the freshly fumigated 16 windows perfectly intact the sigh of relief could probably be heard all the way to Cochin!
Like 5 year olds opening up their first box of lego blocks, we took them apart and started installing them on Saturday itself... and by Sunday night, Christian and I had already installed 7 small windows and 1 large!
The gaps will be sealed with an expanding insulated foam and then a silicone seal to the edges...later.
Ansgar is very pleased with me for doing the bathroom ones – he can finally have a hot bath without the wind and rain watching! (Yes he is still camping on site)
George the tiler should also be happy with us – he can now finish the wall tiling in one shot.

Wannabe Tradie Ceiling Installer

Deepti spent most of this weekend installing the ceiling grids for the bathroom - Luke who did the plasterboard and flushing was impressed....
Always nice for us ‘wannabe tradies’ to get a thumbs up from a ‘proper tradie’ :-)

here we are on the 7th june 2010

In anticipation of the coming winter rains, we are proceeding with the first coat of render (clay+sand) as soon as each section of wall is complete. Hopefully, this (with tarps) will protect the bales externally from any major downpours... So although the front at the moment looks unfinished, the back is starting to look like a building (as opposed to a multitude of timber posts holding up a strange looking roof.)

Huge effort on Sunday with Bec, Rusty and Belinda adding to the workforce and getting very very dirty :-)

detail at windows

ansgar compressing bales - no one is as effective at stomping down!
mezannine level

looking down along from the mezzanine balcony along the kitchen wall.

living room wall.

detail at top of straw bale wall at mezzanine level. an extra timber 'ladder' and tie downs. one coat of render, and then a timber ledge over.

commando wielding the hedge trimmer.

bec belinda and rusty getting dirty dirty dirty

Another coat? Really?

hmmmpffff hmmmpff

before and after.

i hereby RENDER thee hopeless

Here is our answer to the render question "how shalt thou render?"



We experimented with different recipes and here's what we've come up with. We are using the concrete mixer for mixing.

External render of overall thickness average 50mm.
Coat 1 - Levelling coat- Earth render.
1/2 bucket Clay.
1 bucket Sand (high clay content).
15 handful (deepti size hands) of finely chopped straw particles.
water to suit required gooeyness.

Coat 2 - Middle Coat - Lime Render
1 bucket lime putty / lime waste
3 buckets Sand
water to suit required gooeyness

Coat 3 - Final Coat - Lime Render
1 bucket lime putty
3 buckets White Sand
water to suit required gooeyness
Lime wash to final external walls.
(Christian wants to add one more coat externally - a 'coat 2a' between coats 2 and 3. Still undergoing discussion.)

Internal render of overall average thickness 50mm.

Coat 1 - levelling coat
1 bucket lime waste
1 bucket Sand
1/10th bucket lime putty
water to suit required gooeyness


Coats 2 and 3 - middle and final coats
1 bucket lime putty
3 buckets sand
water to suit required gooeyness

Lime Wash to final internal walls.

random glimpses at night

A few photos from last night....
The first coat of render is on the back wall (south wall). Massive thanks to Helmuth and Eugenie who helped us all afternoon yesterday. They are building their straw bale passive solar home(s) in Lathlain - check them out at their website http://www.thegreenswing.net/