Earthship construction: Day 7

Today 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)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 3:52 am and is filed under Earthship construction: Day by Day, Green real estate, Nicaragua in the news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.