Thread: My Machinery Shed WIP - a bit different!

Originally Posted by Rickey Herb

Our original intention was to use a tamping plate on a jack hammer but I'm had trouble getting one made that would survive more than a couple of hours without falling to bits. The latest version is very solid but too heavy for the jack hammer to move.

Based on my experience with rammed earth, you will never get steel strong enough to bang into rock - which is basically what you are making.

We ended up putting a big, heavy rubber ball on the end of the pneumatic jack - so that when the soil becomes 'rock', it bounces instead of destroying the gear.

Not cutting the tops out of the tyres, and having to ram the earth up under the lip, is a big waste of time and effort. The upper sidewall does little for strength, as there is only the wire in the bead and no steel belt. I bet if you talked to your engineer, he would say that the steel belt around the tread is plenty enough.

I certainly agree that cutting the top out of the tyres makes it a hell of a lot easier. I see the tyre basically as form work for rammed earth. Removing the tops from the tyres does mean that more care must be taken to ensure that you end up with circles and not ovals but we have 25mm of render each side of the wall so there is a bit of room for error.

The tamping plate that we have now seems to be doing the job. Time will tell how long it will last but I am confident that it will survive the build. It is one of these Bosch 1618633104 (1 618 633 104) Tamping Plate 150 X 150 mm: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools I ended up getting it for nothing as they advertised it as a Hitachi tamping plate which is a different design. I sent it back and they sent the another Bosch one! So in the end they refunded my money.

Thanks for your comments.

Rickey

Some more progress over the last 3 days. I have done the first coat of lime render on the back wall. Now have it reasonably flat but still need to build it up a bit to make it plumb with the base.

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Finished the earth bricks on the gable wall and used mud to fill the gaps up to the roof. Basically threw a ball of mud into the hole until it filled up and then trowelled it off. Some of the holes were quite big and had to be done in stages.

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Also laid fired bricks as the footing for the partition wall.

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More exciting was the fact that I have now installed the solar panels and connected 2 of them in series to the control panel. Worked very well. At this stage we are mainly using it for our 12 volt fridge and by 10:00am the battery was fully charged. Also used it during the day to recharge our cordless tool batteries.

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Will watch the grand final this weekend and then back up there for a few days next week. Hopefully will put up the ceiling battens and build the stud wall. Will install the control panel into the wall and cut a hole in the roof so I can connect another couple of the panels. At this stage I'm running a 12 volt system so will only use 4 of the panels.

Rickey

Fabulous project |Ricky!!

Thanks Artme.

More progress this week.

Built the partition wall that 'sections' off the cabin.
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Wired in the solar control panel and have now connected up 4 of the 6 panels in strings of 2 panels. The remaining 2 panels cannot be connected until I go to a 24 volt system.
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Framed above the rear window and clad the frame with builder's paper and chicken wire ready for 30mm of lime render. Ceiling battens in place. Ceiling will be plywood sheets - the cheapest I can find that will do the job.
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Made 2 test bricks for the floor. Added 5% cement. Will be interesting to see which one dries the best. Might even mix them up when doing the floor. They will be laid in a mortar bed and sealed with slate sealer.
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Have nearly finished packing the outside of the rear wall with mud. When it is done I will commence back filling up to the height of the tyres (100mm below). A bit of seepage from the dam but the ground is still rock hard. I will roughly float off the wall with a clay render so that the protective layers (2) of black plastic will sit nice and flat on the wall. Geofab with protect the plastic when it is back-filled.
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Significant progress I reckon and looking forward to getting up there again next week.

Rickey

I want to get the back wall reasonably flat prior to back-filling. This is so that plastic (2 layers) sits nice and flat and so that there will be no stones etc. that may puncture it.

This is what I started with;
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First section has been done with a mud, sand and lime render. This is finished. Only the top 100mm will be visible after back filling.
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And the farthest section is just mud and sand. Will top it off at the weekend with a mud, sand and lime render to plumb the wall. The lime makes the render very workable. The boards on top of the wall are plumb with the base and allow me to screed off the render to get a nice and flat (and plumb) wall.

There are a couple of tyres bulging out a bit but they will be buried (more care needed when ramming - at least they are on the outside)

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Bloody cold up there last night and bloody wet today so I came home early.

Rickey

That looks really good.

And it was cold in Sydney as well. Silly me walked outside in a shirt and shorts.

I want to get the back wall reasonably flat prior to back-filling. This is so that plastic (2 layers) sits nice and flat and so that there will be no stones etc. that may puncture it.

Best engineering practice is to apply water proofing agent to wall, then place core flute then plastic then geo textile fabric then backfill with minimum 150mm of 20mm aggregate with a aggy line at the base of the fill.

Relying only on the plastic will not stop the pressure of the water logged ground against the wall. The aggregate will allow the water to escape and not transmit any additional pressure on the wall.

In addition, you need to provide a sealed surface drain slopping AWAY from the wall and at least 150mm wider than your roof overhang, this diverts the overland water flow away from the backfill so it isnt overloaded in the aggregate and aggy drain.

Thanks for your comments Ray. We are building this to an engineer's specifications. There will be 90mm slotted stormwater pipe wrapped in geofab at the base of the wall and covered with 20mm aggregate. The wall will be covered with 2 layers of polythene and then geofab over the top to protect the plastic. At the top of the wall there will be a spoon drain to take water away from the wall. The engineer specialises in earth sheltered homes so we are confident with what he has specified. It is a machinery shed after all.

By the way, the guest wing of the house if predominantly underground and he has specified an applied membrane for that (flexipro) with krystol additiive in the mortar.

Regards

Rickey

Excellent! Your tread (unless I missed something) gave me the impression it was a DIY design.

Am following this with much interest.

Architect designed and engineered - the joys of building on the side of a hill. I'm enjoying the process though. Our application for a building permit for the house will be submitted next week.

Heading up again this morning for the weekend. Want to get the rendering finished on the back wall so we can get the agi pipes in. There is a bit of seepage at the back from the dam but the base itself is still hard as a rock - most of it is a shaley/decomposed granite sort of stone.

Rickey

A bit more done this weekend but not many photos. I have now finished the first render coat on the back wall. The first bit I did during the week which had a bit of lime in it has dried well with minimal cracking. I will use the same render on top of the earth render that I have applied to the rest of the wall.

Checking the wall for plumb - wont be too bad. Need to leave room for the lime render.
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The complete wall. A bit of water laying around but still as hard as a rock underneath. We've had an inch of rain during the week and more yesterday when I was doing this.
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I also finished digging the trenches along the gable ends for the agi pipe. I plan to go up there this coming week to install the pipes. I need to do it mid-week so I can get the aggregate from the quarry at Swifts Creek. Hopefully we will be ready to back-fill in around 3 weeks. There are still 36 tyres to ram at the west gable end.

A glorious day up there today. We planted 120 apple trees in July 2010 and they are now looking great. I reckon we will get fruit from all 12 varieties this season. The Pink Ladies are looking great as are the Cox's Orange Pippins. We plan to make cider in a couple of years and what we can't drink ourselves we will sell locally.

Rickey

A bit more progress during the week.

Agi pipe wrapped in a GeoFab.
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Trench backfilled with 20mm aggregate
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Ran out of aggregate at the other end of the shed. Need to top this up a bit.
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Ramming tyres. I took the generator and jack hammer up but ended up using the sledge hammer. The clay was quite moist and compacted well. I suspect the jack hammer would have just moved the clay around.
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24 tyres to go to finish the tyre wall part of the shed. Wont be sad to be finished.
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Rickey

More progress at the weekend. I have booked the excavator man for a fortnights time to come and fill in the hole he made.

Had some bitumen paint left over from the damp proof course so used it on the back wall. 2 coats up a couple of feet. I will do the gable walls as well.
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Covered the partition wall with builders paper and stapled the mesh on that will support the render. The architect has recommended this stuff Plastic Bird Netting | Fruit Protection Net | Anti-bird | Plastic Mesh It seems a bit light weight to me but the architect has used it on a couple of jobs with good results.

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Did the render on the east gable wall in preparation for back filling. The nearest corner needs a bit more work bit it is pretty plumb and flat. Render with 7.5 litres of sifted clay, 7.5 litres of sand and around 750mm of slaked lime to improve the workability. Good stuff to put on. Sticks well and minimal cracking.
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A compressed earth block wall will go across the front to complete the 'cabin'.
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Completed ramming the tyres on the west gable. Hooray! No more tyres for a while. Packed the gaps with mud. Boards across the top is to enable mud to be poured and screeded to level the top of the wall.
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Slowly getting there - completing the tyre work was a major milestone I reckon. Backfilling will really transform the look of it and looking forward to getting that done.

Lodged the building permit application for the house last week so very keen to get the shed finished before we start on the house.

Rickey