J. Tabordiy

playing with the sketck a bit more we also thought on bringing down th second floor for a room and just make two rooms on the ground level...which would maybe iplicate more digging, but if we already already were thinking of a space behind the house the digging is similar

Thanks for the feedback already

Glenn, I was thinking of a green roof just off my head, not really investigating further, nice that you mention that 1:12 roof slope for green roof (i assume is losing a meter height for every 12 meters long) i changed my sketch and noticed 1:12 is almost flat and would not be able to join to the ground of the slope.

really appreciated the comment on a good footing for the retaining wall of the hill

"A gently sloped retaining wall of the round river rocks supporting the end of the roof would make sense. This would make a nice cool shaded patio area for summer afternoons. I would advise having the foot of that retaining wall lower than floor level so that water would positively be diverted away from the rubble trench footing. "

Cole, I'm really enjoying the size and design of our current house that was depending on the size of the original ruin, next one there is no original foundations so there is space to change a bit, but we would keep the separation from main room/kitchen floor and a sleeping room smaller and upstairs. after starting drawing it with the long back roof i also though of using it as a small workshop, for tools and bicycle, but what did you mean about the taller wall behind the house? not sure if i got it.

Rico, yeah,  i see now that a green roof is probably not the best option if we follow that design like glenn said, i would not try to go ahead with a different angle and then fail...better to jut use other kind of roofing or changing the  design, i've seen  Mike Oehler underground house before, i like the idea but i guess not the best for my climate, a lot of humidty i would be afraid of molds and dampness, one of the reasons to build a bit up and have the room upstairs, but i will definitely investigate this option further

Hi all, we are back, almost 10 years since the start of our first Roundwood tiny house and we have a new similar project in our heads.

Our first house was built on a EXTREMELY low budget (was meant has a temporary laboratory house, made on top of a SQUATTED ruin) with free local, ecological, repurposed or second hand materials and a few cheap material. This next project will be on a small piece of land we bought very cheap just near the terrain of some friends and a "forest" (tree plantations).

The plot is a sloped strip of land that ends on a small stream that flows all year around. (slopeTerrain.png - not in scale according to the terrain i must clear a bit the bushes and take some better measurements on the angle of the slope)



Material available:
- clay/clayish ground
- sand (from the stream)
- pebbles (from the stream)
- stones (rounded stones from the stream and some other from the land)
- Roundwood (Eucalyptus Globulus and Acacia Dealbata - two invasive species)

The plan for now is to build a small two floor tiny house similar to the one we did before (video below) but without the basement, there is already another building for the brewery



For now we imagine digging the slope by hand (hopefully with the help of a couple of friends) to have a flat surface to build and collect materials.

we started a small sketch to start visualizing it a bit (check attachments).

After digging the slope i imagine starting the foundation (House building focusing on Good boots and a good hat philosophy).



Thinking about making Rubble Trench Foundations, there is no freezing in this area but a lot of rainfall (>1200mm/year), so i think digging half a meter deep would be sufficient, then setting a French Drain (pipe with holes) and filling it with stones, pebbles and sand from the river, then building a bit with stone and the rest with (roundwood) timberframing.

We would like to be discreet on the landscape so we were still wondering about making a living green roof or not.

Still also open to brainstorm ideas for the floor of the ground floor, should it be in wood with a air box underneath? direct on clay? maybe rocket mass heated floor in the future?

let's see how it goes, will try to keep this updated but is still just a plan in the air, we need to be more time on the terrain clearing and making measuments to continue.

took some pictures with my cellphone, but the house is too small to have nice pictures from the inside, maybe i need to find someone to lend me a fish-eye lens  

Hey folks,

so been 5 years we moved into the house, and it feels great :D

Today i was showing this post to some friends and thought to make an update on how we use the house nowadays

The stone floor (the old mill, there is no more water channel to bring water) is now a small brewery, we brew around 80l a month and the temperature is very stable inside (most of the year, probably 9 or 10 months, stays over 15ºC and all year under 25ºC) great to brew ales and some lagers when to cold
The first floor is our small living room with a small kitchen (that is still unfinished - we live in a community and meals are on the main common house) a lot of storing places on some built in closets and sofa.
The top floor is the sleeping room, we are able to stand straight perfectly on the firs 0,5m from the window and on the lowest part there are nice built in closets for clothes and storage.

Today there would be things we would have made different and still plan to change:
- we used scavenged windows and most of them are single glass, in winter we use thick curtains but definitely something to improve
- we still miss the last plaster layer on the outside wall (we only made two) but been strong and not many cracks appeared (mostly around wood of the windows (wood-clay connection no easy) we plan to still plaster and lime the exterior, still didn't and the walls look fine
- the small hanging platform from the entrance of the 1st floor needs roofing because too much water makes it slipery and starts to rot the tops of the beams with the humidity

We spent less than 500 euros (including the few tools we used) to build this little home on top of an old ruin. Took less than 3 years from planning it, getting materials building and start using it as a livable space, we are still planing to finish it, but we had a very different rhythm since we moved in :D

will try to make some pictures soon to show

planing on doing something similar...

did you end up building this?

i just upcycled two old pression beer kegs of 50l each

till now i've been doing 25l batches, would like to go up to 200l, so would be ideal to boil/heat two pots at same times...

i thought of J shaped rocket stove like the one in your diagram, and then making somehow a top skirt that envolves both pans, probably the one directly under the heat conduct will boil faster and the second one already heating up pretty good before the heat excapes from the pipe...

is there any other good post for making boiling water rocket stoves for beer taht you  found?

so in the meanwhile we finished the plaster, also the inside is mostly done

check the plastering thread here: https://permies.com/t/59440/Plastering-Light-straw-clay-Roundwood
and a small video from start to "finish" here: https://permies.com/t/64898/ruin-house-video-Roundwood-small

hi all,

for a long time we don't update our posts on the forum, we noticed our posts featuring on the best posts column in the roundwood framing forum, ,
thank you all for the encouragement, help and all the info (read hundreds of posts on this forum already i think)

the whole house building process took less than 2 years, not working full on it, we were completely unexperienced and the timber framing took more than a year i guess,

on the many visits my father made, he took some pics and made a nice video of the evolution of the house

we are living on it since end of October and it's been so nice

we already had quite strong winds and everything is sound and stable, almost no cracks on the plastering, there is still many details to finish, and one day we may show how the furniture is going (we are building it still, although the sleeping room is already done

for now we leave you my father's video

Hi, the house is finished and we are living inside since end of last year i forgot to share the link to the plastering of these walls, check it here: https://permies.com/t/59440/Plastering-Light-straw-clay-Roundwood

soon will post a video and some updates of living in the house so far