Build Your Own House

Bluey
You are a legend
only after doing a day in your shoes can i appreciate your effort
thanks for your help to get my own project underway

Glad to be of help, Homeless. I hope things are progressing well for you.

I have now finished the roof over the deck. I am so happy with the space it creates. Productivity has dropped slightly as I find myself spending longer just enjoying being able to sit out there in comfort (especially with the unusually warm weather we were having up until today).









It has been a huge challenge trying to get the top edge of the roof sheeting to make a neat straight line. Since it runs for 26 metres, the slightest dip in the framing or misalignment of a roof sheet becomes very obvious (also the fact you look straight down this line when you approach the building doesn't help). After a lot of tweaking, I am finally happy with the result.

Bluey.

After another couple of productive weeks I have been able to take the scaffold down to reveal the eastern end of the building...

There is still another small section of rammed earth and an identical second handrail to go to on the northern side of the deck.

The handrail and frame for the opening is made from C150 purlins. The infill mesh has been cut out of some of the temporary site fence panels that I do not need any more. I drilled holes in the C purlins to take the cut ends of the mesh. After using a piece of mesh as a template to mark out the holes I drilled all of the purlins only to find out that the piece I used for the template has the wires spaced 2mm closer than any of the other panels I own. So I rearranged the position of the purlins so that I could re-use a couple and cut some new ones to replace the ones I couldn't re-use. Waste of half a day but in the end I think worth redoing.


I am going to fix the stainless steel fly screens to the outside of the purlin frames to screen enclose the deck from the relentless Blue Mountains mossies, blowies and march flies. This will also mean that I do not need to put a flyscreen on the large sliding door.

All of the plumbing is now in the ground inside of the house and I am getting prepared to pour a slab for the bathroom and laundry. Once that is in I can start on the adventures with the earth floor.

Bluey

Hey Bluey

From 27th April 2010 to now I have watched, drooled, marvelled, admired, gasped and been thoroughly entertained, enthralled and appreciative of your build and the journey you have taken us on.

You have done what some can only dream about and very few achieve, so often it stays a dream and the reality would be for the big bad bank manager to come along and offer up the big bad bank loan with mega interest and a pricetag only very few could entertain.

Your Ingenuity has been incredible to watch and your inspiration hard to match. I have seen you encourage many on this forum and it is a breath of fresh air to see, you share your techniques with genuine candour and you should be proud of yourself for that. In this world today where everyone is out for "Whats in it for me" a lot of people could take a leaf from your book.

You know you are going to have to go forth and build more to keep us all enthralled.

Job well done Hip Hip (Hooray)


Regards
OB1&OB2
Inez & Kevin
Kevin&Inez

Thanks again Inez and Kevin. Fortunately for you I reckon there is still plenty of viewing to be had from this project, throughout the remainder of the year, as the interior is just a shell at the moment.



I remember how had it was to find information out about alternative building, especially rammed earth techniques. I have certainly found that passing on any information and experieces I have had is quite a rewarding process in itself. Particularly when it helps people take the step/plunge into giving it a go themselves.

Anyway, if things go to plan, hopefully there will be a few more suprises in store with the internal fitout to keep you entertained.

Bluey.

So things have been progressing inside the house. The bathroom is starting to take shape and I am almost ready to install my first earth floor. Here is a summary of what has been happenning:

The plumbing trenches were dug for the drainage, water supply and gas supply...


The pipes were laid...


Those trenches were then backfilled and tamped. Some footings for a concrete infill slab were then dug...


I had been hoping that I could come up with a good method of making the bathroom floor without concrete and reo but a satisfactory solution never appeared so a slab it shall be. Yes it would have been easier to pour if I had done it at footing stage but I was trying hard to not have a slab at all.

The reo is placed for the footings...


... and the footings poured (almost the same colour as the ground so hard to see in this pic)...


The termite/waterproofing barrier is installed...


Even though I checked several times how they would install it as I wanted to ensure it is waterproof, the result is quite poor. You've gotta hate those products that can only be installed by one of their 'licenced installers'. Anyway it is not worth the battle of getting it rectified as I can now see that there is no way that it can be installed as a full waterproofing system. Still I reckon that I could have given it a better crack. That bit there is around $1000 of shoddy plastic . I have decided to back this up with multiple layers of builders plastic where the earth floors are going.

The reo is installed for the bathroom slab and the first of the hydronic heating pipework is attached...


A sheet of builders plastic is laid in the other end of the room that is to be the main bedroom forming a complete tank for the bedroom floor. On top of this I poured a cement slurry to level out any slight undulations. The old office wall insulated sandwich panels are set on top of this cement bed. They have layers of 3mm ply / 50mm styrofoam / 10mm plasterboard. I placed the ply side up as I wanted to router out grooves to hold the hydronic pipes. A simple template from some ply allowed me to create a repeating pattern of grooves...


I made a rotating pipe feeder from that ever useful oregan 4x2's and 90mm tek screws. Without it, handling this pipe was a nightmare...


The template could be flipped to swing the grooves the other way resulting in a simple wave of alternating incoming and outgoing pipes...


I was pleasantly suprised how well this groove system worked. It is such a snug fit the pipes hold themselves in place. Here is the finished pipework with the bedroom to the left, the walk-through laundry in the upper section and the bathroom to the right. The pipework does not extend to the side walls as there will be built-in units on each side in the bedroom, a cupboard hiding the washing machine and dryer in the laundry and the bath in the bathroom over these areas...


Hopefully on the weekend I will get another layer of plastic down and then start on the earth floor for the bedroom. This should ensure that the floor is rising damp proof as there is the shoddy double plastic layer termite barrier, a full sheet of builders plastic, 65mm of sandwich board followed by a final plastic sheet seperating the earth floor from the ground. Can't be too cautious .

Bluey

Bluey
looking good i am very interested in your heating system
although we plan to heat our home via combustion stove boiler i baulked at installing it in the floor and plan to utilize free standing radiators
is that what you refer to here ?
"The pipework does not extend to the side walls as there will be built-in units on each side in the bedroom"
and how are you going to heat the water?
I share your frustration with the termite installer story , best to do as much yourself as possible.
keep up the good work

Homeless,
The heating system I am using is an floor gas heated hot water system. It is the purple pipes attached to the reo and laid in the grooves in the previous post. These pipes run to a bank of regulators (I think that is what the plumber called them, basically taps to control the amount of water flow and thus the temperature). This is all connected to a small hot water unit on the outside of the building. It is independant to the main hot water supply. At this stage it is only gas. I will look at changing it to gas boosted solar down the track.
What I was meaning about the pipework not extending to the side walls is that I have only laid it in the middle of the room as there are going to be joinery units or cupboards built in near the side walls so there is no need to heat under them. Let me know if you need more info.



I started on the bedroom earth floor today. I have been debating the best way to produce a flat compacted floor for quite some time. In the garage I did some test runs and found that it was practically impossible to end up with a level floor at a set height just with the plate compactor. There would always be humps and dips and you could not control what height it would compact to. I tried compacting it to near enough and then sprinkling some fine material in the hollows and running the compactor back over it but this left a thin layer that would separate from the layer below and either go hollow or crumble away. Another option would be to over fill it and scrape it back which would work but would be a ridiculous amount of effort. Some people make earth pavers and then lay them in a sand bed. This would also work but it would be a big process to make and dry them all. I came up with a compromise that looks like it should work well. I am making pavers but instead of going through a drying process I am laying them straight away with the idea that once they are all in place i can run the plate compactor over them to achieve a fairly uniform finish.

This morning I made up a mould set like so...


The piece on the bottom left is the actual mould. The piece on the right is a false base for it and the top piece is a guide for the tamper. The false base fits in the bottom of the mould...


The guide slots over the top to prevent the tamper smashing the top of the mould. It makes 300x300x60mm pavers...


I over filled the mould and compacted it with the tamper...


...then scraped it back with the rake...


The mould is then inverted near the final location...


...and by putting my foot in the square hole and pulling up on the handles, it slides off...




I could then use the mould to push the paver across into place...


In this case starting a new row...


By late this afternoon I had finished one third of the bedroom floor (sorry about the dark pics)...




I will keep it damp until I can complete the rest next week.

Bluey.

Genius, Bluey!! Pure unadulterated genius!!

_________________
Simon.

The adventures of an owner-builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Thanks, Simon.

The bedroom floor is now in place...




I'm really happy with the result so far. It is suprisingly level. I now have to wait for it to dry completely before I can add the boiled linseed oil layers.

Bluey

Oh, wow...

I don't think words can do that floor justice! If that were mine, I'd be thrilled!

_________________
Simon.

The adventures of an owner-builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Bluey....

Bloody great work...are you a boiler maker...holey shit that is a lot of steel work...haha...

Fantastic work throughout, cant wait to see the end product.

Love the exterior blinds... Did you install those with fire in mind?

I was looking at doing something similar upstairs at my place in a timber or steel to try and minimise heat in the upper part of the house.

Regards

Newman (Hawthorn House)

You must be getting close to moving in? Awesome progress and results as always Bluey.

Bloody impressive Bluey!

I read this thread and it amazes me how well built an OB house can be, but concerns me about my skill level.

Still, it's great motivation. Top stuff.

Thanks Newman, Angelis and Jason

Newman,
It certainly is a lot of steel and no, I am not a boiler maker. Thankfully there is not a single weld in the house. There is countless thousands of tek screws, heaps of hand made brackets and all of the steel has been cut with a metal cutting saw blade (or make that about a dozen or so at $100 a pop ) in a circular saw. It makes a cold cut that hopefully will be less prone to rusting than a cut made with a grinder. I have avoided welding for the same rust prevention reasons. Thankfully the steel work is coming to an end and I can get back into working with timber which I love . The steel is all as a result of the bushfire regs that were imposed on my place.


I have to have fire shutters on all of the openings so I wanted to make something that was multi purpose. They can be closed as shutters, angled to control sun and to provide privacy. I am interested to see if they help retain heat if I close them at night (I might be a little optimistic with that one.)


Yes the end is in sight now...at least it is looking close to being habitable.


Jason,
Don't be put off by the way I have done things. I certainly haven't taken the easy option. I like a challenge.
There are so many levels that you can owner build at, from project managing and getting the trades in, through to assembling kit homes, to hands on building using standard techniques and finally making a one off with alternative methods. I'm not saying that it would be easy to project manage, just that there is a lot of info and help out there for that type of process.

Homeless (in his Bog Ugly thread) is demonstrating how alternative methods can be used in a much more straight forward way. A rectangular concrete slab, full height rammed earth walls that will support a standard hip roof (if my memory is correct). His house will be just as unique and beautiful as any. I could have simplified my design (and saved even more money by doing so) but I love the adventure of trying out new ideas.

Do your research, don't be afraid to ask lots of questions and be prepared to make mistakes. Don't underestimate how big of a commitment it can be. For the bits that seem too hard, allow for getting the trades in. If you manage to get a good plumber and electrician like I have, they are invaluable. The way that they are prepared to take the time to work things out with me and put in suggestions has helped no end. It would be the same for any trade. You do not need to know how to do everything, but it is important that you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and that you are able to communicate that with them.

I do have the benefit of a building design background but I have probably learnt the most by trial and error. I started doing lots of experimenting on my parents place, then bought a simple old house and renovated it, through to now taking on a new build.

Even just the method of starting off with the garden shed, followed by the garage and then finally taking on the house was very deliberate so that I could prepare myself as much as practical. It also gave me an 'out' if it all seemed too hard. If I am trying something new, I try to have a contingency plan if it doesn't work out. For example, I have not tried an earth floor before and I am not convinced that it is going to work out 100%. I still have in the back of my mind that even if it doesn't work, at the least I will have a solid base to put another finish over (timber floating floor, carpet etc).

The infloor heating is also new to me. I have started on the bedroom as a trial. Thankfully I was able to borrow a friends home brew equipment to give it a test run. I set up his gas fired boiler with a small electric pump and connected it to the hydronic pipes...


It trickled hot water through the system then back into the boiler. I thought that it would be a good way to dry out the earth floor. To my surprise it only took about half an hour before the water returning into the boiler started running hot. There is 76m of pipe that it passes through in the floor so I would have thought that it would take all of the heat out of it (it was running really slowly). After 2 days I could not feel any heat in the floor at all. What I think this means is that the great system I came up with to install the pipes by laying them in a groove in the top of the insulation is actually doing a great job of stopping the heat dissipate into the floor . So it looks like that floor will have to come back up and I will have to work out another way of laying the pipes so they are surrounded by the earth. While that is a pain, at least I had not continued with the rest of the house and with the multiple layers of oil and wax. Better to find out now rather than later.

So, I certainly make no claim to know everything but I think it is all about being prepared to give it a go and see how it works out.



As far as the other things that I have been working on, the concrete slab for the bathroom and laundry is now poured...


It is to be a fully drained floor with removable panels of timber slats above it. The slats will be slightly spaced to allow the water to pass through. The panels will be able to be lifted up to allow for cleaning beneath them.

Bluey