Finishing up the Light Clay Wood Chip

Here is a video update of the shed.  Winter and other projects and responsibilities have slowed down the progress of the shed, but I have been working more on it lately.  I am just about done with the light clay wood chip infill, and am getting ready for the plaster.  This weekend we installed the door and started putting up the chicken wire over the pallets in preparation for the plaster.

Looking back on this project, I have decided that it has taken A LOT OF WORK!  This way of building is not for the faint of heart.  Some of the painstakingly time consuming things I have done so far are:

1. The foundation:  stone by stone trying to save as much mortar as possible by fitting each rock neatly within the wall.  Usually masons will slop on a large wad of mortar and roughly fit the rocks together.  It takes much less time, but uses about twice as much mortar.  I used 15 bags.  Even easier would have been to pour cement footings.  The way I did it saved me money, and used up a pile of rocks and used cement curbing dumped in my yard by my neighbor (dumped before I bought the lot[he did insist on taking care of the pile, but I told him I had a use for it])
2. Salvaging the materials:  I spent hours dumpster diving looking for useful materials. Then, when I got them, I usually had to take out nails, cut of bad parts, or reinforce sections.  Pallet wood is tough and ornery.  The nails don't come out easily, it is hard to cut, and never straight.  
3. The light clay wood chips: Even though I used a cement mixer this process took forever.  We dug by hand a hole big enough for our trampoline to get enough clay.  We found that the term "light clay wood chips" isn't really "light" at all.  When you try and use a light clay slip to hold the wood chips together, they just become flaky when they dry out (even worse if they freeze while still wet).  It takes a lot of clay to keep the chips stuck together.  Our recipe ended up being something like 1/2 parts water, 1 1/2 parts clay, 1 part wood chips.  The end consistency ended up a lot like plaster.  In fact, I ended up using it much like plaster to patch holes.  That is another problem with the way I used pallets; There were many gaps that I missed while filling up the walls that I had to patch later.

Other time consuming things I have still waiting for me to complete include plastering both inside and outside and putting down the earthen floor.  The upside of both of these is that I will be using far less material to make both products.  The walls of the shed are about 10 inches thick and took a few tones of clay and wood to fill. I plan on putting just two coats of plaster on the walls, so they shouldn't take as much clay .  I will need to sift the clay better, but a good chunk of the plaster will be made of sand.

I am not saying that the methods I have employed are bad, but they are just more than I originally reckoned for.  When I am done, I will have a large, sturdy, environmentally friendly, warm, and comfy shed.  I think I'll turn it into my glass shop.

A poor video of me putting light clay wood chips in the wall

I know I need to work on my video technique, but I was also working at the time and it is hard to pay attention to both where the camera is pointed and what you are doing while slopping mud.  I just wanted to show what it is like using light clay wood chip.  From the video you can see that the clay isn't too light.  It definitely isn't cob, but we found that if we didn't have enough clay in the mix, the small wood chips wouldn't stick together very well.  The first few batches we did had about the same recipe as light clay straw, but with wood chips replacing the straw.  The results of those first batches were unsatisfactory and the walls started flaking off wood chips when they were rubbed.  With more clay in the mix, it makes it less insulative, it has  more thermal mass, and it is much stronger.

Building a Shed

Image of the Google SketchUp Model

Started collecting pallets and rocks

spreading out the rocks

This project has "Crazy" written all over it.  First of all the reason behind it.  Our son has autism and qualifies for services such as SSI, DSPD, and Medicaid.  There are several requirements to be able to quaify and one of those has to do with assets that we own.  One of the asset stipulations is that we cannot own property that we don't live on.  Well, back in December we bought some property to build our straw bale house on.  When we did that SSI put us on hold with their services for one year.  We figured that we could survive for a little while, but now the bild still hasn't started and we are being told that come December if we don't live on the property we will loose SSI.  Because the other programs are based off of our eligibility for SSI, we will loose them as well.  By the way there is a 4 year waiting list to get back on.  We have gone the rounds to try and find a solution, but it boils down to needing to move on the property while we build.  

The first day of foundation wall

Long story short, we just bought a camper trailer and I'm going to build a shed.  The purpose of the shed is to give us extra space to store things, a place to hang out and a place to eat together.  After the house is built, the shed will serve as my glass shop until I can build an official shop and then the shed will be a really cool hangout for the kids.Here is the link to the SketchUp model: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=f8e22fec33d9919499a2ba6ee90ca252

The corner at the right was the shallowest and everything after that took more rocks and a lot more time

The code here says that anything over 200 square feet needs a building permit, but anything under that doesn't, which also means that it doesn't need inspections.  So, I am going to build a pallet shed with an earthen floor, light clay straw/wood chips/foam insulation inside the pallets, a rocket mas heater, and an earthen plaster finish inside and out.  I was hoping to do all of this under $500.  The original plan was to use a living roof, but with the materials at hand the living roof would be too heavy, so I'll probably use a metal roof manufactured here in town instead.

That's me working

The foundation used a lot of stone and urbanite (used concrete) mortared together with a cement cap to make it all level.  Anchor bolts were put in between the rocks and mortared in.  The mortar cost $75, the cement $41, the rocks and urbanite came off the property $0 and the anchor bolts (and a lot of other materials for this little project) were salvaged from a dumpster $0. 

Trying to bring up the wall to the right level

 I have been able to find all of the 2x4 material, pallets, windows, door, joists for the loft, wiring, screws, trim, and carpet (for the loft) all through dumpster diving as well as some of the treated toe ups, and most of the plywood.  As we get further along I'll keep you up to date on what I have salvaged and what I have had to purchase.  The reasons we are trying to keep it cheep are 1) Duh who wants to spend extra money, and 2) we are trying to keep a good down payment for the construction loan for the real house.

First corner finished

This process takes a lot longer than just pouring a cement foundation

I spent hours doing this.  After sitting like this for a few hours , It would take me several minutes before I could stand up straight

Almost done with the foundation

A concrete slab to level off the top