berm sheds

In an attempt to come up with some ideas to scale the wofati down to make construction simpler and faster, I came up with these designs.

They don't have enough light for a livable wofati but might come in handy for critter shelters or freezers or something.

and an even smaller idea

One of the projects in the hopper here at wheaton labs is a Bermshed which is going to be a berm with a wood structure inside of it kinda like a hollow berm this will be used for storage of many items and someone might even move into it.
-Sam

Here is the file for those of you who like to fiddle.

The berm shed begins. Brian is hopeful that it will be done by noon on saturday.

And take a look at this sexy machine. And josh.

Progress on the berm shed. You can see the frame coming together and some of the wall is starting to go up.

Pics by curtis:

More berm shed progress!

The roof bits are going up. And the fill is started.

Wow, is it looking good!

Are you relocating the driveway?

Adrien Lapointe wrote:Are you relocating the driveway?

Yes. Last summer we created a second driveway between the red cabin and some trees. So you will drive a bit further along the main driveway before being able to turn left into the area in front of the auditorium/shop.

I am really enjoying all the wofati ideas. I was wondering if you think it would be possible to use bamboo as a building material? Obviously not for the support beams or posts, but as filler and walls maybe. I was thinking of a few of the cold hardy building grade bamboos like:

Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida Solid Stem Bamboo

or Phyllostachys Nigra 'Henon' Henon Bamboo

or Phyllostachys parvifolia Timber Bamboo

Would work well. Considering how fast it grows it may be a decent option for places with limited timber resources.

I would love some input

Today the tractor got a workout picking logs from around the lab with these snazzy new forks! Bryan and Jesse were busy felling fire hazard trees that will be used to finish the last twenty feet of wall. We sure got spoiled with all the extra hands here during the pdc thanks for all the hard work!

This service berry was at the perfect height to taste test a couple ripe-looking berries (maybe a couple more days)

Here you can also see the new front Jesse put on 0.8.

Krista Marie Schaus wrote:I am really enjoying all the wofati ideas. I was wondering if you think it would be possible to use bamboo as a building material? Obviously not for the support beams or posts, but as filler and walls maybe. I was thinking of a few of the cold hardy building grade bamboos like:

Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida Solid Stem Bamboo

or Phyllostachys Nigra 'Henon' Henon Bamboo

or Phyllostachys parvifolia Timber Bamboo

Would work well. Considering how fast it grows it may be a decent option for places with limited timber resources.

I would love some input

The last I heard on bamboo was that nothing of serious structural intergrity grows in this climate, only in tropics (maybe I'm wrong). The ones you mentioned are only hardy to -10 to -15 degrees F. It can get to -30F here according to Paul. Maybe someday when the land has been maxed out as far as far as textured landscape goes, some microclimate magic could happen, but, by then I think most of the building projects would be done. I also think Paul would much prefer black locust as a quick growing material because it is already very cold hardy, an N-fixer, and a deciduous tree and it's rot resistant. I do know that the wall has several tons of soil piled behind, so the ones you mentioned seemed a little thin as each stick would need to be as strong as a 4"+ log. I think if you tried to do a double layer, the sticks could eventually flatten out into one layer as these horizontal wall pieces are only wired to each vertical pole and held in place by the berm.

As far as a lack of wood goes, such a thing is none existant on this property. Unfortunately, in some other nearby parts of the state, trees do seem to be sparse. However, one of the reasons Paul bought this property was because it was so thickly wooded, which means very deep soil. This also means that there are a ton of trees that NEED to be taken out in order to prevent a wildfire from destroying everything. Luckily, Paul has lots and lots of building projects in mind that this wood can be used for.

Once the project is done and there are no other chances for major changes to be made, I plan on writing an in-depth description of the whole project as far as dimensions and the construction process goes.

I have been asked to draw up plans for both end walls on the berm shed at Wheaton Base Camp. Please find them below.

We have a few more ridge beams to put up that will be supporting the rest of the roof poles, Paul came down and took a look a couple days ago and said that he'd prefer lap joints for the beams so Chris and I kept busy today.

Chris laid out all of the tools we used so I got a picture and I'll try to go through and remember how we used each one.

We started off the day using sledgehammers to remove a few roof beams that had been spiked into place last week but needed to move so we could put a larger diameter ridge beam in.

The ridge beam in question is (was) 20 feet long so it spanned three vertical posts, or two "bays." One side has been covered with roof poles already while the other side only had a few roof poles. After removing the roof off of the less populated side we used the chainsaw to cut the beam in half.

With the beam removed we began working on preparing the new beam, I used the hatchet my Dad sent to take take off a few knots from the joint area (it's holding an edge well, thanks Dad! ) and peeled the bark off the joint area with a draw knife.

Chris peeled a whole bunch off logs today with both draw knife and a spud, this is all great practice for when we build our houses.
I cut the notches for the lap joint and peeled away just a little bit on the bottom side to give a flat spot to rest on the post for a little bit more surface area and to make it less prone to rolling.
The level came in to play when I needed to cut the notch at the other end of the beam where the faces would be parallel with each other. To do that I cut the first notch out, put the level on it and turned the log back and forth until the notch was level, then went to the other end of the pole, held the level on the end and drew a line using the level as a guide.

Curtis and Fred both stopped by at the perfect time to lend a hand hoisting the next beam in to place, couldn't have done it without these guys. Chris predrilled pilot holes in the joints so that once the beam was in place a timber spike could be pounded in without splitting the wood.
The idea is to get the beams in place along the rest of this wall and then we will be able to place more roof poles.

A lot of us are working on the berm shed right now...

Continued.

Started this morning by placing the two ridge beams that were notched last night onto their posts. The usual crew hadn't arrived yet so it was just ol' Brian and I, determined to keep this project moving forward he scaled a ladder holding his end of the beam on his good shoulder and placed it on the post one handed.

With a little final trimming these joints are looking decent, I really have to get my measurements correct and well marked before cutting, and then I'm still learning to be more precise with a chainsaw.

Now that the beams are in place stringers went up spiked in to the front and rear walls.

Nice description of the project details, Josh. Lots of good pics too, except that I kinda feel like I'm watching an old Batman episode with the tilted horizon thing (lol)

Chris jumped in this afternoon tossing poles up on top of the roof and hammering in some 10" nails to keep them in place, the three of us made quick work of the trailer load we cut a couple days ago.

We moved the roof poles off of one "bay" over to the section beside it which was empty, (to the right as you're looking at it in the photo) to give us access to the ridge beam underneath. We removed the beam and used the forks on the tractor to place the new, thicker beam I had notched earlier. I had to trim just a sliver off to get it to drop into place but I think it's a decent fit.

Oh yeah and Brian came back from town with a brand new electric chainsaw! He says it will go to the ant village community tool library just as soon as the berm shed gets buttoned up. After making a few cuts I can see why this saw has so many good reviews it felt buttery smooth making those notches and moved through the material faster than any of the other electric saws.

Oh, you'd rather not turn your head to see these pictures? Ok

I made some edits to the design after talking with Paul and Brian this morning on site. I also made some edits to the model to simplify my design for explanation sake.

PLEASE NOTE: The purple planes are moisture barriers, and more soil is to be deposited upon this model (covering the roof and sloping down).

I am attempting to facilitate beam joint discussion... Please find: three beam joint drawings where beams join, and rest on a post.

I want to express a lot of thoughts and concerns about the project that is documented here - the basecamp berm shed.

#1: my error: the design that is in the sketchup does not take enough into account of the weight of the dirt pressing against the outside wall, nor the fact that the soil it is built on is made of sand. We are seeing that wall lean to the inside. This problem is all on me. My idea of a solution was to put an angle brace in, that went from the floor of open-air post to the top of the berm post. One of the innovators here made a very good point: to lower that to about halfway down on the berm side post, because that is where most of the pressure will be. Brian put in some cross support before, and now josh is trying to undo the lean and then insert new support.

#2: next, Brian led a lot of this build, and this is Brian's second round wood structure. Brian was awesome at taking a project and I don't have to be bothered with it until it is done. When I did go down and have a peek once in a while, I raised some concerns and his response was a gleeful "trust me". It was mighty convenient to just trust him and get back to work on other things. So, in hindsight, this one is also my fault. I should have pushed on these points. The first thing I spotted was a miter joint at the corner, and that probably should have been a lap joint. I should have insisted that those two logs be popped out and used for something else while two logs doing a lap joint be put in.

#3: A lot of the support logs were too small. Granted, round wood is typically 2.5 times stronger than milled wood, but we are talking about a soil load plus snow load. I should have spotted that and told brian to replace them. Josh removed the support logs in the front and replaced them with bigger logs, complete with a lap joint. For a while, I was thinking a vertical tongue and groove joint, but the way josh did the lap joint .... I think it is quite good. Much better than the butt joint from before and one could argue about the ups and downs of any other joint.

#3.1: A lot of the support logs in the back are also too small. One broke yesterday. I think this is a really easy fix: just stuff a bunch of vertical poles back there to support the too-thin support pole.

#3.2: one of the support logs broke. Way too much dirt was put on top in order for the dirt to be spread around. But even with that much dirt, it should have been fine. But then it was discovered that the distance between vertical poles was 13 feet instead of 10 feet. So another vertical pole was added.

#4: I did see "the fan design" for logs early enough, but my message did not make it to right people fast enough. This is not what is in the sketchup. But with a lot of discussion with a lot of people it was decided to leave it. But that did not sit well with josh. He popped the tarps and replace the poles with much thicker poles - so that it now looks quite safe.

#5: the eaves are supposed to be five feet. I recently noticed that they are about 2.5 feet. That is most unfortunate.

#6: Earthworks for what the floor will be shaped like should have been done before the first vertical post went in. As is, the downhill destination of any water excess heads right for the interior of the berm shed.

#7: A drain is located inside the bermshed. That needs to be modified to be two drains well outside the bermshed that route water, underground, to the one drain.

#8: the facade to hide the plastic still needs to go up.

#9: A micro roof needs to take water from the shop roof and pass it on to the top of the berm shed.

I think this is the full list of issues. Have I left anything out?

The berm shed is coming back together, it survived the winter and just needs a few more things before it's all put together. This experimental structure has housed electric vehicles, a tractor, stacks of straw bales, dimensional lumber and I'm pretty sure someone was camping under there during the last month of classes here, certainly a multi-use building

To get geared up to finish this project I thought I was getting a good deal buying a used Stihl chainsaw from a pawn shop for a great price, before I bought it I made sure it started and ran OK, like most Stihls t started first pull, it wasn't till I got out here to the land that I realized the carb needed some adjustment to get any power in a cut, and then I realized the adjustment screw's were stripped out, oh man. Trob was a student or here for the PDC and the AT and, after working on the saw with me he ordered up a new carb off amazon, thanks Trob! The new carb did it and the saw was going strong for a few minutes until the chain popped off, woops, then we found the bar that guides the chain was all worn out and i had a broken clutch spring so it was off o the store for a new bar.
Got back, put a new clutch pack in, put the new bar on with a new chain and Mike was in the shop while I was putting everything together and noticed I was missing a little needle bearing and a clip that holds the sprocket on, OK, one more trip to Missoula where I'm really starting to get to know the people in the parts department at the Stihl dealership, those guys are awesome for keeping all this stuff in stock.
With half a saw worth of new parts Mike helped get the saw all dialed in and running strong, 1\16th of a screw turn at a time, thanks Mike!

All this to say, in hindsite I probably would have been better off buying a new saw, but it's all good this one runs great now and I learned a whole bunch along the way, now to get moving!

With this gasoline+powered sawdust+creating machine in hand i dawnwd chaps and harvested the future posts and beams that will support the last roof section and reenforce some other areas that need attention.

The beams going up were definitely too heavy to walk up on ladders, and the corner is too tight to get the tractor in, after some head scratching mike, trob, and Erica came up with the idea that resulted in two logs acting as ramps screwed into the posts the beam was going on top of, then trob tangled up a tripod with roofpoles and chain that we hooked a come along to, after wrapping the beam with chain it was a pretty smooth process of cranking it up the ramps.
In the picture I'm using the cant hook that Idaho Sam donated to turn the beam to line up the lap joint, the hook was sharp and worked great, thanks Sam! We were also fueled on a breakfast of the eggs you left for us, doubly productive contributions!

Benny pealed and helped wrestle the last beam into place and we were able to use an extra long 3\8" drill bit to bore holes through the lap joints into the posts and then pounded rebar in to hold it all together.

Whew, I think today took care of the most difficult part on the to-do list, thanks to many helping hands, thanks everyone!

Josh,
Sorry I missed putting up the last header log...not.   You get rest of that end on the shed?  When we did the first header log I had my doubts, but we kept plugging and it turned out way better than I ever thought.  All that boy scout lashing, monkey bridges and hoisting sort of paid off.

However, the berm shed has some serious flaws in it as you know....

T. Rob

Hey Rob that tripod sure made quick work of pulling those beams up into place, thanks for lashing that thing together! After a little chainsaw work the new replacement beams lapped in together pretty well, we also cut saddle joints into the posts for the beams to rest in, they ain't perfect but seem to be functional keeping the logs from rolling anywhere.

Ben,Jesse and I also replaced some of the smaller, broken beams with much larger timbers, in the second picture you can see how we put two new posts in, using all-thread rods to hold em' to the original posts, holding up a much stronger new beam.

We used saw mill cut offs to cover the drip edge and give a more natural finish.

Josh,
Did you redo the header we put up?  I don't recall it overlapping the open post that much.  But then again it was real hot that day and I think I was dehydrated and short on calories as I kept getting light headed every time we hoisted anything...

Drip edge looks good.  How much dirt is on the roof now?

Anyway glad you finished it and I hope you got your bounty monies.

T. Rob

That is in fact the same header we hauled up on top, once we got that big thing up there I really wanted to keep it! The large overlap is intentional to have a larger "ship lap" esque joint which was recommended for these beams. Yes Paul has inspected this most recent work and contributed $$ to my peanut butter fund

There are now three main things to do to finish the berm shed;

1. Bury the roof with material. The tarps on the roof are all covered so this just looks like a big pile of sand and lambsquarters from the road, right now it's anywhere from a few inches to about 2 feet deep. To finish burying we need to get it to about two feet across the back wall with gradually less as we get towards the drip edge.

2. We need to find a way to divert any water that falls on the shop roof, either onto the berm shed roof to water the growing things up there OR along the parking lot heading over to arakkis.

3. Drainage. Currently rain water trends to puddle towards the back corner underneath the fan-roof, Paul would much prefer everything under the roof remain dry. One oft-discussed method is the idea of digging a drain under the drip edge and routing all water to a crossing pipe that runs under the berm to the road. A potential problem with this approach is that, over time, the drain may become clogged with sand (there's a lot of sand blowing around here.)
Another way we might complete drainage would be to lower the level of the road and parking lot around the shop so that any rainfall would flow away from the been shed and shop and end up in arakkis. Paul thinks lowering the driveway and parking lot by about a foot should accomplish this.

I am not sure what you are calling the parking lot, but I would think all the water from the pad in front of the shop door and the front part of the berm shed could be fed fairly easy around the right side of the shop at least to the ditchy area around the water faucet.   I would not think you would lower everything thing a foot but have a foot of drop going around the right side.   Water from the pad back and down the left side of the shop between the berm shed and shop should be encouraged to head to the back between the two I would think.  Couple of inches of drop from front to back.  Now the shed is finished maybe someone could put something in where that big pile of sand is that would benefit from that water coming around the left side.

this video appeared on youtube yesterday.  I think the video was taken in september.

I can envision this being a really good sheep barn. The hillside would have to be situated on the lee side of the prevailing winds, but sheep can handle any amount of cold (provided they have enough roughage in their rumens), but need to be out of the wind. These would provide that. It would also allow a livestock guard dog to guard the single entrance and protect the sheep at night. Fast, simple, easy construction are other merits.

I never researched wofati construction before, but I really like it! (Did I ever tell you how much I love Permies and how it has expanded my thought process?) I actually have the ideal situation for this, a bulldozer and Wallenstein log trailer. The latter would take a lot of the difficult work out of the construction process.

This is the Wallenstein Log Trailer

The Wofati Berm Shed at wheaton labs 2019

10/1/19

A gin pole that fred made and ron enhanced for working on the berm shed: