Archive for the ‘Earthship construction: Day by Day’ Category
Earthship construction: Day 14 and Day 15
Friday, December 21st, 2007
The building is taking shape and as hard as it is to put the project on hold for the holidays, we have made great progress. Since Monday, we have been working with a local crew of fifteen as well as three experts in sustainable building from Taos, New Mexico who have stayed to continue to train the local force, and project manager David Kniffin.
There are so many small jobs that need to be done before a project goes on hold for any length of time. Much of the morning was spent cleaning and organizing. But once realistic goals were established and more cement arrived, thanks to the endless trips to the local ferriterias by Lydia Kniffin (of Casa Llanta), the crew eased back into their routine.
The bond beam for the smallest room (systems, washing, and storage), was poured today meaning that the only structural part of the main building left to complete will be the smallest dome.
A third of the front face (the greenhouse) is complete, with three trusses locked into place. The front bottle wall climbed steadily today as well.
The insides of all three rooms have been sight leveled and are just about ready for flooring. We are waiting to see how the first adobe coat cures in this environment before committing to an adobe or concrete plaster finish.
The tools are stored and holiday greetings are exchanged.
Feliz Navidad and we’ll see what the New Year brings for Casa Llanta and the community in El Carrizal.
Earthship construction: Day 13
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
The day was rainy but spirits were high. Luckily down here in Nicaragua the rain is soft and warm. Presently half of the house is harvesting water into the east cistern when it rains. This means that the oxcarts may not have to haul water for the construction of the project anymore.
Part of the goal for the remaining American team is to hand off to the Nicaraguan crew the techniques for building and Earthship. The intention is to train the local crew to be proficient in this unusual type of construction as they will be the ones building the remaining homes in the community.
Today the Nicaraguan crew plastered the bedroom dome and laid the bottle bricks. Justin worked on establishing the remaining interior arches which hold up the bond beam for the north side of the wood trusses while Demain and Ted built the forework for a portion of the bond beam on the exterior arched wall.
During lunch the sky let loose with a deluge of water making the building a slippery and muddy mess.
It certainly didn’t stop progress on the building though.
The remaining bottle formwork was completed for the systems room, more bottle work on the south wall was done and the whole site received a thorough internal cleanup as the rain has a tendency to send people inside looking for things to do in the dry.
Ladders are at a premium so the crew has become creative in building quick scaffolding to access the areas up high. The formwork on the south side is ready for concrete.
The structure is close to being built and it is now easy to imagine the proportion and location of the spaces. Two more days for the three amigos from Taos. Time has passed by too quickly and San Juan del Sur has been a beautiful and friendly temporary home.
Earthship construction: Day 12
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
No fibers this morning. Lydia and Jo have volunteered to drive to Managua to buy fibers at the one store in the country that sells them. That drive is a minimum five hours return trip on a less than perfect road, so their efforts are appreciated even before they depart.
At the job-site, the morning is running notably smoother than the previous day despite the few hours of rain last night. It’s a muddy start to the day, but the Nicaraguans glide through the mud like hockey players on ice. It is clear that the mud will not slow us down.
Nevertheless, rain this time of year is strange and we hope that it doesn’t continue. Until the roads are prepped for rain, they are nothing more than flat canals that will simply channel the water in small rivers, cutting away at the soft, exposed topsoil.
There are probably too many hands considering the skill sets of the local crew, the materials, and the technical work that is needed today.
But, it’s a great group of people and the individual personalities are an addition to the site. The people here are eager to work, but the work is new, so it is expected that there will be some standing around.
By the end of the day, Demian has a small section of the front face up to Bond Beam height. Justin has the door-frame placed in the systems room. And Ted has bounced around every spot on site, making sure that everything is up to Earthship standards.
Good forward progress today.
Earthship construction: Day 11
Monday, December 17th, 2007
Today this unique Nicaraguan real estate project entered a new phase. Of the 11 Earthship experts from Taos, New Mexico, USA, only three remain. Ted Elsasser, Justin S, and Demian Larsen have all stayed on to continue to teach the local crew. Two new locals have joined the workforce. They had been observing the work on the site all week and volunteering their hands here and there. It seemed appropriate to make their involvement official.
It’s Monday and there is a different energy surrounding the site. With increased responsibility on the Nicaraguan crew, everything seems a little slow before lunch as adjustments are made. It is a great opportunity to observe how each person handles the new team dynamic.
By mid morning, it is announced that we are out of engineering fibers – a very difficult item to obtain in Nicaragua where most people simply use blocks and rebar.In our case, we are using bottles, cans, and even rebar as “forms” for the concrete pours, so we rely on the strength of the concrete we form. The fibers help strengthen the mix.
Ted, our architect on site, decides to reinforce a portion of the front wall with steel in order to continue working. Looks like we’ll be making a trip to Managua in the morning to find a replacement…
The afternoon seems slow as well. And then it’s 4:00p and we have a look around at the progress made.The vapor barrier has been placed and partially buried. A new truckload of cement and sand has arrived. The site is clean and organized with a good inventory of supplies. It looks like we’re in position to make some good progress this week.
Earthship construction: Day 10
Friday, December 14th, 2007
The nightly rains caused delays in the delivery of supplies and the lack of materials were today’s limiting factor.
Everyone was acutely aware that it was their last day on the site together. The majority of the Taos crew departs this weekend and, as a result, the crew seemed to push harder than ever to realize their daily goals.
The second dome was lifted before lunch to create the bedroom roof. The locals continued to mold the steal arches around the southern wall. An adobe mud mixture was made with local dirt and straw which was used to pack out the living and utility room.
The living room dome received a floated cement plaster coat. The outside cap of the cooling tube was removed confirming and demonstrating to the locals how cool air could enter and thereby lower the temperature of the Earthship. We placed our heads against the entryway to feel the flow of air entering the dome.
The learning curve has been steep but forgiving and the connections between the foreigners and locals have grown deep enough for a few individuals of the Toas crew to commit to designing a locally applicable structure that can be utilized in the Carizal community.
The Earthship spirit continues.
Earthship construction: Day 9
Thursday, December 13th, 2007Day Nine dawns, another bright and beautiful morning in El Carrizal, Nicaragua. The Earthship crew arrives and the Nicas are already at it. They bring out all of the tools for us every morning, which is great.
The building is starting to really take shape, highlighted by the main room with it’s twin arched entrance and dome. The dome gets another coat of cement shaping today, by Rory, Phil and Seth. Ted and Demian work on the rebar arches for the front face, and are forming and pouring the columns. Lionel and Jose help them and by the end of the day, the columns are poured up to three feet, ready for can and bottle work tomorrow.
Amy and Lydia work on finishing up the bottle brick wall in the bedroom. Seth and Demian have gone to great expense and endured tremendous hardship to personally buy and empty two large Patron bottles for a special central bottle brick that Amy puts in today.
Chris (that’s me) grooms the bottle bricks in the main room. Jonah and Mike are working on the flying buttress can arch that will later receive the truss roof, connecting the main building to the front face arches. Justin begins work on the living room skylight with Fernando helping him. Justin, Fernando and Faustino also bent flashing for the skylight on a pile of lumber. No easy feat. Lots of packing out of the walls is still being done.
The tireless Nicaraguan crew are throwing loads of cement all day long, with Eliseo at the helm. He comes to me to borrow my hammer, my “matilla,” and he always thanks me in English…which sounds like “Sank You,” but hey, I’m pretty sure my mangled Spanish is way worse.
It’s another scorching hot day and Dave brings in some ice cold water for us. He pours some on me. Mike is loving the cold water. He and his helper, Marlo are a four-handed can laying machine. Marlo is a sweetheart, who everyone likes, although all of the Nicas are unfailingly helpful, friendly and polite. At one point in my day, my “cemento” has become a big hard unworkable mess. I ask the Nicas for help, and they’re quick to come and rescue me. Of course, I have lent out my fascinating cordless drill a lot…
After lunch, Seth and Phil started on forming the second bond beam for the bedroom dome. We don’t have enough cans to do it in that method, so we’re using scraps of leftover plywood to form it. Amy is trying to get the leftover cement off the bottle bricks, getting them ready to groom.
The Nicas are working on the long tire footing for the full length front face wall. Luckily, it’s only 2 tires high, since we’re short on tires now. Old Faustino has been working quietly in the yard, under the “ramada” making lots of nice bottle bricks. Tomorrow, Amy and I will start laying them in the spaces between the arches on the new front face wall. Amy, at 6’2″, will have a definite height advantage on this project, with me at only 5’4″.
After work, there is a lot of talk about “glomming,” which is a Mike-coined term that probably deserves it’s own blog. It basically refers to Mike’s tendency to be a somewhat casual builder (to put it nicely). Though in his own words, his description of the technique is “Let go and let glom.”
At the end of the day, we were visited by a bus load of Dutch students on tour hoping to catch a little extra cultural flavor. Word is spreading in San Juan and the construction site now appears to be gaining the recognition of a tourist attraction.
Earthship construction: Day 8
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
Our inter-cultural crew continued its total dominance of all things Earthship. The twins have excelled in winning the love of the local builders as they have developed a strange pigeon language mixed with Taos slang and Nicaraguan highlander Spanish.
Monkeys barked at me today as I drank a coke. The kids in the valley have been studying us and I’m interested in their judgment. The crew surfed on Sunday and we picked up a truckload of bottles. Many were from Asia.
The weather was perfect early in the morning for Earthship building. The second dome was completed and is waiting for the concrete bond beam to be poured before lifting it into place. All morning long, the two ox-carts hauled materials for each aspect of the build: cement, earth, aggregate, whatever was heavy and needed hauling.
The house looks like a huge sculpture.
Three workers pounded tires on the south green house wall and a small team of Americans and Nicaraguans plugged away on the west retaining tire wall. Phil and Seth erected the bedroom dome hub and inner roof structure out of wood and built the formwork for the bond beam on the bedroom.
Half of the south wall tires were completed yesterday in preparation for the concrete beam which will hold up the arched openings. After lunch there was a frenzy of activity to mix and pour the beam. It’s completed and will be initially cured by tomorrow and ready for steel work.
Mike Reynolds continued to lay cans and bottles to hold up the north end of the wood roof structure.
The site is constantly being visited by people who have heard about the project in the town (San Juan del Sur) and the crew holds massive resentment against those who are spotless in their flip flops. Each day a local Nica woman brings frescas for sale and enchiladas. For a brief moment she is the most popular person around
Once again, the day ended with cervezas and friendly Spanglish.
(Tom Duke reporting)
Earthship construction: Day 7
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007Today 25 crew members joined forces to lift and set the 22ft wide rebar birdcage roof on top of the living room. The birdcage roof was wrapped in chicken wire and wired together with hardware cloth. Rumor has it that the roof weighed over 1,000 pounds!
Once the roof was raised, it was fastened to the bond-beam (a concrete beam which supports the roof) with rebar ties. The entire dome was hand plastered with its first coat of cement.
Our living room finally has a roof. Raising the roof on the living-room was a significant team victory and major milestone indicating progress.
Workers, tires and oxen were sliding all over the place as a result of last night’s heavy rains and scattered daily showers. Work progressed at a steady pace despite the fact that the site has turned into a mud pit.
Mike started construction on the bond beam for the green house. Twenty-two more tires 
were pounded out today to form the front tire wall that supports the bottom of the structure. The team also finished the first seven of approximately twenty trusses which will provide the support for the green house roof.
Ted and Demian commenced building the second rebar birdcage roof and the skylight which will be used as the ceiling for the bedroom. The tire pounding continued on the middle utility room. Saturday’s extra effort was noticeable and the interior walls are finally taking shape.
The Earthship hype is spreading rapidly, and as a result most bars and restaurants around San Juan are currently saving their bottles for the project. Daily construction has become a community event.
Today we were visited by numerous photographers, journalists, real estate agents and locals. Even Eduardo Holmann, the mayor himself, made a guest appearance to check out the project and give his support for the outside-of-the-box approach to building.
Our faithful oxen duo continued to haul the dirt needed for the tire pounding and structure burial. The oxen have become trusted members of the crew.
Authored by Justin (Dirt herder, Earthship Biotec)
Earthship construction: Day 6
Sunday, December 9th, 2007When I arrived this morning, the oxen were already busy hauling dirt from the building site for the next Earthship which has been completely excavated.
Although Saturday is usually a day off, the thirteen local workers accepted the offer to put in a half day’s worth of work. The mixer was going within a half hour and walls were being prepared for plastering. Frederico took a small group and worked on the birdcage dome for the big hut.
The Earthship Crew took the day off except for a few diehard members who demonstrated their passion for the project and the pride they take in their work, by showing up for a few hours of help. The local crew is learning quickly despite the subtleties and complexities of the Earthship building.
Just after noon we loaded back into the truck and took off to the beach to eat ceviche (fish “cooked” in lime juice). Some of the crew opted to go on a canopy tour just minutes outside of town while others chose to order another few rounds and enjoy the cool off shore breeze.
Authored by Dave Kniffin
Earthship construction: Day 5
Friday, December 7th, 2007We were greeted this morning at the site by two teams of oxen pulling wagons. We have been using a back hoe to generate dirt from a nearby site, but we needed a more efficient way to get the dirt to the Earthship rather than having the back hoe trundle down with a scoop at a time. So we hired the ox teams.
They worked non stop all day, bringing load after load to the site to back bury the building. It was fun to watch the well trained beasts maneuver about and then wait patiently while the guys shoveled the dirt off.
Working in the bottle factory is a little removed from where the real action is, but at least we get shade and an occasional trip to the beach to collect materials. We (and when I say we, I mean all the Nica kids who stop by – ages 2 on up to my right hand man, Faustino, who is 62) have been manufacturing bottle bricks from discarded plastic and glass bottles found on the beach, the streets and trash cans. We cut off the tops and join the bottoms to create colorful mini windows which, when laid in a concrete wall, give the appearance of a stained glass window of sorts.
Every time I deliver another basket of completed bottle bricks to the site, I’m amazed at the progress. Mike finished his bottle wall in the living room hut and together with Rory, Tom and their local helpers, managed not only to form the bond beam today, but also to pour it.
Photo courtesy of MyBootsnMe taken on-site.
Chris is heading up the team in charge of the bottle walls in the bedroom. It’s looking like she should be able to finish the walls on Monday. Ted and Demian, working with Frederico, have completed the framework of the rebar birdcage to go on the big hut. They’ve begun wiring the mesh onto the frame that will help maintain the shape of the dome throughout the first coats of plaster.
Inside the living room hut, Phil and Seth have got their wooden tower far enough along to erect the first two spokes of the inner dome. These connect the inside of the bond beam to the lower part of the skylight unit in the living room. It’s a tedious job, getting the angles just right, but they hope to have them all up on Monday.
And Justin started assembling trusses today that will support the greenhouse roof. After carefully figuring out the first, he was able to crank out five more.
Besides the major milestones noted here, countless other tasks are simultaneously being performed: finishing the tire work, packing out the tire work, shuttling concrete, shoveling dirt and back burying the building, cleaning the ends of bottle bricks, mixing cement, mixing cement, mixing cement, shuttling to town to retrieve sand, gravel and other supplies, and Dave, quietly coordinating deliveries and store runs with a smile on his face, despite the frustrations.
Photo courtesy of MyBootsnMe taken on-site.
And then there is Jo and Lydia, behind the scenes cooking for all of us – one in the morning for lunch and the other in the afternoon for dinner. I haven’t had a bad meal yet. Good grub. Thank you!
(Post contributed by Amy – Bottle brick factory worker)
