M Fryer

John C Daley wrote:I am confused about
- what you have got?
- what you want to do?
- what you need ideas with?
Adobe or cob is no good near water.

I appreciate the engagement, I would probably be confused too.

-I have lots of rock, excavation and compaction equipment, construction and fabrication tools, plenty of steel, slotted drain pipe, pond liner membrane, etc.

-Build a roughly 16'x32' addition with a rock foundation with walls and a pole barn supported roof.

-Not particularly looking for any ideas per say, other than the usual internet critique of my ideas and other lenses. My own myopic view is just that. That will likely come along more as I am actually setting things up and showing a little more what I am up to.

-The idea is the rock will extend a couple feet above where the structure is buried, then a concrete bond beam and then cob or adobe. Long overhangs and the rest. I.E. if there is 5' underground there will be a 7' wall of rock with footing below that. That would only be in one back corner then it tapers out to about 2' of cut, and a 4' wall.  

I should probably also mention that the site is a building pad that was cut 10~ish years ago. It has a surface water ditch/drain cut at the top of the cut slope 15' above where the buried portion of the wall will be, so water concern is only subsurface. Honestly even the subsurface water concern is pretty minimal, but any time a wall is backfilled I like overly redundant drainage and water resistance. I'll make some video or pictures explaining my thoughts on water management better at some point.

The time has come to throw some thoughts out to the knowledge commons and see what sticks. Hard to pick a forum to place this one, it is being added to a tiny house, it will have natural and contemporary building methods, earth bermed, stone work, cob, etc.

A little -longish- story and some context.
I live in a small home I built myself using local lumber from a time in my career where I ran a local sawmill. It's a nice place and we (wife and I) learned much about building and living in small spaces. We have been in this house about 6~ish years. We have a detached bathhouse and some other hand-built outbuildings scattered about.
My work experience in general has been running specialty heavy equipment of various types. The last few years has been underground... I like facilitating moving water. Plenty of my close friends are journeymen level skilled tradesmen, as am I.

I have a sentimental attachment to building with rock, so the addition will have a rock foundation and at least a partial wall. I built a small crane trailer that dumps and can pick decent sized rocks fairly easily. We have good access to excavation/compaction equipment and are looking to invest into our own excavator for a variety of reasons, this project being one.

After a couple kids and years, we are ready for a little more space. The addition will be roughly 16'x32' and a portion will, out of necessity, be buried in a hillside. The deepest cut will be about 5' then tapering to about 2'. No uphill view, so the usual water problems exist.

Some rough drafts ideas, use large (2'+) rocks and concrete to form a footing. I have plenty of surplus slotted 6" HDPE pipe to throw behind it for some drainage. As well as sloping everything to daylight and backfilling with aggregate.
I have a few rolls of pond liner and conveyor belt material to toss behind the buried portion of the walls as well.  I am figuring foam board behind the wall itself, then liner, then conveyor belt to help protect the liner. Probably roll on some kind of toxic gick water stuff before the foam board too.

Once to grade, use slip form method to build up the foundation walls a few feet above dirt line. I figure I will be bored of stacking, hauling and dealing with rocks by then and probably set a concrete bond beam. Then switch to some other material for the remainder of the wall.

There is an adobe block maker within striking distance of my place, so that is appealing, or use a slip form cob using machinery to make it. I have played with machinery mixed cob a bit myself over the years and there is good local knowledge. Unless the rock work goes all the way up... which is possible but not likely.
Deep concrete footings with surplus steel pipe and I-beam for pole barn style framing to support the roof... all that material is on-hand already.

I will update this with more thoughts and context as time goes, but figured it'd be good to get something out there for discussion.

Pics

For those that buy bulk feed in small quantities, a ton or so at a time.

How do you unload your bulk feed bags?

I have a gin pole I use to lift the bags, I will add pics in a follow-on post. Then I shovel 800lbs at a time into a bulk feed storage bin. I am planning to convert an old almond trailer into a feed storage bin at some point.

The point to my rambling.
Does anyone have a suggestion on making or using some kind of Bulk bag discharge control?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io2mcu8KVF8

Perhaps there is a trick to closing the bottom discharge without any fancy tooling?

I am also hoping folks have random suggestions on using these bags, answers to questions I haven't thought to ask.

I also would like this thread to cover more than just pigs, but I figured they are generally the most grain intensive critter. If someone smarter than me comes along and knows how to broadcast this post to more categories, I would be grateful.

Seeking scholarly articles relating to topsoil erosion. I am writing a research paper on the problems with conventional agriculture as they relate to topsoil degradation and erosion. I will post my sources as I find them I just thought some folks on here might have some articles in mind.

Thanks for the response. This confirms what I already thought about using truck tires. Too bad though since I could have alot of truck tires delivered and dumped right on the site.

What type of tires do people use for there tire walls? I have access to alot of heavy duty truck tires, but I am not sure if those tires would be to difficult to work with. Would passenger car tires be prefered over heavy duty truck tires?
Thanks,
Mica

Thanks all for the input.
I will post some pictures of the site, test trenches, amendments, logs, etc. as I get closer to construction. It looks like a client may have us haul away her manure in the next few months, yeah.

Many excavation contractors do brush work prior to cutting building pads and other earthworks. It would be worth picking up the phone book and calling around. Additionally, many contractors are willing to load it for you if you can come while they are moving brush.

My soil is fairly rich, black with lots of worms for about a foot or so, then clay. At least in that site most other areas on the property are clay.