Adam Mercer

John C Daley wrote:What are you calling expensive?
Have you thought of old parachutes, hession?
I take it you will not have ceiling insulation and what sort of roofing do you have in mind?
What size are we looking at?

All things are relative. I can't afford to buy boards and building materials so I'm recycling lots of materials from abandoned houses in the village. I had thought of using old handmade wool carpets but wool isn't alkali resistant I think. As for old parachutes there's no chance of that here. Bulgaria is a difficult place to source many things people take for granted in more ' advanced' countries.
I have got insulation sorted. I'll post pictures on my other post as and when I get around to it.
The roof is black locust beams, some decades old, thick and hard as iron, some cut a couple of years ago and are seasoning. All the roof tiles are from a falling down barn, I have permission to take them.

John C Daley wrote:Adam, can you make shorter videos please?
Have you thought of just putting the cloth into 20 L of cement slurry and hang the cloth on a bar?
What are you trying to achieve with this 'ceiling' material?

Hi John

I though about it but worried that the material would hang in ripples and not flat.
I will fix it flat on top of the beams then paint the slurry on.
It's just a cheap alternative to expensive boards.

Jane Mulberry wrote:Nice idea, Adam! It's got me wondering if something similar might work for one of my ceilings that needs repair. How are you planning to attach the ceiling panels?

Good to see you back in action!

Hi there.
I'm going to stretch the cloth over the main beams which will be visible inside, then paint the slurry onto them in situ. Several coats, then insulation, then the fit the roof beams over the top, then roof tiles. I'm looking into solar tubes for daytime lighting through the roof.

Hi
I started a post back in 2021 I think it was about building a semi underground house.
I've had a knee operation since so work has been non existent.
Fortunately, I've had lots of time to think about how to save money as the cost of materials here in Bulgaria have shot up in the past couple of years.
I found this book on the internet:
https://www.academia.edu/22223899/Latex_Concrete_Papercrete_Roof_Flying_Concrete_we_think_we_have_found_the_way_we_will_do_roofs_from_now_on
Very interesting stuff, especially the great way of building a mixer!
So I experimented with different things until I found a really cheap material for making the ceiling boards in my house. I did a trial run using some old cement I've had sat around for ages, acrylic glue and water painted onto and into garden fleece stretched over a table frame.
Here are my results:
   
https://youtube.com/shorts/bWn1fg7kH_M?si=QyMGHFOLG1CI_ooF
What do you think? Obviously the results would be smoother and stronger with new cement and a couple of more layers. I like how it's still flexible.

So I've got my hands on two big soviet era oil filled radiators here in Bulgaria.
Could I incorporate them with my wood stove as thermal mass? Could I put them on each side of my stove to heat up or would something bad happen?

Glenn Herbert wrote:Good on sourcing more locust beams I would strip the bark off any that are going to be exposed or you will have crumbs falling on you forever. The heartwood of locust will not rot, but the sapwood if kept moist by bark will start to rot in a few years. Bark also gives a good place for insects to live.

Thanks.
I've tried stripping bark with hand tools but resorted to using my chainsaw. That was so much easier. The finishing touches were done with a wood disc on my grinder.

I've removed the bark. I found it easiest to use my chainsaw after I'd tried scraper and other methods. I just skimmed them with the chainsaw then used a wood disc on my grinder,

John C Daley wrote:Adam, cob bricks were used long before the communists were around. I expect the local communiyt had been using them long before the communists arrived.
cob is a very practical material.

Hi John
I know about cob.
Most of the villages here were built in the nineteen fifties from cob brick mixed or lined with fired brick on a foundation made from stone blocks.
Our village stone came from a Roman village 3km east and a late antiquity fortress 4km west.
Before that the few mud huts with thatch roofs weren't very stable and none are here now.
The only pre communist houses are the local smiths or landowners houses built with stone...also Roman scavenged
Were half a day's march to the Roman limes at Nova ( Svishtov)

Mart Hale wrote:Growing up we lived in a basement that was 1/2 way out of the ground.

The biggest thing I would suggest is MAKE SURE that you have good drainage...      we put in drainage pipe and it clogged,  each spring when the snow melted we would wake with 1/2 inch of ice cold water on the floor......

That said the basement was awesome to goto when you wanted to be cool in the summer, there are real advantages of being partly underground.

Thanks for sharing your journey.

Thanks.
I'm going to dig two drains, one either side which I'm thinking of linking to a pond I want to dig down the field.
My only worry is mosquitoes as we've had an infestation this year here in our village despite it being a really dry year. Tiger mosquitoes are moving in apparently

I think I've enough beams and rafters now to complete the roof frame. Some old roof beams, some newly felled trees, all black locust