berm sheds

putting the poles on top.

Ron's design sample of the upcoming facade.

Ron has elected a 11 degree slope - the same slope at the roof.

The billboard material goes up and then some dirt

and then the facade

putting in the angle braces

Excellent video - great rehab job on the shed!

My thought was, even though it would require metal, have you considered running a wire rope around the top of the rear vertical posts and running it out like a guy wire, which then gets covered in the berm dirt? Maybe just where the forces will be greatest? Or spots where you really don't want to block the traffic between the cells?

putting on the dirt.  

Notice the lovely ramp we made!

paul wheaton wrote:Here is my primary concern with a saddle joint.   I see way too many of the first kind.   The second kind has 98% of the notch strength, plus 800% of the beam strength.

A note of clarification — this isn't quite right per my understandings. This type of joint is often used as the way most beams fail is at the point of maximum moment (and thus the resulting tensile/compression forces). Since the beam is being supported at this joint, the moment forces are such that only the top half of the log is of concern (see attachment). In bending, total tensile strength of the cross section is focused at the extremity of the log (forces increase by a square function of the cross-section's height). This is why we have I-beams: tiny little cross-section until the end where the beef lives that carries the real load.

As a more concrete points:

- If you remove none of the cross-section, the beam remains at 100% strength
- If you remove the bottom 50% of the cross-section, the beam remains at 100% strength
- If you remove the bottom 75% of the cross-section, the beam remains at 79% strength*

*Calculated by taking the section modulus of a circle and subtracting the section modulus of the "beam" cut out by the joint (25% of the height, or half the radius). See other attachment. Technically, it is even stronger as I have assumed to remove more material (a complete rectangular section) than would be physically possible since it's a circular cut.

This type of joint reduces shearing stresses most, but beams almost never fail in shear (a beam that fails in shear typically sags in a horror-movie-like way long before it fails) .

All that is to say, it is often a little non-intuitive how much material you can remove from beams without affecting their strength.

I forgot to mention, if this beam is being supported at the ends of the beam (vs two points at 1/3 and 2/3 length), the math works out even better since there is almost no moment (and resulting tensile/compressive) forces at all. Here the bending strength plays no role in the strength of the structure. The more to the ends of the beam it is supported, the less cross-section needed at the support to retain 100% strength (since failure will occur in the middle).

That is an awesome ramp you built to get the dirt up on top. It looks like very sandy dirt? Did you sift it, or is it natural to your property the way it looks in the video?

What do you figure you'll grow on top to stabilize the dirt?

One of the end pieces:

Jay Angler wrote:That is an awesome ramp you built to get the dirt up on top. It looks like very sandy dirt? Did you sift it, or is it natural to your property the way it looks in the video?

What do you figure you'll grow on top to stabilize the dirt?

We have two properties.   This berm shed is at the property we call "basecamp" which is like a 20 acre rock - but with some of this sandy dirt in one small part.  

We will be planting the berm shed this year - probably with lots of grasses.

Great job on the end of the shed! The aerial shots really gives one the feeling of how this shed is going to just "disappear" when it's done and planted. If wind comes from the road direction, I would think it would help to divert it upward and keep the building warmer even if the shed isn't closed. If that was a busy road, it would have a great sound-deadening effect on traffic noise also.

If I were there I might have shared an opinion similar to what is drawn in blue here - a Beefier beam, and sideways support for that first cell.

Looks good though!

Sweet rehab of the shed! Thanks for documenting the tyrific progress, do we have a tally of how many times the sand has been added to and removed from the roof?
This could be the iteration that lasts for... maybe a decade? maybe 2 decades? The latest video shows some sturdy looking tarps gong on top, combined with the slick drip edge this sure looks like an effective way to keep it dry,  with all the drainage (which in hindsite, probably could have been graded before we put posts in) looking forward to seeing what you decide to seed on the roof that will grow in sand!

putting on the facade

This image came from Orin's bootcamp thread.

Some grasses were dug up from other hugelkultur beds.  I'm not sure, but I think they are a ruminant friendly endophyte tall fescue grass.



(this video and image is from josiah's bootcamp thread)

I just stumbled across this picture of the berm shed nearing completion - from josiah's bootcamp thread:

Shaping the dirt a bit (from Orin's bootcamp pics)

I spotted this picture of the berm shed in Kyle's bootcamp thread, taken after this summers' events!

It'd be great to see what berm sheds are now being used for. Pics, please?

I noticed that in some of the pics that there were shorts that supported the cross beams, was that to raise the height to match another section? or some other nefarious reason

another question i have is, would it be possible to slant the back posts slightly to match the angle of the roof(or even just a couple of degrees)? then the back wall would have less weight pressure from the soil. i'm not an engineer so i thought i would throw it out there, i'd like to know in case i decide to do something like this.

btw i would have thought you would have had a skyhook to get those beams into place

maybe a bit of a drawing so we could know what you are asking?

I'[m amazed we never mentioned the berm shed movie that came out a year ago!

https://permies.com/w/berm-shed

i will try a photo drawing is not my strong suit. looking at it, it may be that with the weight the canted posts won't support the roof. never said it was a good idea but greater minds than mine can make the determination. another thought was what if you put largish rocks boulders behind the back wall then covered with dirt, it might mitigate the dirt pressure against the wall. would the rocks defeat the insulation value you're trying to create?

I’m looking for the most affordable, quickest way to do a wofati style structure that has room for a small cabin and also some room for storage. I thought it may be a good idea to post here, since I see building a berm shed and making a portion of it into a cabin, with the rest of it for storage as a viable option. There is so much material on this website, it’s hard to navigate all of it to find the newest, best models for wofati/berm style structures. For example, I don’t know what the most effective methods are to place a post in the ground. Can someone direct me to where I should look for this information? Thank you very much in advance!

I think it depends largely on the character of your climate and soil. Dryer climates and sandier soil reduce the complications and extend the lifespan of earth fast posts. Damp climates and clayey soils are probably the worst case, and softwood posts might rot and fail in a few years. If you can get black locust or Osage orange or another very rot-resistant wood with good installation details, it might last 50 years or more.