the couch balcony - round wood timber framing

Built as part of our permaculture bootcamp.


Once upon a time, there were thoughts about how to make the classroom in the shop ....  better.   Should we hang some art on the walls?  Maybe add some flowers?   Lots of ideas were tossed around.   One idea was to add lots of couches for people to sit on, but we need the same space for rolling in tables so people can eat at meal times.   What would we do with the couches then?  One idea was to set up a system of pulleys and lift them high over our heads.   Or maybe put together some sort of shelf for the couches to sit on.  If we go with shelves, how do we get up there?  Then came the idea - why not just sit on the couches while they sit on the shelves?  And why not make it super cool up there - like a balcony?   Next thing you know, ideas are seriously flying.  

So we have this idea, and I mention the idea to my friend, Josiah.   Josiah calls me three days later to say "I'm bringing my dad, Bear Paw, out to build that.  All we need is a handful of helpers."  - fortunately, we have a few "boots" that are part of our permaculture bootcamp program here and ready to tackle any project.


Here you can see it starting to come together (that's bear paw on the right):






Nick fouch of the big youtube channel "fouch-o-matic off-grid" stopped by to help.




Bear paw loves to work in branches and root wood:




Moving a piece into place:




Lookin good!




biological roomba:




lazy worker:

More on the Balcony Build

There's also another willow feeder coming along that BearPaw and Nick Fouch have been working on. The roof is being finished up.

The cough balcony looks awesome!  I want more pictures!!

Using the root flare is particularly spectacular.  How did you get those trunks with the roots still attached?  That's not a typical tree felling exercise.

When evan built volcano road with the excavator, there were some trees in the way that he pushed over.

Is this the permie version of Emmet's double decker couch?

Julia Winter wrote:I want more pictures!!

I suggest pie.  

Bear Paw and Nick Fouch worked out the corner joists intersection with the newel post for the hand rail.  Probably one of the trickier parts.

Very very cool and some serious skill sets.

People are chomping at the bit for more pics.  I tried to take one to show it all, and another to show the rootwork ....

Some of the design decisions:


The amount of vertical space we have to work with is 12 feet.   You need to figure that the floor/ceiling between the upper and lower level is going to eat up about a foot.  So, on average, that leaves about 5.5 feet for the top level and the lower level.    BUT!  The lower level will be used about 20 times more than the upper level.   AND!  The upper level has some spots that are higher than 12 feet.  So the idea is to pad the trusses that one would bonk their noggin into with labels that say "comedy generator" or "please hit your head here".  So, the floor level was raised a bit.

Another point (see image attached) is that we needed more floor space.  And the bulk of the weight that needs to be supported is the couches and the people walking by the couches.  The railing itself won't be that heavy, although we are thinking that people will be sometimes leaning on the railing and the like.   So we nudged the vertical supports in a bit to facilitate these desires.

Another factor is that during the upcoming classes, this space will be used as a classroom and as place for people to eat.   We have six round tables that can hold eight people each.  We need to arrange the tables so they fit in the classroom and all the people fit around the tables.  

The first designs of the balcony had vertical posts coming down right where we were gonna put tables.  So, we moved the posts.  

I got more floor joists in place today.

Fred, Tuesday & Jesse made progress on getting a stair case ready.  We're using slabs Bear Paw picked up at a local saw mill.  They were going to be thrown out.  We're putting them to good use.

This project is really fun to watch..i.e., lots of pix, unusual construction process and materials... hope we get to see the finished use.. couches full of people :)

Kai came down from The Labs to help out today.  We got some more floor joists done and got stair steps made from slabs.

Function and beauty...love it!

Thanks to my patreon peeps for pushing me into making videos again.

https://permies.com
http://patreon.com/paulwheaton

Thanks to Dan Ohmann of The Grass-fed Homestead channel:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc2ka-aGChwIiX0mEXzfmoA[/youtube]

Tahnks to Nick Fouch of Fouch-o-matic Off Grid:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm28mg76wIUxq1eyqhbivfg

More pictures and the latest info about our round wood timber framing project "couch balcony":

https://permies.com/t/65315/couch-balcony-round-wood-timber

More info about our permaculture bootcamp:

https://permies.com/t/59706/permaculture-bootcamp


Nick Fouch has timber framing experience, but not roundwood timber framing.  When he arrived, Bear Paw was already here, and Bear Paw takes round wood timber framing to the most artistic level.  Sculpture with wood.  Sculpting and carving wood.  Lots of stuff being done with root wood.  

It's a pretty boring wood shop and we have been using it as a classroom.  We thought that adding a round wood timber frame couch balcony would spiff it up a bit.

We are trying to get this and a bunch of other stuff done before the permaculture design course starts:

https://richsoil.com/pdc.jsp

We have a kickstarter going right now so people can watch our permaculture design course from home:

http://kck.st/2q6Ycay

Part of the design stuff is to be able to squeeze in six big round tables - so we moved the log posts to facilitate that.  We also moved the log supports closer to the wall.  


Bear Paw's round wood timber framing philosophy is "you gotta get it down to square or saddle."

Permaculture bootcamp participants include Fred Tyler, Cliff Ponder, Lane O'Harra, Jesse White, Evan Pierce, Tuesday Yocum

Gonna pin the logs into the cement slab.

Lots of hatchet and mallet work.

Chainsaws and angle grinders are used sometimes, and sometimes the chisel and mallet is preferred.  And a freaky big saw.

Thanks to Josiah Wallingford for convincing his dad, Bear Paw, to come share his skills with us.

https://permaethos.com/


Relevant stuff at permies:

https://permies.com/t/65315/couch-balcony-round-wood-timber
https://permies.com/t/59706/permaculture-bootcamp
https://permies.com/f/81/timber
https://permies.com/f/102/labs
https://permies.com/t/65018/permaculture-projects/willow-feeder-willowonka-roundwood-timber

music by Jimmy Pardo
https://permies.com/t/30796/Jimmy-Pardo

Thanks to my patreon supporters:

Julia Mason
wade L
Jason Hower
Bill Crim
Doug Barth
One Community
Mark Allen
Kelton Mitchell
David Ingraham
The Rayhawk Clan

http://patreon.com/paulwheaton

That's a really lovely video.  I had already seen the photos, but the video adds so much more.

Thanks Paul!  Thanks everyone!  Video really does help share the experience.  Can't wait to see more!

I'm a big fan of Nick and Esther and their Fouch-O-Matic channel on Youtube! And of course Esther's Homestead Skill Of The Month Club too.  

Julia Winter wrote:That's a really lovely video.  I had already seen the photos, but the video adds so much more.

Thanks Paul!  Thanks everyone!  Video really does help share the experience.  Can't wait to see more!

x2

Ditto! on the video- add the motion and it really comes to life...or it 'comes' to us... thx.  

nancy sutton wrote:Ditto! on the video- add the motion and it really comes to life...or it 'comes' to us... thx.  

I just talked to cliff.  Apparently he does like getting the apples and pies ....

The balcony is coming along.  Flooring is almost finished

Josh and Julianne took some video while they were here:

Now about 99% complete.