Erik Rowberg

For what it is worth, I wish i had  not processed the greywater.   I built gravity greywater system, baffles for grease/soap, anaerobic tank, baffles, then constructed wetlands, storeage tank.  Lot of cost and work and storeing makes me lazy and it accumulates.  mine has no smell by that time.  

not retaining wall but garden wall.  used some clay mortar

stone was dug from property. roundish stones

Virginia Dawnswir wrote:
The other option would be to use fire brick dome or arch. I was wondering if cob with straw could be added over for insulation? Rather than going the fiber insulation route seen in many brick oven articles and videos.

Thank you,
virginia

first about using brick.  You dont have to use firebrick.  I use broken pieces of  regular brick. Even underfired brick, they will only get better with the heat.  it can be faster than you think.  only the last rows of a dome can be tricky.

Insulation.  I am sure i am going to get questions about this.  I use heavy olive oil bottles under the brick floor and cheap wine bottles around the dome. The air in the bottle is the insulation.  Dont seal the bottles!  I mortar them in with 1-2 clay - sawdust mix.  clay straw would be better than clay but try to get as high mix of straw as possible.  straw is the insulation, or air if the straw burns up.

Okay yes cheap wine bottles and beer bottles become maleable at about 600C, but remember your bottles are on the outside not exposed directly to the fire.  It if really stoke up the fire, so the floor for cooking is 500C,  the fire is 600-800c.  the outside of the brick dome never gets above 300C.  maybe if i ran it hotter continuusly it could go up.  The outside of the bottle and clay/sawdust insulation has never gone above 35C when ambient temperature is 25C.  If i throw a cheap bottle IN the fire the bottle slumps.  it does not slump inside the oven away from coals.

With this setup i can close up the oven at 9pm, and at 8am  it is 200+C.  perfect for breads.  And i must be saving wood.

I have built 4 this way now and one is been used for a year.

Phil Stevens wrote:Even more impressive with the front elevation shot, Erik. I'm full of questions again. Is the masonry reinforced with steel? What are the seismic risks in your area? And have you experimented with timbrel vault construction?

Phil this is a different building.  http://alternativebuildingtz.blogspot.com/2013/08/groined-vault-house-update.html  
I plastered cement over it with some weld mesh in the plaster.  i did that hoping to keep cracking down.  Other roofs have no steel except in the ring beams.  


We live in the rift valley.  Had a 5 quake a few years ago 100km from here that shook everything.    Not convinced vaults are unsafe in seismic areas.  

Yes have done some timbrel vaults and one stairs.  
http://alternativebuildingtz.blogspot.com/search?q=catalan

http://alternativebuildingtz.blogspot.com/2013/07/first-timbrelcatalan-vaulted-ceiling.html

John C Daley wrote:An interesting topic, what draw you to build these roofs in the first place?

Originally i was looking for cheaper and better alternative to wood truss and corrugated iron that is the norm here.  No need for ceiling board, rodent proof, quiet in rain, etc.  Then i got into flatter vaults, then cross vaults.  so have built a number of buildings this way.

Brian White wrote:  I made a boat planter and I used a cement sand clay mix to waterproof it.  so that the bottom of the planter holds water for the plants.  It took a few years to find a cement sand clay mix that did the job,  so I like that you give a mix with lime in it. because any hairline cracks might seal themselves due to lime dissolving in the slowly leaking water        

yeah i am so much happier with lime results than cement.  From what i understand cement-clay is not a good idea anyway.

Malcolm Thomas wrote:Very nice roof there , well done . Just curious about how you made it ie the structure did you use wood profiles and whats under the lime wash is it clay or cement .
.

We dont use formwork as long as we have a vertical wall to start from.  Bricks are 'glued' up with sticky clay  Capillary action from dry brick helps ( no proof).

scroll down to the bottom on this link below
http://alternativebuildingtz.blogspot.com/2016/04/maize-storeage-shed.html

a youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueILoglbAhE


under lime wash is clay-sand-lime-ash  mixture.   Will not go back to cement plaster, had so many problems

Garrett Connelly wrote:About drinking rainwater with bird poop maybe on roof.

What should one do about breathing dust with dried bird poop in the air via walking feet or rolling car tires?

First rain filters.  
let the first part of a rain go into a bypass system.  

Garrett Connelly wrote:Would you be interested in explaining your process with a photo essay on ferrocement.com ? There's a contact button there.

Garrett, the web caretaker

yeah but i get stuck on your signup page.