Greetings all,
Thank you for your responses. You gave me a good giggle, as well as pause for thought (Eddie Conna) and I appreciate your advice. Thank you William Bronson for following my thought process!
I realise it's a bit odd to put your hat on before your underclothes...., but sometimes I do match my outfit to my hat!
I should explain...I'm going to be building in my spare time, a long way from where I live currently.
I thought that if I have to leave the build unfinished for any length of time, which is likely, then at least it would be protected. I'm building in the mountains of Portugal, where it is likely to rain a lot for at least part of the build.
The roof I'm planning will have at least a 4 foot overhang all round the oval building, to keep the house cool in the heat of the summer, but will also allow the lower winter sun to warm the house through the South facing windows. The plot faces South.
The first job will be to construct a gravel foundation trench (Owen Geiger- earthbag building) along with a solid gravel foundation for the
footprint of the house, then complete the first stages of a rammed earth floor.(Sukita Reay)
Then I'd like to do a timber framed roof with roundwood supports regularly spaced at a distance of 4 foot from the edge of the wall footprint. This way I can tarp the frame and carry on working come rain or shine. From what I gather, Earthbag laying and earth plastering are best protected from rainfall, until it has hardened and been lime washed.
Earthbag walls are super competent at bearing loads...not worried about that at all. They have been known to withstand high impact car collisions and even gunfire.They are one of the safest buildings to use in Earthquake zones. (See Owen Geiger's work in Nepal)
They are also one of the easiest builds for a newbie like me.
Local builders will assist me with the roof framing...but I feel confident in doing the rest myself, thanks to many generous people sharing a wealth of knowledge
online. All friends and family will be roped in to help!
I'll attend as many workshops as I can though, sadly, not much earthbag building going on in the UK. I love the way these houses look and feel.
I figure I can build up the Hyperadobe walls to as near as damn the underside of the roof frame. I can see that the roof may get in the way at the final stages...but I plan to minimise that by not finishing the edges of the roof until the walls are complete.
hmmm....I'm going to make a scale model .. I'll build a small
wood frame first, attach it to a base, and then build mini earthbag walls with rolls of clay. Will post a pic when I'm done.
Please feel free to comment further.
Thanks again