Three walls done! Whoo!

Three walls!  Whoo!

We have reached the three-wall* milestone in the mud shed, thanks to the hard work of visiting buddy GW.  It looks like a very large doll's house, with the front wall missing!

This blog post is pretty well just a report on what we finished off last weekend. We did all the difficult bits we had left until later- the gaps that needed filling, the awkward spaces, the awkward window surround. I'll try and do another post on  how we achieved it, which will probably be called something like "a celebration of dodgy formwork".

East wall done!*

We finished* the East Wall, including the area around the tall thin window, some gaps in the middle panel and the awkward area on top of the big window.  You can't see it because it's in shadow.  But it's there.  We finished at dusk on Saturday. By mid-morning Sunday some blazing winter sunshine had started drying the wall - you can't even see the border of the new material.

View from tall window

This is the view from the inside of the East Wall, looking out.  At least, that's how it looks if you stand in just the right spot to avoid seeing the Termite Shed.  The very elegant tree is a Grey-Box.

The gable - done!

On Sunday we filled in the gable above the South Wall (the triangle above the two main panels).  I miss the view of the tree-tops through the gap.  But in compensation, we have a lovely view through the circular window, which I finally got around to trimming a bit.

Circle window - Long-leaf box

The tree you can see through the window is a Long-leaf Box, a type of rough-barked eucalypt (gum tree) with very blue-grey leaves and a habit of growing in a quirky twisted form.  The branch through the window shows both the plump round juvenile leaves and the long slender adult leaves.

Gemini Corner

The incredible GW also completed* the corner that joins the East Wall to the South Wall, and did a neat job of it, too.  I have named it after her, honouring our "you built it, you own it" policy.

West Wall

We even filled all the gaps** in the West Wall - the gap above the window, and the column next to it.  It's really neat up there above the window - I'll tell you the new technique next time.

* Yeah, when I say "finished" I'm not counting render. This means I get to "finish" each wall four times. Once when the light earth is in place, once each for two coats of render and once for mud-paint.  More champagne!

** Just now, looking at this photo, I noticed there is still a gap above the sodding door.  How did I not notice this yesterday?

Planning, with orchids and wildlife on the side

North Wall drawings

We haven't been able to build for a month, because whenever the sun has shone poor TJ had to work weekends, and when he was free it was rainy.  We'll start building again this weekend, but meanwhile we've spent some time planning the north wall.

The plans we submitted to council just had a drawing of a window seat popping out, a little roof, and a few basic notes, like that we'd frame it up in 'seasoned hardwood'.*  Now we've got to figure out how to do it!

The window seat is all corners, all angles, all complicated.  The walls will be 30cm thick below the seat then 15cm thick above. There's a seat to sit on and a ledge to lean on. There are windows to frame up, a little ceiling to hang and a roof on the top. Everything has to take a lot of knocking around without moving.  I can't say we've got all the answers yet.

Corner stud framing dummy-run

We did a dummy-run of a corner framing stud with a few off-cuts, just to see in 3D what we were planning.  I plonked it down in place, and was pretty chuffed to find the pieces of reo bar that I cemented into the footings the day they were poured line up exactly with the model of the stud pieces.

All we have to do is drill a hole in the bottom of each framing piece and lower it into position, and the base of the wall will never, ever move laterally again.  Neat, eh?

While TJ's been away, I've been wandering around, checking on the plants and some of the wildlife.

The Mammal Survey Group from the Vic National Parks Association came up to check the nesting boxes on some adjacent properties (we can do ours ourselves).  We found some incredible Tuan and Sugar Glider nests, and a few inhabitants.

Sugar Gliders all snuggled up

The first orchids have started flowering - Nodding Greenhoods.

They always remind me of a protest march, or maybe that John Brack painting.  I really love them.  I kind of like their attitude - faces down, no glitz, entrap the odd gnat then back to hibernation before the devil sees them coming.

* Council wants everything framed in "seasoned hardwood".  We're not buying any old growth forest timber, so we scrounge wood from rubbish skips in Melbourne.  Some of the wood in this building has been seasoned since the 1930s!  I still need quite a few long pieces, so I take a different route to work each day and look down the back streets for renovations.  If we can find the builders we ask and they sometimes set some good wood aside, but mostly we just pull it out of skips before they get taken to the rubbish tip.  It really is criminal what we waste.

Mid-winter mud-fest

Dress code: clothes you don't want any more

We were joined by some friends from Melbourne for a mid-winter mud-fest.  It was ten degrees today, and sort of damp so it should have been miserable but it was pretty fabulous instead.  

It's good to be outside in the fresh air making things, especially when you know there's a wood fire and a hot meal waiting inside.  You get warm mixing the mud in with the straw, and lifting it up into the wall.  It's also good to have company.  

Coating loose straw with a mud slurry

Window update

After all that soul-searching we decided to go with a vertical window.  It's less practical and harder to make, but TJ was willing to spend all of Saturday framing it up.  Once I saw it in place, I got the point. 

Vertical window and Grey Box tree

We tied the window into the frame of the shed by bolting the top into the top-plate, and bolting the bottom to a horizontal four-be-two attached to two studs.  This is buried in the mud, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We drilled holes up each side of the window frame and banged bits of bamboo, as you can see below. They will act as anchors in the mud wall.

Raili (working, with hammer); Sean (mugging, with dangerous power tool)

We got nearly as much wall built today working together as TJ and I would have made in two days on our own. All the darker bits in the picture below were built today.

You may notice we re-built part of the centre panel that we made a month ago.  That day I decided on whim to see what would happen if I didn't tamp the mix down as hard.  Theoretically, the less you tamp down the mud-straw mix, the faster the wall goes up, the better the insulation (air gaps), plus I thought it might dry a bit faster if it was less dense.  It was worth a try, but it didn't work out.  The wall felt weak and fragile, and I want a nice solid wall.  We can soak the mud off the straw, use the mud again and compost the straw, so there's no waste.

By the time we knocked off work today, it was raining pretty solidly.  We got 9mm of rain over night and while we were building.  There's going to be rain or showers on five days out of the next week.  I'm starting to worry about all these damp walls drying so slowly.  Bit late for that, probably.

Rain stops play, but this place will live forever

Verity

Winter has recently included a quantity of freezing drizzly rain.  So there's been nothing to do but sit inside by the wood fire and go bush walking with awesome visiting kids who don't give a fig about cold, night falling or punctual meals.

It's going to rain on and off all week and next weekend, which is a bit depressing.  We have two completely free days and a couple of volunteers offering to come and help next weekend.  I'm worried I'll going to spend two days making them hot cocoa and feeding the fire instead of getting muddy.

For the sake of any Canadians reading this, can I say it was MINUS THREE DEGREES last weekend. You're impressed, aren't you?  That's cold enough for ice to form in the bird bath. Sure, that was at dawn and I was asleep, but still.  MINUS THREE, MAN.

Yesterday we went to a celebration for the 1000th property in Victoria to be protected forever by a Trust for Nature conservation covenant.  We are one of those thousand.  Here, have a Sugar Glider.

It's great being in a room full of people, and you don't know most of them, but you know you can walk up and talk to anyone and they'll be a kindred spirit.  Also, it was at a winery, and Lindy Lumsden brought along her pet microbat, and fed it meal-worms.

A conservation covenant is a voluntary agreement between the landholder and the state government, which creates binding alteration to the land title, and is annexed to the planning legislation.  The allowable land use is altered forever to prevent land clearing and other negative uses, and promote positive action like restoration and weed prevention.  Trust for Nature brokers the covenants and performs a number of other useful functions.

The great thing is that the present Prime Minister is getting ready to pass climate change legislation that will actually pay landholders to preserve natural areas in this way, because permanent biodiverse reserves are an efficient way to promote soil carbon and prevent dangerous climate change, so hopefully one day we will have a landscape full of reserves across the country, connecting private and public reserves.

To celebrate the 1000th covenant, Trust for Nature has done number of endearing things, including making this video (nb the animals start moving at about 1.39).

If it ever stops being cold and rainy, normal blogular service will resume.

Window options - help us decide!

TJ prepares to frame the new window

It was too rainy last weekend to play with the mud.  So we went to the Daylesford Tip Shop and bought  a piece of glass for a new window.  It cost a buck.  It needs framing, which is TJ's job, and we have to decide where to put it, which is where you come in.

Here are our options, set out in picture form, using my mad photo editing skillz.

This window will go on a part of the building we would prefer to keep dark - that's why all the windows are down the other end of the building. An internal wall will partially divide the building, creating the dark corner we want, but it will also prevent air from the other windows from circulating in that part of the building. Temperatures here can get over 45 celsius (113 fahrenheit) and often go over 40 celsius (104 F), so we need a window for ventilation. We're a bit worried that the  building is so well insulated that if it gets hot, it will stay hot unless we can get the heat out at night.

The two options for this long, thin window are: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal, hinged at the top


Advantages: This is the easiest option to build.  We could attach the window frame to the wooden top-plate, and hang the window with hinges at the top, opening inwards.  The wall isn't so high - we'd just have to step up on something to open it.

Since the window would be tucked up under the eaves, it would be well shaded and protected from the weather, so we wouldn't need a proper window sill or flashing.

Hot air rises, so a horizontal window at that point would be the most efficient way to get rid of heat.

Disadvantages:  What's the point of a window that looks out onto the underneath of eaves?

In order to reach the window easily, we'd have to hang it on the inside edge of the 25cm thick wall.  All the other windows will be flush with the outside edge of the wall, with a lovely wide window sill on the inside.

I'm fairly certain that a wide sill made of mud in that location will become a nesting spot for swallows.  Which would prevent us opening the window, and will look messy with streaks of guano below the nest (not that I care, I love swallows).


Vertical window, hinged at the side


Advantages: A vertical window in this spot would give a perfectly framed glimpse of a lovely clump of trees, and help make up for the other east wall and north wall windows, which will look out onto the house, another run-down shed and the car park.

It would be easier to open, since it would be lower on the wall. And the top of the window would be high on the wall to help expel some hot air.  A window sill it would be the perfect spot to use an odd-shaped bit of wood our friend Lizzie B inherited recently, and wanted us to use to build something. And TJ likes the look of long vertical windows.

Disadvantages: Harder to build.  It would be exposed to the weather, so we would need to frame it up with a proper external window sill at the bottom to direct the rain away from the mud wall.  We'd need to take greater care making the frame braced and square.

The sun would come in.  In summer the sun scoots up to the north early in the day, so a narrow window won't be a very serious problem, and it wouldn't be the only thing letting in heat, but it nevertheless would add to the heat and light burden.  We'd need to create some sort of shade.

Summary / question for you


Do we value beauty or practicality in this window?

Formwork, bamboo tricks and mudding the corners

Plain ply formwork on the outside

Just when you thought it would never happen, I present for you a blog post that actually explains how to do things.  A bit.

I've been meaning to do a post on formwork.  Formwork was a feature of this weekend, so now would appear to be the time.

Winter solstice brought us one of those classic Central Victorian sunny weekends, so we made the most of it going for bush-walks and building.  This weekend we tackled some difficult bits we'd been procrastinating over.  

We also built a bit some more east wall.  Since this is one of the last simple wall sections we're going to build (yess!), it's the last chance to show the simplest formwork in action.

We start by screwing plain ply to the outside of the wall, covering as much as we think we'll build that day - that's the photo at the top of the blog post.  

Laminated chip-board door with pine plank at top

All the wall-building action goes on from inside of the building.  It's a bit of extra walking this way, but it protects the wildflowers that grow close to the walls from too much foot-traffic.

Ply on the outside, moveable formwork on the inside

The moveable formwork is made from someone's old laminated kitchen cupboard door, with a single bit of pine screwed to the top.  Laminate doesn't stick to mud.  But really you can use anything.

Once you've stuffed the bottom form with light earth mix and patted it down a bit, you're ready to slot the next panel in space.  

Isn't TJ filthy?!

Now you see why the pine board sticks up above the panel?  This prevents any gaps showing, and it's very strong.

If you want to build a lot of wall, you can pull out the bottom panel and leap-frog it up the wall for a third layer, and so on.

2nd layer slots into 1st layer

Light earth doesn't put very much pressure on the formwork (not like rammed earth or heavy poured mud) so you can get away with clamping or screwing the formwork in place.

You can remove the formwork straight away, or leave it for an hour or two to start to set.  Don't leave it in place for too long, because it needs to start drying out to prevent mould.  

When you remove the formwork, it's important to slide it off the wall, maintaining contact until you can feel the mud has let go.  If you pull the formwork straight out from the wall, some of the straw will stick and you'll lose the nice flat surface.

New mud section on East Wall

This weekend we spent most of our time fixing up some difficult sections of wall, some of which provide some interesting examples of formwork.

Before - slumping

This is the first wall we built, when we were still finding our way.

For some insane reason, I decided to put a heavy mud render cap on the top of the wall when it was still wet.

Actually I know why I did it.  At the time the verandah hadn't been built, there was no guttering and very heavy rain was forecast.   

The mud render capping helped the wall survive an extraordinary storm, but honestly, I have no idea why I didn't just cover it with a tarpaulin.

Anyhow, predictably the heavy capping caused a not very attractive slump in the wet wall.

Before - Flood damage

During the storm, a lot of mud washed out of the  wall, particularly at the top, exposing the straw and leaving it vulnerable to rot.

The capping itself started looking a bit mouldy - it was just too heavy to dry properly, and I was worried the wall below the capping would also have rotted.

Now we have a protective verandah on the west side, it was time to repair the damage and take away the stupid capping and any mouldy bits so I could pretend I got it right in the first place.

Specialised light earth cutting tools ... not.

I cut the top section of wall off using some gardening tools.  It really is amazing how Light Earth can withstand very harsh conditions, including driving rain, but be shaped with hand tools.  Of course it will be a lot more resilient to sharp objects once the render is applied.

Mouldy slumpy top removed, bamboo in place

And here we have the wall with the top taken off it.  If you squint, you can see two bamboo poles in place ready to help tie the new wall sections together and make them strong.  More on that later.

The extent of the mould damage.  Not a lot.

I was pretty amazed to find there was no rot in the wall sections that I removed.  Just a few patches of white mould that didn't seem to have damaged the straw at all.  There was no moisture for it to feed on.

Considering the length of time this wall was exposed to the weather, and the ferocious storm during that time (I think there was over 40mm of rain, which fell in sheets from the roof onto the wall), I was expecting to find at least some rot.  But none.  Mud really is extraordinary stuff. 

Once all the preparation work was done, it only took a few mixer-loads of mud and straw to top the wall up.

The wooden beam at the top doesn't go the full depth of the wall, so I was able to clamp formwork to both sides and shove the mud mix in from the top.

New light earth meets old wall

Shrinkage gap, showing bamboo pins at top

The next section of the West Wall presented some technical challenges.  

This was the second full-height wall we built, so we'd learned from our mistakes and were better prepared to fill the gap that forms at the top of the wall when it dries and shrinks.

When I built the wall, I drilled some holes into a wooden plate at the top and snipped up some bamboo garden stakes into pegs to hammer into the holes.

The pegs became partially exposed when the wall shrank, and gave me something to wrap handfuls of mud mix around.  It also connects the wall to the ceiling nicely, so it's much stronger.

This is a big improvement on the south wall, which was first full length wall, and the only one I've tried to render.  When I was trying to fill the shrinkage gap, I could feel the top of the wall move a bit, because it was only connected to the frame at the sides.  I still haven't got the gap filled properly.

When you get to the top of the wall, you have to leave a gap between the top formwork panel and the ceiling, so you can get your arms and mud mix into the cavity.

So the top section above the formwork is just a messy free-hand mud sculpture on one side.  It helps if you place the straw perpendicular to the wall, leaving a lot overhanging, then smooth it a bit flatter later with a plaster float.  But whatever you do, it will look a bit crap.

The west wall also had some tall skinny odd-shaped sections that we'd been procrastinating over, because the standard formwork doesn't fit them.  One next to the doorway, and one where the west and south walls meet. 

West wall section with gaps each side

The corner section presented a range of challenges.

Corner section. 

It's wide on the outside, but there's no room to put your hand in from the inside. So it's not like we could attach formwork to the outside and stuff light earth mix into the gap.

To add to the challenge, one of the posts is made of metal, which we didn't want to damage by screwing formwork to it.

But on the up-side, if you look closely you can see how we prepared to attach a new section of wall by leaving bits of bamboo sticking out of the adjoining wall sections.

These are held solidly in the dry wall.  

Door frame section

The spot next to the door was difficult, because the wall narrows from a double stud to a single door frame.  The bend in the wall meant I couldn't include it in the main run of wall - formwork doesn't bend.

Bamboo pegs

I repeated the trick with the holes drilled in the wood frame and hammering in some bamboo pegs, shown here.

There were already some pegs and bits of straw sticking through from the main section of wall, to help tie them together.

Dodgy formwork

We had some leftover off-cuts of laminated chip-board.

We screwed a tall skinny bit to the outside of the building to make one clean flat surface, and on the inside we screwed one small piece to the bottom of the frame, stuffed it with mud mix, then screwed or clamped another piece, and so on to the top, always leaving me enough room to shove my arm into the wall cavity and manoeuvre handfuls of mud around the bamboo pegs.

New mud meets old (drying grassy) wall

We re-used the same off-cuts on the corner section, with even more dodgy clamp work.  And le voila.

Outside showing corner section and more grass

West wall - check out the CURVES!

It was good to get those odd sections completed.  I've been pondering some of those West Wall problems for months - in fact I did a post of "west wall thought bubbles" a while back.  The solution was "bamboo!" and "don't worry if the formwork is crappy".  It just took an extra couple of months of building experience to give me the confidence to have a crack at it.

Windows and ceiling

Test-fit for windows in the East Wall

We're back, after a month away from Clydesdale.  It's good to be back, and I was  happy to see that the shed is still standing.  More than standing - it had sprouted a set of windows of its own accord!

TJ framed up the windows in a few days before I arrived, putting them in exactly the spot we chose using the "TLAR method".  So this is the first thing I saw when I arrived yesterday afternoon, and I was pretty chipper about it.

There was misty rain all day today.  It would have been miserable trying to build with mud, so instead we used the day to fix the droopy ceiling.

The ceiling is made of Solomit Strawboard, and it's one of the very few purchased new items in the shed.  Solomit is made in Western Victoria, out of wheat stalks left over after the harvest.  It smelled sensational when it arrived - like freshly mown grass, only even sweeter.  It has all sorts of thermal and acoustic insulation properties, it's non-toxic and I think it's very pretty.

But we didn't attach it using the best method, so it looked pretty ordinary.

Before - saggy ceiling

Today we sanded and oiled some 2nd hand mountain ash boards, cut them to size and screwed them to the ceiling batons from below.  They're very strong, and in some spots they've lifted the ceiling by 3cm.

After - 6 x 3m four-be-ones

It was a big deal to buy these boards, because we dragged all the other hardwood in the building out of rubbish skips on renovation sites in Melbourne.  But these boards are very visible, so I wanted them to be good quality, and not so dark they detract from the very pretty Solomit.

Next weekend if the weather lets us, we'll be mudding again.  There are five big buckets of mud mixed and waiting.  Now the window is framed up, the East Wall suddenly looks achievable!