Thread: My Machinery Shed WIP - a bit different!

Sorry to disappoint Jim, but we are pressing the bricks not puddling We built a mudbrick house in a previous life and know all about puddling mud. Made around 10,000 bricks for the house, chook shed and double garage and workshop.

Pressed bricks are substantially less work. Churned out 135 this morning with the help of a 70 year old filling buckets with dirt for me. Not having to mix the mud is a substantial saving of effort. Also a big advantage in being able to stack them straight away. Will be able to lay them in a fortnight.

If you would like to come and have a play give us a hoy. Place called Cassilis between Swifts Creek and Omeo. Snowed there this week.

Put the window into the back wall. Made from a couple of sections of shower screen and some recycled oregon. Not much of a view but does let in a bit more light, and this time of year, sunshine.

Very happy with how the press is going. Will post a video shortly.

Rickey

The press in action Our brick Press - YouTube Be warned it is a bit noisy. Not too bad with the ear muffs on. May get something done with the muffler at some stage.

That is amazing. It's hard for me to get my head around how quickly you can make a brick.
No straw in the mix? and it looks quite dry.
I'd swap the advantages of puddled bricks for that kind of speed any day.
Did you make the machine?

Its been decades since I've been to the Swifts Creek/Omeo area. 30 ?, maybe even 40 yrs ago?
Swifts Creek was my first father-in-law's sanctuary. Whenever life got too hard, he'd disappear up there for a week or so and get a recharge of energy. Took me with him a couple of times. (More pleasant memories for which I thank you again) Don't recall Cassilis, but it has been a while.

I'll be watching this build with great interest.
Jim

I'm glad I've converted you Jim! We got the press made by a local engineering firm - Curtis Engineering. Cost $3200 which is pretty reasonable I reckon. They bought one of those 'Chinese made' log splitters and used that for the basis of the press. The design of the press was copied from a press a local bloke has been using for 20 years. (this bloke Country Living Got a 'green' shed? Nominate it! - Weekly Times Now)

At this stage we're very happy with it. Have had to take it back a couple of times for modification but I think the engineering now is OK.

Soil was a fraction dryer than I would like - I like to get a bit of an 'ooze' of clay when I press the bricks, but even with the dryer soil the bricks press really well. (You can squeeze in your hand and make a ball, so there is a bit of moisture there). 32 tonne ram from memory with a 9hp motor. I think next trip we might need to give the dirt a light spray of water.

We were churning out a brick a minute for an hour even with having to cart the dirt 15 metres but did slow down a bit. I reckon with 2 fit people 45 bricks an hour for a full day would be achievable. Just need to find 2 fit people!

The other big advantage is being able to carry the bricks and stack them to dry under cover. When we were making mud bricks we were further putting tarps on or taking them off trying to get the bricks dry.

Will keep posting as we build.

Regards
Rickey

Very interesting build - will be watching this one.

My grandparents had a property out that way, they were somewhere on the road to Cassilis about 30km from Mudgee and an uncle on a farm at Coolah. Beautiful part of the country.

Different Cassilis I think Ozkaban. We're in Victoria between Swifts Creek and Omeo. An old gold mining town. Cassilis, Victoria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It too is a beautiful part of the country.

Thanks for your interest.

Rickey

Originally Posted by Rickey Herb

Different Cassilis I think Ozkaban. We're in Victoria between Swifts Creek and Omeo. An old gold mining town. Cassilis, Victoria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It too is a beautiful part of the country.

Thanks for your interest.

Rickey

Still a cool shed though

Just about got all the gear I need to put power onto the shed. Setting up a solar system off-the-grid due to our distance from the nearest transformer and the quote we were given. Between and 30 and $50K to the property boundary depending on how many rocks they hit.

Have bought 6, 190watt Daqo 24 volt panels, the Midnite Solar PV combiner box, Tracer 45amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller Regulator and the Sunlock mounting system. Still to work out what batteries but thinking 4 Trojan 105REs to start with. Looking good to do it for less than $3,500

Did a trial run today with one panel just to see if I had it right. No white smoke so off to a good start. Wont be installing it on the shed until I have it to lock up stage. Haven't done anything like this before but slowly getting my head around it.

No work on the shed this weekend. Off to Melbourne to watch my son play football (and pick up some Lime Putty for the rendering inside the shed).

Rickey

This is very interesting build. Please keep the post coming.

why didnt I find this thread earlier! Love your work your living the dream Ricky! If you lived closer I would have offered my survives as a fit young 20 yo old for some hard work

Thank you so much for your detailed build and photos I have been In love with earth building materials since I found out what an Earthship was. Your press is brilliant and the video was very exciting

Just a question are you part of a group, club or society dedicated to green building?

Thanks Patrick - glad you are enjoying it. No I'm not a member of any group etc dedicated to green building. We just think that mud brick, rammed earth, straw bales etc. are a really sustainable way to build.

We were fortunate to find a very sympathetic architect; Alvyn Williams at Soft Loud architects who is very much in tune with what we are trying to do. We have worked with him for nearly 2 years on the plans and are just about ready to submit the house and guest wing plans for a building permit. We also have an engineer who loves what we are doing which also helps.

The house will be compressed earth block veneer with the mud on the inside, and lime rendered aviary wire over a timber frame for the exterior. The guest wing will be set back into the side of the hill and although we originally planned to do rammed tyres (earthship) construction we feel that it will be too physically demanding. So we are using concrete block for the retaining rear wall with timber lining and compressed earth block for the other walls.

We have plans for a straw bale winery building (we have 1,000 mature vines) and a stone 2 storey wood shed - the advantage of living on the side of a hill. A garage/workshop is also planned.

Will post some more shed build photos shortly. Just back from 2 days up the mountain. Knackered but loving it.

Thanks for your interest.
Rickey

Just back from a couple of days up the mountain. Weather was glorious.

The bricks we made 2 weekends ago are drying very well and are ready to lay this weekend. Our plan is to get the other half of the gable wall done. There will be a small window so I will probably just brick up to the top of the window and then give the bricks a chance to settle.

I have rendered the base of the gable wall with mud filling in all the gaps between the tyres. Very time consuming - about a days work to do the wall and most of it will never be seen once we back fill. I want to get it reasonably flat so that the 2 layers of poly we are using to damp proof it sit nice and flat on the wall. I will also give it a quick render of lime and sand before we back fill.

Weather is meant to be horrible at the weekend but I think we'll be OK under cover.

Sorry but I've got a crippled Internet so no photos until I'm back up to speed.

Regards

Rickey

Well it seems I wasn't crippled but Big Pond was. All good now.

Originally Posted by Rickey Herb

The house will be compressed earth block veneer with the mud on the inside, and lime rendered aviary wire over a timber frame for the exterior.

Rickey, would mind going into more detail here please?
I'm familiar with most traditional adobe construction methods. Mudbrick, pise, wattle and dob, cob etc etc, but not what you're describing.

From the sounds of it, your architect is trying to introduce some R rating value to your walls instead of just thermal mass. I've heard of some advocating a reverse brick veneer with mud on the inside and normal timber construction on the outside.
What your describing sounds similar but I'm not sure what you mean by lime rendered.
Jim