Building Surf

indo-dreaming wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

Nice, not sure why but as a grommet i was always interested in this and mud brick construction, i even use to buy the odd magazine.

IndoDreaming. Hi.

Stabilised Rammed Earth is as I’ve said , a particular aggregate , generally alluvial or colluvial, rounded, sometimes angular or oval stone, anywhere from 5mm-20mm in diameter particle size, couple with fine grained clay fines, like the Anglesea Gravels.
To 1m3 of earth/gravel you add 80kg of off-white cement, it’s all mixed together, not too wet, not too dry, clasped in your hand it should just stick together but also feel slightly crumbly.
Turning over the mix with a bobcat bucket about 5 or 6 times until the right consistency is achieved.
You only mix what you need , simply you can’t wet it again, you’d change the cement/ ratio and that leads to cracking.
Then with a pneumatic ramming tool, you pound the fuck out of it in 150mm incremental layers.
It’s such a rewarding build, walls are 300mm thick with a 10 hour thermal lag.
I love it.
Best part, the gravel we used from the quarry on the Surf Coast was actually the overburden fines that had passed through a sieve whilst they extracted 20-25mm quartz pebbles for the landscape industry, inadvertently we were using their waste, ultimate recycling costing me at the time $7.20/tonne, can’t beat that, it was win, win, win.
Never paid for any timber to build the rest of the cottage , got it all for free from a school that had just been pulled down. AW

velocityjohnno wrote:

This is a great thread, rammed earth is mint, quite a bit of it in WA, can look so nice with jarrah or other timber window surrounds.

I'm hopeless at this kind of thing, but can do labourer and let my young one direct, cut and install properly.

VJ. Morning mate.

Correct plenty in WA. Australia and California are the two areas of the world with the greatest use of S.R.Earth building.
I’ve visited builds in California, not biased in any way, our results are much better.
Our form-work kits and methods are better also. Just my opinion.
It’s only your imagination that limits what you can build and with what timbers. I’ve been involved in around 15 Rammed Earth projects, some , my own jobs, others for mates who have S.R. E.businesses. AW

velocityjohnno wrote:

That Furneaux book looks great, a boat trip AW to visit all 100 islands? Oh wow. Got sent into Flinders and Cape Barren for work, was given hire car so did as much exploring as could after work, it's quite unique and you can get also a great view in the winter sun from Mt Waterhouse in N Tassie as well... Got the Rainforest Plants of Tasmania and Alpine Wildflowers of Tasmania booklets on the desk at present.

VelocityJohnno. You have had a great life with the different geographical locations your employment has taken you to. Most would envy.

There’s something about all the Bass Strait islands from the Hunter Group in the West to the Furneaux Group in the east, many places to visit and explore. I gotta do it before I become compost. AW

indo-dreaming wrote:

I dont have anything that exiting but currently doing a quite a big owner builder project doing everything myself except trades i need ticked off. (framing even stick framed)

This week got close to finishing some bedrooms decided to do bedroom cupboards a bit different, cypress post cut to L shape to sit in front of plaster board snuggly (no gap) sanded and stained ebony with clear coat (so can still see grain), then doors hang off them.

Will give a solid Asian feel skirting boards and doors still standard. (next step)

BTW. looks a bit smaller than it is, due to camera setting its a 1,650 mm X 2,100mm opening (two 820mmm doors)

IndoDreaming. Hi.

Good stuff. I love using cypress pine especially outside and or for small pieces of furniture.
Alas, it’s dimensional and you can use it anyway you need.
Used outside, you’ve gotta coat it very quickly otherwise it cracks, it loses its internal moisture rapidly, best to do it on the day you install it, three coats 24 hours apart using a water based , clear polymer based marine grade sealer like UltraClear.

The cypress pine posts and gates facade on that pond garden job i showed,had their first coat, only an hour after installation.

True, at yours inside it will create an Asian style, eliminating any extra tasks like sanding, filling and caulking is always a bonus.
Good stuff, look forward to more updates. AW

AndyM wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

AndyM wrote:

What a beautiful looking book, even at first glance.
Reminds me of a book here on my shelf.

AndyM. Hi fella, hope all is good with you.

On the cover is the very rare Lily in the Asphodelaceae family, Bulbine semibarbata, it’s only on some of those islands.

Books, I love them, looks like you do also, plethora of info and experiences.
My book was not expensive and it was actually produced in 2001.
I grabbed it as soon as I saw it, a small group of like minded folk visited all of the one hundred islands of the Furneaux Group.
I’ve an interest in everything, in particular, locally, the land bridge that connected us with Tassie 18-25,000 years ago, especially with regard to species distribution on Tassie today, many east coast mainland plants are found in Northern Tassie as a result of the connection.
Alas, as I’m from a fishing and boat building family, our forebears ploughed those areas in Bass Strait and they have piqued my interest.
When I get my settlement from our house sale, I’m considering getting a boat and visiting all 100 islands to do a current bird and plant list. I mentioned garyg1412 because he’s visited a few of those islands and I know he’d be a bit interested. All aboard. AW

Your book looks fascinating also, update me of its contents please, I’m interested for sure.

All good here AW, a new job and a new chapter at the moment so lots of learning, which is something to be valued.
"I’m considering getting a boat and visiting all 100 islands"
Now in my opinion, that's an epic and worthy ambition - camping gear and fishing gear and spending time on remote and empty beaches.
Paradise.
Regarding that Atlas of Remote Islands, it sounds like you've got one coming your way so I don't want to spoil any surprises, but here's an example of the well-written prose accompanying each site.
Hope it's easy enough to read.

AndyM. Hi mate. I’m hoping you are well and best wishes with your new job.

Pretty ordinary conditions on Magellans ship.
They obviously entered the South Pacific coming around Cape Horn.
It stated they were to travel NW towards the Spice Islands which are in East Indonesia, in fact the Moluccas , I know them well from my readings about Sir Alfred Russel Wallace’s travels.
It appeared they were becalmed as they got more and more into tropical waters and areas that often have the ‘doldrums’ or otherwise known as the ‘horse latitudes’ where horses were ditched overboard to lighten the load so as to make sail and hopefully make way somehow.

It’s a cruel sea. Early seafarers were a tough bunch, those that survived were lucky.

I look forward to reading mine when it arrives.AW

The ‘pony of the show variety ‘ is back with more building sturf.

Late March this year, I get out of the water after surfing with a mate who I’ve shared waves with for 45 years.. Getting changed he looks at his phone and sees that his 81 year old mother has rang plenty of times and sent text messages.

They all said get here ( a little hamlet on the Bellerine Peninsula that looks across Port Phillip Bay to the Melbourne skyline, beautiful views but windy most of the time ) quickly , my whole upstairs outside deck and balcony rail has fallen away from the upstairs bedroom.
We arrive and the old balcony structure had collapsed and the deck sub-frame is in splinters after the wind got to it.
History. I’d been on the previous structure many times over its 22 years since it was built. I was always dubious about its construction which was part of an overall job involving the building of the adjacent upstairs bedroom (which was done tastefully by the way) and the aforementioned deck area.
See, it was built out of treated pine, the decking boards and the balcony posts and safety railing. Most obvious, despite coach screws being used to fix posts to the deck, everything else was held together by nails.
For exterior work requiring strength and longevity nails are a shit choice.
Everything should be screwed together.
Outside in Australian weather with fluctuations, the sun and its warping and flexing effects, nails are not the fixing to use , in fact nails hold shit, they’re useless, they work their way loose and framing or similar comes apart.
You must use galvanised or stainless steel Bugle Batten Screws that come in lengths from 50mm right through to 150mm, they are 14 gauge and pull timber together to form a strong bond that’s not pulling apart or bolts, washer and nuts.

My overall view of the work undertaken 22 years prior after a discussion with the owner was that it was done by a young guy not long into self employment.
He fell for the cardinal sin of how cheap can I build this for, only eyeing off profit, big mistake. Sometimes you need to asses how much do I stand to lose if the project goes wrong and you end up in court, up against how much do I stand to profit from the job. Inexperience chose the wrong outcome.
What if my mates mother was up there on the windy day, she’d be dead.

So, the refurbishment started with first, wire brushing the existing metal flashing (see first photo) that covered all the house joists and battens that protruded out from the bedroom.
Brushed the surface rust off, clean it all down and applied two coats of a water based bitumen waterproofing membrane to protect the galvanised metal from future corrosion.
On top of the metal flashing prior to installing the deck I covered all the batten lines with malthoid sand impregnated bitumen strips, this will prevent the timber from grinding away the membrane as people apply load from the deck above.
From this point onwards you can see the decking boards and new balcony railing structure in the photos.
There’s also a privacy wall for both parties, my mates mum and the neighbour.

Job specs, 90x19mm decking, 90x90 DAR( dressed all round) cypress pine posts.
90x45mm treated pine top plate railing, 140x19mm balcony drinks rail/capping.
Blue board backing for privacy screen 7.5mm thick, painted black and two sheets of Coreten floral pattern metal facade. Cabot’s AquaDek water based polymer sealer two coats. Gal metal stirrups I spray painted black for a bit of class and it ties in with the black in the screen. Marine grade 316 Stainless steel wire and turnbuckles.
Came up a treat.

His mother has placed a few pot plants out there and a nice two seat setting with a small round table.
She calls it her Coffee Shop, she texts me monthly to rave about it. AW