For the circular hall we poured a reinforced concrete bond beam on top of the walls. Its the strongest method and allowed us to add connection points for the 24 columns that sat on top. For the outer wall this seemed like overkill. The function of the bond beam firstly to tie the walls together, and secondly to allow for connection points to stop the roof lifting off. We decided that the outer wall is strong enough thanks to the curved wall and additional buttressing, so we just needed a roof connection. Multiple 5m wooden beams were attached to the top of the wall using concrete foundation bags (pictured), two bags with reinforcement between and rebar driven down into the wall. The roof beams will be bolted down to this wooden beam.
We enlisted the help of the whole community for a couple of days to finish two rows of bags above the lintels. We stabilised the earth with 5-10% cement for a little added strength, so now we have 2 foundation rows, 2 middle rows under the windows, and 2 top rows above the windows; all with stabilised earth.
Introducing, yellow bags!
Les presentamos, sacos amarillos!
The walls are getting quite high now, so high that a fall is no longer comical, so we decided a cheap solution was a confidence boosting banister. Scaffolding would have been overkill as the walls are 40cm wide.
Ahora las paredes se están poniendo altas, tan altas que una caída ya no seria chiste, así que se nos ocurrió una solución barata que fue una baranda para impulsar la confianza. Andamios habría sido una exageración ya que las paredes son de 40 cm de ancho.
Instead of a traditional buttress we decided to spiral this wall down into the ground, steps will lead to a sunken seating area next to the fire.
En lugar de un contrafuerte tradicional decidimos hacer esta pared en espiral hacia abajo hasta el suelo, escaleras darán lugar a una zona de estar al lado del fuego.
But now with Speakers.
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- Azul!
A double helix bottle wall starts to take shape, and our second roll of bags arrive, blue! We decided to make the first two levels of blue bags with a stabalised earth mix sandwiching some bits of wood with nails in, (see the last photo). The nails hook into the bags like velcro giving us solid wooden connection points to attach furniture, pictures, etc in future. We also drove large rebar stakes down into the walls to give some extra strength.
Christmas was preceded by a 5 year reunion at the farm, we celebrated by building a slippy slide.
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