Tanks for the water: part two

Although the cisterns are not collecting rain water, they are mostly ready to do so. We don’t have gutters on the house, yet – I’m waiting on the installers. Based on the bid I received for seamless gutters, it’s actually cheaper for me to let them install them than to buy and put up gutters myself. So, as soon as they schedule their crew to come do the job, we’ll have the house guttered. In the photo, you can see that I painted the fascia. This is the color that the whole house will be painted eventually.

I’ll detail later the construction of roof washers and screen filter that I’ll construct. The roof washers will divert the first several gallons of water coming off of the roof whenever it rains. The intention is to let the first bit of rain wash dirt and debris off of the roof so that it won’t end up in the cistern. The water will run through a screen before entering the cistern in order to keep leaves and things that get past the roof washers from being in the harvested water. The water should be clean enough for general household use, bathing, washing dishes, and laundry. All cooking and drinking water will be run through a ceramic filter first.

After we had the three tanks set in place, I rented a drill with a 3” concrete bore bit. With my dad’s help, I drilled a hole about two and half inches off of the bottom of each tank. The septic tanks are only set up with inlets and outlets near the top of the end walls. With the holes lower, I was able to connect the tanks to one another so that they will fill and empty as one tank rather than three individual tanks.

The three inch hole was a little over 1/2 inch larger than the exterior diameter of 2 inch PVC. So, I used some 1/4 inch Plexiglas and silicone caulk to seal these outlets. I used an 8 inch piece of 2 inch PVC (actually electrical conduit, but it’s the same thing as used for water, only a different color) threaded on both ends. The threaded fittings on each end tightened against the Plexiglas and sealed the holes around the pipe.

When I plumbed the tanks together, I put in ball valves on each tank so that I can isolate each tank separately for cleaning whenever deemed necessary in the future. I also plumbed in a drain line. I put all of these valves next to one another so that I will be able to access them easily. The tanks are in the hillside in front of the house, and there will be dirt completely covering them. On the down hill side, I will terrace the slope with beds for flowers or whatever so that it won’t be too steep. In one of the terraces I will have an access to the valves, about 36” deep inside a plastic barrel I cut the ends out of for this purpose.

I took the two inch line from the tank outlets and ran it into the crawl space of the house. I also teed off of it for a 3/4 inch line which I also ran into the house. The 3/4 inch line will supply the water to the pressure pump and the 2 inch line will be for installing a pitcher pump in the house and to provide the opportunity for additional pitcher pumps later on if necessary.

Since I was concerned that if we received a heavy rain during which water might flow into the cisterns faster than the 2 inch line connecting them together could keep up with (leading the first tank to reach full and need to overflow before the other two tanks), I connected the tanks together with 4 inch pipes at the level of the inlets on the side near the house. This ties the tanks together at that level and then serves as the overflow which will be run to the pond.

I used my loader tractor to push dirt around and onto the cisterns once I had them plumbed together. I still have to manually move some of the dirt since I don’t want to take the tractor on top of the tanks. In order to get them covered properly, I’m going to need some more dirt, which I have on the east side of the house. I’ll have to relocate a few things that are in the way before I can begin to move that dirt in order to finalize the landscaping around the cistern and generally in front of the house.

After more research, I decided not to put a coating on the inside of the tanks. It could potentially lead to more problems than plain concrete would. I cleaned the interior walls as well as I could, and I think they’re ready for water.

Tanks for the water

A couple of years ago, I started constructing a ferro-cement tank for water storage in the shed/garage near our current home. I planned the tank to hold about 5,000 gallons, collecting water off of the roof of the building. The idea was to run a water line down the hill to the new house from this cistern. The drop in elevation between the cistern and the house would provide about 25 pounds of water pressure. We also wanted to have a cistern for collecting water off of the roof of the new house at some point.

The ferro-cement tank is only partially constructed, and time to devote to its construction hasn’t been readily available. In order to facilitate an earlier move into the new house, we decided to go ahead and put in a cistern near it. I considered options for water storage, including buying a poly tank (or more than one), building a ferro-cement tank, etc. We finally decided that buying some concrete septic tanks would not be much more expensive than building a ferr0-cement tank and about half the price of a poly tank or any other commonly available water storage tank. It also would involve a lot less time than building a cistern.

I hired a guy to dig into the hill in front of the house to create a place to set three 1,500 gallon septic tanks. We decided on three of them in order to have enough capacity to survive without rain for two to three months. July and August have been fairly dry months since we’ve lived here. So, it seemed like a good idea to plan for enough water storage capacity to not run out during dry months.

This week, after getting the insulation taken care of, I leveled out the bottom of the excavation site in order to get it ready for the tanks. I hauled in 6 tons of rock to put in the bottom for the tanks to sit on. The intention is for them to have a solid base that won’t settle and cause any of them to crack and end up leaking.

After getting the site prepared on the fourth day of the week, I called to schedule delivery of the tanks yesterday morning. We got all three tanks set in place yesterday (and then baled the second cutting of hay).

 

 

 

The plan now is to drill a 2” hole near the bottom of each tank in order to plumb them all together with shut-off valves for each tank. Also, the water line from the tanks into the house will come from this location. I’ll use one of the existing outlets for an overflow when the tanks are full. I’ll also construct some type of filtration system for the incoming water, which will be harvested off of the roof.

One other task I’d like to complete with the tanks is to coat the inside of them to ensure they won’t leak (they aren’t supposed to, anyway) and to prevent the water from taking on the smell and taste of concrete. I’ll be completing these tasks along with many others during the next couple of weeks.

“Well, it’s about time!” An update…

It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve posted to my blog. Probably, because it has been a long time – over 2 months. I’ve not been doing nothing, just not blogging.

I’ve had a lot of different things vying for my time, as is usual for the summer months. Last year I put off a lot of things and worked on the house full time, but I’ve not been able to do that this year. So, I’ve not gotten as much done as I would like.

In this post I’ll try to provide an update on some of the things I have done since the last time I posted (was it really in May?).

We haven’t gotten any more interior walls packed with slip straw. I’d say we have about 65% of them left to do. All of the downstairs windows, except the bathroom windows, are bull-nosed now. I have to build the window sills/seats for the kitchen windows and the laundry room windows (and the bathroom windows). Then, the five upstairs windows need to be bull-nosed and the window sills installed. I was able to round the bale edges around the front door and on one side of the back door.

After purchasing materials to build a masonry chimney, I poured a footer for it. Then, I used concrete blocks to bring the base up to the level of the floor where I’ll be building the chimney. A friend will come over to help me with laying the brick for this project. He’s working on a job that will keep him busy for another week or two, which is fine because I haven’t gotten to the point of being ready to build the chimney yet anyway.

I did begin to plaster the wall behind the location of the chimney. I figured it would be easier to get the plastering done before the chimney is there in the way. I’ve only got the first coat on art of the wall so far. I attached some drywall at the top of the bales along this wall (the front wall) to close up a gap between the top course of bales and the beam running across the top of the wall. There was no way to effectively stuff it with straw. I’ll plaster over the drywall pieces later. So, they will disappear.

Once I got my hands in the mud, I had to plaster more than just this section of wall. So, I put the first coat of plaster on the slip straw wall in the living room. This wall is between the living room and the master bedroom. After I get the finish coat clay (which I ordered today), I’ll try a batch on this wall to see if it will be enough to finish it, or if I need to put another thin layer on the first coat before the finish coat.

Last week I went ahead and made arrangements for getting two more important jobs done. One of those is installing the cistern, and the other one is having the insulation blown in. I hired a local individual to come dig out the area where we are going to set three 1,500 gallon septic tanks for our cistern. I’ll plumb them together as one tank, and we’ll harvest rain water off of the roof to fill them. I also hope to develop a spring later on for filling the cistern. It didn’t take too long to dig into the hill in front of the house where the tanks will be set. I’ll post more on this process later.

Originally, for the insulation above the cathedral ceiling in the house, a friend of mine was going to bring his machine and dense pack cellulose. I took longer than expected in getting things ready for the insulation, and in the meantime he sold his machine. So, I hired an insulation contractor to insulate my roof. They blew in fiberglass in the space I constructed. They also insulated the kitchen, mud room,  laundry room, and guest room (used to be sewing/study) roofs. It actually didn’t cost much more than I expected to pay for having my friend do the job.

In preparation for the insulation, I had a few tasks to complete. I blocked in along the front outside wall where there were some gaps into the insulation space. I also blocked in some gaps on the back. I cut the chimney opening in the ceiling and framed it in (I figured it would be easier to do that now than after the insulation was blown in). I also stuffed straw above the kitchen and laundry room windows which I hadn’t done previously. I also stuffed straw above the top course of bales to bring the walls up to the ceiling level.

On the day scheduled for the job, yesterday, I removed some metal from the back of the house and cut holes in the sheeting to allow access for blowing in the insulation. It worked great. After they were done, I closed the holes back up and put the metal back on.

Inside, they stapled netting on the ceiling across the rafters and blew the insulation inside that. The R-values are 39 for the main ceiling and 28 for the other areas. I think they will effectively be a little higher than that.

There are a lot of things yet to be done before we will move in. One thing I’ve learned through building this house is that my plans and timetables don’t always work out as I imagine they will. I’m okay with that.

Slip straw in more interior walls

We had some friends over on the first day of the week for a straw stuffing party. The previous week I bought two sheets of 3/4” plywood for another two sets of forms. I also mixed up about 60 gallons of clay slip in preparation.

We started on the wall between the living room and master bedroom next to the two sections the boys and I did earlier. We also worked on the wall beneath the stairway, the other interior wall in the master bedroom, and a couple of bathroom walls. By the end of the day, we’d completed most of the walls that we’d started.

On the next day, the boys and I were able to finish all of the walls that we’d started during the work party. Then on Tuesday afternoon, our whole family worked on one wall upstairs. Then, yesterday afternoon, we worked on another wall upstairs. We ought to be able to complete the rest of the walls in that bedroom and storage area (on the east end of the house) in another afternoon’s worth of work. I’ll share photos of our progress upstairs later.

Window sills and curving bale corners

I’ve considered different options for the window sills in the house. One of the earlier ideas was to set stones in concrete – done right, this makes a very nice window sill/seat. Later, I decided to make them with wood, and I’ve been pondering upon how to build them.

On the first day of this week, I planed some poplar boards with the intention of using them for the window sills. Dad and I tried out the tongue and groove router bits I recently purchased on a couple of the boards. My idea was to put in a framework using 2x2s that the poplar boards would be nailed in to. As we routed out a couple tongues and grooves, I continued thinking about my method. As a result, I changed my plan for what to do.

I decided to use some 3/4” plywood as a sort of sub-sill and install finished boards later, probably using the same material as what I will use on the floor in the house. The plywood will give me a solid foundation to nail the finish boards to, and it actually will install more easily than the previous method I had in mind.

Wanting to try it out, I decided to start in the master bedroom. The first task was to shape the corners of the bales on the sides and above the window. I used my electric chain saw to knock off the corner of the bales on both sides and to cut 3/4” out of the top of the bales below the window (to set the plywood at the right height).

Once I had the sides curved and the bales above shaped (I describe the basic process below), I cut plywood to install for the sill. I attached it below the window to some thin strips of wood I nailed to the framing below the window, setting the top of the plywood even with the top of the 2x4 at the bottom of the window. The finished boards will will butt up against the window on top of the 2x4 framing the bottom of the window opening. I also set some 2x2s flush with the exterior surface of the bales below the sill to provide extra support. It turned out well. The photo of the window also shows one end of the opening for the sliding glass door which I also shaped.

Today, I worked on the living room windows. Looking into the corner, you can see how they looked before I started. Although we tried to stack them straight, he ends of the bales were uneven. It’s quite easy to remove straw from the ends of the bales in order to make them more even.

The first step in shaping the bales around the windows was to cut the corners off. My electric chainsaw worked well for this. I found that it wasn’t necessary to try to round the corners.

The next step was to cut a length of poultry netting/chicken wire to fit the height of the window. I stapled one edge into the 2x4 framing on the side of the window. Then, I stuffed straw into the gaps between bales and added straw where the bale ends needed built out a bit. The chicken wire serves to hold the straw against the bales and to form the desired curve.

I pulled the chicken wire around the curve and anchored it to the bale wall with a short stick behind one of the hard wood sapling pins in the wall. I worked from bottom to top, pulling the wire tight, anchoring it, stuffing straw where needed, pulling the wire tight, adding another anchor, etc. When I reached the top, the corner was rounded, and the wire was tight.

The final step was to staple the wire securely to the pin in the wall. With it stapled, I removed the anchor sticks and was ready for the other side.

When we stacked the bales, we laid a 2x6 across the window opening and secured it to the framework above so it wouldn’t sag. Then, the next course of bales was added on top of the 2x6. I needed to not only curve this edge above the windows, but I also needed to provide a surface for the plaster to adhere to later.

Again, I knocked the corner of the bales off with the chainsaw and then attached chicken wire to the top 2x4 of the window framing. I put loose straw on the wire and stuffed it into some voids. Then, I pulled it up tight to the bales above the window, pounding it into the curve in order to shape it how I wanted it. A 2x4 of the bale shelf is exposed one bale course above the window, and I stapled the wire to this. I completed this process in sections across the window.

With both of the double sets of windows in the living room shaped, it was time to install the plywood for the window sill. While I was cutting off the corners earlier, I also cut the height of the bales below the window a little. The first step in doing that was to cut the strings of the bales (to keep the strings from getting tangled in the saw). Since the bales were already securely in the wall, they weren’t going to go anywhere or fall apart with their strings cut.

I nailed a strip under the windows to attach that edge to and then laid the pieces of plywood I cut in place. With them nailed under the window, I attached some vertical pieces flush with the bale surface under the plywood. I used some pieces of oak that was close to 2”x2” which I had.

The plywood extends past the inside plane of the bales because I want the plaster to come up under it rather than in front of it. The plaster will actually help provide additional support for the sill. It should be solid since it’s attached front and back and rests on top of the straw bales.

 

Light clay straw infill, a.k.a. slip straw

The plan for our interior walls is to pack them with straw coated with clay slip which will then be plastered. This method is referred to as light clay straw infill or as slip straw.

The process involves mixing clay slip which is a clay-water solution about the consistency of heavy cream. The clay slip is then used to coat loose straw, kind of like putting salad dressing on salad. The straw doesn’t need to be soaked, just coated with the clay slip.

Packing the clay-straw mix into the walls involves the use of moveable forms. I have some 1/2 inch plywood cut into 24” by 48” pieces. Two of these are screwed onto opposite sides of the wall, creating a cavity into which the clay-straw can be packed. The clay-straw is put between the forms and then tamped firm. We use some 1”x1” boards for tamping.

Once the cavity has been packed to the top of the plywood forms, two more forms are added above the first ones. The new cavity is then packed full of the clay-straw mix in the same way. When it is packed full, the first two forms are removed and placed on the wall above the second set of forms. The process of packing and piggy-backing forms continues until you reach the top of the wall.

The boys and I tried out this method late last summer on one wall in the house, and I was impressed with how well it worked. I learned about the technique by reading about it and watching a couple of videos on YouTube. Using slip straw will allow me to plaster the interior walls like the exterior straw bale walls. It will provide some sound insulation between rooms, and it means I don’t have to use drywall. That, and it is inexpensive, using straw left over from building the exterior walls and clay I dug out of the ground.

Today, the boys and I decided to pack a wall, if we could. We were able to infill two cavities between studs on one wall which is 9.5 feet high.

The photo on the right shows our progress at lunch time. We had finished filling nearly to the top of the wall and had removed the lower forms. Because there wasn’t enough space above, we couldn’t just piggy-back the lower forms above the others. I actually removed all the forms, secured ones near the top of the wall, and then put the others directly below these. Adding the forms below helped to assure that we didn’t push any of the material out of the wall when tamping it firm.

You might notice that there are boards attached to the plywood. I bought 1/2” plywood for the forms, but it is really not thick and rigid enough – it will bow out some when the clay-straw is tamped in firmly. I screwed some 1”x2” boards to them to provide more rigidity. Thicker forms would also work, of course.

One of the challenges is what to do when you reach the top of the wall. The top plate of the wall and the ceiling are in the way for feeding in more clay-straw mix and are in the way for tamping it into place between the forms. The solution that we tried out today was to put a form on one side all the way to the top of the wall while leaving the one on the other side several inches lower. Then, into the space we packed some heavy clay-straw mix – basically a cob. This mix sticks together better in this application and will stay in place better than the light clay straw mix. This solution seemed to work well, as long as there’s no problem with it drying properly.

We learned some lessons from today’s activity. One is to put the straw in to be packed in small quantities rather than a lot at a time. The smaller amount will be more evenly packed within the wall. Larger amounts tend to not get packed all the way and leave voids in the wall. The voids on the surface of the wall are the only ones that are visible, and they will be filled with plaster later on. So, it’s probably not that big of a deal, but it is nice to get the material packed in firmly, though.

Another lesson is to pay particular attention when starting to fill between a new set of forms. For some reason it is at this point that the most visible voids and loose packing seems to occur. It might be that we would start with too much straw, but I’m not sure. I just know that we need to take a little extra time and pay a bit more attention to the filling and packing at this point in the process.

A third lesson is to be careful around electrical wires in the wall. I ran the wires for the outlets in this wall about 12” from the floor. The straw has to be packed on either side of the wire, but it’s quite easy to hit it with the tamping stick. It might have been better to have routed the wire along the bottom of the wall to eliminate this minor hassle. I thought that it would be less of an issue than it was today and that it would also help to hold the clay-straw in the wall.

We are happy with what we accomplished today. It will take it a few days to dry. As long as the weather is not too cold or too humid, it ought to dry well. We’ll be keeping an eye on it.

A bit of wiring

With the interior walls framed, it was time to get started on the electrical wiring in the house. I’ve done some wiring at different times in a few different houses over the years, although I’ve not wired a whole house. Still, like most things, it’s not that complicated if you understand the concept.

A few weeks ago, I made a wiring diagram which shows the location of outlets, switches, and light fixtures. One of the considerations is how to route the wires. In many places, they have to go through or around the timber frame. In other places, like for many light fixtures, there is no space within the ceiling to run the wires. I haven’t tackled the light fixtures yet, but I have a plan for concealing those wires by running them along a floor joist and covering them with some wood trim.

The starting point for wiring was to install electrical boxes. Armed with my wiring diagram, I mounted boxes in their locations within the interior walls – this was easy since these are conventionally framed walls. The straw bale walls, on the other hand, require a different method.

I cut a 2x2 into 9 inch long lengths and tapered one end to a point. After attaching a standard electrical box to the 2x2 stake I made using a couple of drywall screws, I was able to drive it into the wall. I thought I would need to notch out a space for the box to recess it into the wall a little, but it works out that it’s not necessary – it can be driven into the wall far enough without a notch carved into the straw.

In order to run wires between the outlet boxes in the straw bale walls, I use a 1x1 to push the wire 4 to 6 inches into the wall. Between outlets, the wires are running between the first and second courses of bales. For switches, I am still able to push the wires into the straw bales even though they aren’t necessarily between courses.

Once I have the wire ends into the electrical boxes (I leave plenty of wire to work with when putting in switches and outlets later – I’ve worked on homes where the electrician left hardly any wire in the box, and it wasn’t fun), I push the box into the wall leaving about an inch exposed past the surface of the bales so that the outlets and switches should end up flush with the wall surface when the plastering is completed.

I was able to get a fair bit of the wiring completed last week. I wasn’t installing the outlets and switches yet, just putting in boxes and running wires. I have a few more wires to put in the walls. I was also running wires back to the location for the circuit breaker box for the different circuits we’ll have in the house.

Since our electrical system will be solar powered, not grid-tied, I’m not overly concerned with code stipulations about location and number of outlets (although, in most areas, we’re meeting or exceeding code). The wiring will be safe and functional. The wires are properly sized for the loads on each circuit. Actually, with our current system, we are only running an 1,100 watt inverter which is about 10 amps of power (it can surge to about 20 amps). So, other than the convenience of having different sections of the house on different circuits and possibly upgrading at some later date, there is actually little reason for multiple circuits.