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.

 

 

nailing-footing

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

 

 

rammed-earth-forms

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.

 

 

rammed-earth-mix

Scott turning the rammed earth mix with his old tractor.

 

 

shoveling

The inaugural shovels into the forms.

 

 

inside-wall

Working inside the 1 foot wide form.

 

 

ramming-earth

Scott ramming some earth.

 

 

top-wall

Nearing the top of the wall.

 

 

placing-stones

Placing stones of marble and granite.

 

 

marcelle-ramming-earth

Marcelle ramming earth.

 

 

removing-rammed-earth-forms

Removing the forms the next morning.

 

 

details-wall

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

 

 

rammed-earth-wall-layers

Loving those rammed earth wall layers!

 

 

rammed-earth-wall

Scott and Clifton in front of their wall.

Vancouver Garden Walls – building them

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These rammed earth garden walls were built in Vancouver, B.C. and were  a community involved project. Jean who is a landscape architect decided to try the rammed earth in her own back yard first.  Part of her overall improvement plan was not only for her property but to enhance the neighborhood as well. Jean and Mike invited their neighbors to participate and many of them did and enjoyed the process.

vancouver-garden-wall

The landscaping is done around the walls and the fence posts are up.

vancouver-rammed-earth-wall

A closeup of the rammed earth, the red layer is lava and so is the thin dark black line.

The top of the wall was troweled organically, leaving in rounded to be more comfortable when people sit on it.

The following pictures show the process of building the walls.

footing-poured

The footing is poured and the curb stakes and batter boards are being removed.

adding-pigment

Adding pigment to the mix, in this case we used crushed limestone.

rammed-earth-mixing

Mixing by hand, since we had a small volume and lots of people we mixed by hand.

ramming-wall

Ramming the first wall.

rammed-earth-lava-wall

Placing some lava along the edge of the wall, the kids liked this part the best.

forming-curve-rammed-earth-wall

The curve is formed and jean is putting a finishing nail into a piece of trim we will use to make a small chamfer between the rammed earth wall sections.

remove-curve-forms

Removing the forms on the curve.

rammed-earth-vancouver-curve

The curve complete.

clamping-form

Clamping the top of the form.

tamping

Penny tamping.

tamping

John, Linus and Jean tamping.

girls-building-crew

The all girls building crew.

lava-in-wall

Placing more lava on the edge of the wall.

hand-tampers

The dance of the hand tampers.

forming-final-wall

Forming the final garden wall section.

Stohl Lake Farmhouse – Building the rammed earth walls

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This was a great project for myself and the crew to work on; Stohl Lake farm is beautiful, the people are friendly and we had good weather to top it off.

rammed-earth-wall-layers

This is a great example of the layers in the rammed earth walls, the light is perfect, it’s early morning with the sun filtering through the trees.

spraying-rammed-earth-walls

Spraying the walls to slow down the curing in the hot summer sun.

forming-rammed-earth-curved-wall

Forming a 1 foot thick interior curved wall.

new-rammed-earth-wall

Inspecting the new wall the next morning. The wall color is dark when wet and will lighten up as it dries.

spraying-rammed-earth-mix

David spraying  some water on the mix.

round-window

A view of our volume displacement drum for a round window.

volume-diplacement-drum

Top view of the drum.

yerba-mate-building

Rudy holding a bottle of Guayaki Yerba Mate. David our client is the founder of Guayaki and kindly supplied us during the hot summer of building, Cheers!

round-window-exterior

The round window after the drum has been removed.

rammed-earth-infill

Making an infill, that’s the rammed earth under the windows between 2 larger walls.

walls

A view of the walls from up the hill.

rammed-earth-builders

The rammed earth builders super crew.

hand-tamping

Hand tamping, this whole project was done by manual power. There was a silent retreat on the farm when we started so to keep the noise down we used traditional tamping and ended up doing the whole project that way.

rammed-earth-house-roof

The house is shaping up nicely, always good to have the roof on.

rammed-earth-window-sill

Showing the fine work on the sill and around the windows of Dewey and friends.

Ravine House Footing and Wall construction

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rammed-earth-footings

Batter boards are being leveled and placed for the footings. Wide footings can support the heavy walls but also act to give seismic stability and make a bond beam unnecessary.

rammed-earth-footing-steel

Steel is in place and the footings are ready for concrete.

ravine-house-forming-column

Forming the first column.

rammed-earth-ramming-column

Ramming the column.

rammed-earth-column

Fidel admires the first column on the house, it is one of two at the entrance that are 12′ tall. It is wet as the forms have just been removed and will turn pink as the column dries.

ramming-walls

Ramming one of the 12′ entrance walls on a beautiful sunny day.

rammed-earth-walls-tall

A couple of 8′ rammed earth pillars with the 12′ entry walls in the background.

rammed-earth-corner-wall

Making a corner wall section.

rammed-earth-tamper

A mechanical rammed earth tamper on loose material with the isulation showing.

rammed-earth-infill

Ramming an infill, a window will go above this section.

rammed-earth-kitchen-wall

Green rammed earth for the kitchen wall.

rammed-earth-pillars-layers

These are some of the nicest rammed earth pillars ever! A big statement yes, but true. The layering and texture of these pillars is fabulous, the picture doesn’t fully capture the feeling in real life.

corner-wall-completed

After the last corner wall is completed.

rammed-earth-complete

The rammed earth is complete! It was an epic journey and very rewarding.