The Curvilinear wall project is moving right along.This is working out to be an excellent use of on site and salvaged materials. The wall is starting to look like a wall, and so far Rhiwena has been able to keep up with the demands for materials by digging basins up wash of the wall.
Check out the flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartswindow/sets/72157626178587844/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartswindow/5506059269/in/set-72157626178587844/
I’ve been doing the mixing, with the help of the mixer, and Rhiwenas diligent gopher like activities, piling with the help of my cart and buckets, and a lot of the shaping of the cob, with again the help of Rhiwena and gloves. This is working smoothly.
At this point we can do 2 lifts a day which amounts to about 8-12″ in height.
This is 8-9 loads of a 4 parts adobe mix, 2 part by volume straw, and enough water to make it form cobs in the mixer. mix should be kept fairly wet until final couple of minutes. My estimate is that this is about 200 lbs of mix, a full wheel barrow per load. We have gone through one bale of straw in the foot or so of cob we have done so far so 1 bale per 60 cubic feet of wall, @ 8.00 or so a bale delivered. Added to 1600 lbs or a cubic yard to a cubic yard and a half and a half of adobe mix. Probably about 10 gallons of water per load, but I haven’t measured that out yet.
So it will take 10 cubic yards of adobe mix for a 30′ wall 2 feet thick and 6 ‘ tall which could be infiltration basins, sunken gardens, and footers if you have the right soils or may be able to be ordered from a local landscape supply yard.
Right now with 2 people and the mixer we can do the 30 cubic feet in about 12 work hours. so 360 cubic feet should take about 72 work hours, it took about the same for the foundation and prep work and will take about the same for finish and detail work maybe a little less.
This would be a circle 10′ in diameter or 71 sq’ and 2 feet thick if it was round. Minimal for a utility room or sleeping area.
200 work hours or so from beginning to end. Twist the form to fit the use and apply any number of roofing solutions. If you added a couple more people you could do a couple feet of wall a day on a 30-40 foot wall in a day, making this a 2 week project.
