Rammed Earth Greenhouse Wall- Chemainus, B.C.

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Why build a rammed earth wall for a greenhouse? The main reason is to store heat and increase the growing season. The thickness of the rammed earth wall allows for solar energy to be absorbed and released slowly, this helps to increase the temperature at night as the heat is slowly released. During the spring and fall when the weather is cooler but the sun is still shining, it will raise the greenhouse temperature and help to increase the growing season. As you can see from the layering and pieces of marble, granite and slate we can use our creativity to create art as well!

 

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The Finished Wall.

 

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Rammed earth layers.

 

Gary’s Garage – 3-D model

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This is the 3-D model for Gary’s rammed earth garage on Salt Spring Island, B.C. This is building is not insulated so we decided to use a 1′ wall thickness on this project. The Garage doors are slanted in for both aesthetic and practical site constraints. You will notice as the pictures come in of the completed project that there has been a deviation from the original design but this was the original intention when we started.

 

 

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The view of the garage from the south.

 

 

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A perspective view from the south east, those are glass block windows on the side for those who are wondering.

Building the Chemainus Greenhouse Wall

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We built the Chemainus greenhouse wall on Vancouver Island, B.C. just outside Duncan.  This project was a collaboration with Scott and Carla, the owners.

 

 

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Nailing a board to the footing that will hold the forms in place.

 

 

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Nailing the strongback to a whaler. For these rammed earth forms we used materials that Scott already had, which meant smaller whalers so we added an extra strongback because of the length of the wall.

 

 

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Scott turning the rammed earth mix with his old tractor.

 

 

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The inaugural shovels into the forms.

 

 

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Working inside the 1 foot wide form.

 

 

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Scott ramming some earth.

 

 

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Nearing the top of the wall.

 

 

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Placing stones of marble and granite.

 

 

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Marcelle ramming earth.

 

 

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Removing the forms the next morning.

 

 

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Carla details the wall to help to expose the beautiful stones and give the wall some texture in key areas.

 

 

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Loving those rammed earth wall layers!

 

 

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Scott and Clifton in front of their wall.

Hart House

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These rammed earth walls were built for our clients Lisa, Josh and Heidi on Saltspring Island, BC, Canada.

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The fabulous entrance with double curved walls and Josh’s beautiful door.

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The orchid shows provides a beautiful contrast to the walls in the living room.

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The bathroom, sink made by Josh from cedar driftwood.

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Another view of the living room.

windows

Nice window sills made of cedar slabs.

Rammed Earth Layers

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In a rammed earth wall there are layers that are made from each time a lift of material is compacted but there are also many ways to add artistic highlights to the surface of the wall. The following are just a few samples.

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Artistic layering using rammed limestone with some red and black lava.

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Rammed earth layers showing nicely on a pillar.

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Some layers of various shades of green stones.

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Rammed earth layers made with small lifts.

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Gold and copper highlight layers.