WAITING......
Recently while browsing the Internet I ran across a web site, Cal-Earth, that advertised building emergency shelters out of sandbags. I was quite intrigued by the concept and decided to try to build one for myself. My daughter was not to enthused about the idea. She didn't think that an 81-year-old man with a bad back should take on that kind of task, altho she knew it was no use to try to talking me out of it.
So I started out by buying a book and a DVD that had illustrations and instructions on how do just what I propose to do. I also visited another website http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/, hosted by Kelly & Rosana Hart. They gave me many tips on building with small earthbags. First I needed to buy some equipment and some supplies. An assemble it yourself cement mixer, a big tarp, 500 sandbags, some bricks, cement, barbed wire, a tamp and hire someone with a bulldozer to dig me a big pile of dirt. This only cost me $706, not bad for an emergency shelter now all I had to do was to start digging a foundation. My daughter became very irate and insisted that I hired someone to dig it. I laughed and said, "You just watch." But, after trying to get through my hardpacked soil I conceded - didn't want to start out with a heart attack.
Before I started looking for a day laborer, I reread the instruction. When I read some stuff about the clay content in the soil being important and how to do a soil test for clay content I tried several samples and found that my soil had very little clay content, so I read further into the instructions and found that I needed to add cement to the soil. The instructions said that I needed to create 3 samples and by adding one cup of cement to 10 cups of soil, 12 cups and 15 cups - add water to only moisten the mix then pack in 3 diferent test samples and wait 3 days before testing by emerging in water to see which was the most stable.
WAITING......
FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW OF A SIMULAR PROJECT CLICK HERE
READY.......
DAY 1 (7/30/08)
They are hard to see in the photo, but there are 2 chains laying on the ground. One 13 ft. long and is staked in the door opening on the outside diameter of the layout. this is used stretched across the center of the layout an when raised up creates the arch pattern for the bags.
The other chain is anchored in the center of the layout and is used along with the arch chain to keep the bags centered as they are stacked.
In order to not create a huge file for this project, I'll create little side trips and keep the main file illustrating daily progress.
And if you would like to comment or just say , "Hi" my email address is:
See Day 3 (8/1/08) Click to View
See Day 4 (8/4/08)Click to View
Day 5 (8/5/08) Only one layer of bags completed. Covered project early in preparation for rain and flash flooding forcast by all major TV stations ... liars! didn't get one drop of moisture.
See Day 6 (8/6/08)Click to View
See Day 10 (8/12/08)Click to View
Day 11... (6/13/08)
I'm getting a pretty good tan while helping and supervising. Tomorrow, I'll show him how to get the whole thing back to level. It has to be level higher up.
Day 12 ... (8/13/08)
Oh what a day - tried to explain the principle of accumulative error (add 1/4 inch to each 16 inch long bag for 16 bags and you get 4 inches of error) we struggled all morning and only got close to level.
Day 13 ... (8/14/08)
See Day 15 ... (8/18/08)Click to View
See Day 16 ... (8/19/08)Click to View
See Day 17 ... (8/20/08)Click to View
See Day 19 ... (8/22/08)Click to View
See Day 21 ... (8/26/08)Click to View
Day 22 ... (8/27/08) It's growing by Friday the window will be completely embedded.
See Day 23 ... (8/27/08)Click to View
Day 24 ... (9/2/08) After the 4 day Labor Day weekend We started out all rested and ready to sweat a little.
We enclosed the window and this picture shows the interior of the mud hut.
This last picture show 3 things: One - It is 6 foot tall only 1 more foot to the top of the doors. Two - I finally had to wear a shirt because it was chilly today and Three - I need to lose a little weight!
See Day 25 ... (9/3/08)Click to View
Day 26 ... (9/4/08) The weather changed again from chilly to a hot, muggy 104 degrees. We tried to complete 2 tiers, but only accomplished 1 & 2/3s.
We were almost out of dirt when friend Jim Reed arrived with his tractor and dug 18 cubic yards and renewed the pile.
Day 27 & Day 28 ... (9/8/08)
Day 29 ... (9/10/08)
The view from inside looking up.
See Day 30 ... (9/11/08)Click to View
Day 31 ... (9/12/08)
Day 32 ... (9.15/08)
See Day33 ... (9/16/08)Click to View
Day 34 ... (9/17/08)
Starting tier 5 on transition from dome to cone.
My electric hoist is really saving time and giving John's back a rest.
Getting the dirt arranged just right prior to folding flap on the bag.
Day 35 ... (9/19/08)
No work yesterday, John's car wouldn't start.
So I designed a new support for the electric hoist.
Day 36 ... (9/22/08) & Day 37 ... (9/23/08)
Day 37 was a repeat, but this time when he started to slow down trying to finish the second row an hour early, I informed him that yesterday put us behind schedule, so today we would stay until we finished 3 tiers, he changed gears and finished that last tier in exactly an hour.
Day 38 ... (9/24/08)
Day 39 ... (9/25/08)
The opening at the top is only 39 inches in diameter. There is not room for the hoist, so I had to disassemble the support and remove everything prior to completing the last 2 tiers. Really a lot of just piddling work like installing the trapdoor, constructing the roof and running tests to learn how to make the plaster coating for covering the exterior sandbags, so I had to let John go. After I take a rest for a few days.
Day 41 ... (10/8/08)
Shouldn't have asked my Daughter Sherry to help.
Day42 ... (10/15/08)
Installing one section of chicken wire, mixing the mud and applying it to the bottom section shown in the photo took Sherry & me almost 2 days and left us stiff & sore. We had a family discussion and decided to find a Handyman that was skilled in stucco or other coatings.
After Looking for 5 days we located one that gave us an estimate, so we hired him and his helper. They arrived the next day and the following photos show what they accomplished in 5 hours...
View looking up through trapdoor
They worked really fast and after 5 hours said they would be back at 7 a.m. to put on the finish coat and cement the floor.
Day 44 ... (10/24.08)
By 7:30 a.m. they had 25% of the finish coating complete and by noon they were packing up to leave. They left instructions to water the dome down every 4 hours for the next week to minumize cracking. Explaining that the large amount of plastic cement was prone to small cracks as it cured.
These guys were real pros!
All there is to do now, is to install the steel door and paint the dome.
When I look back over this last year, a year filled with natural disasters and all the devastation caused by tornados, I can't stop thinking how a simple dome structure like this could protect folks and their precious possessions.
A tornado couldn't do any damage because it has one foot thick walls, weighs 60,000 pounds and has no flat surfaces except for the doors.
PAUSE For Commercial.................Click to View
Day 46 ... 11/12/08
After many delays - weather, finding the right paint and primer and getting into the right mood, we started to paint. The coating had many small crack and little pits that needed the primer. It sucked up a lot of primer but we managed to finish before dark.
Day 47 ... 11/14/08
We put the final coat of crystal white elastomeric paint making sure to fill any small pits or cracks. It took about 4 hours and it came out really nice. We took the following photos as the sun was setting.
To Be Continued..........
TIME PASSES:
hermit4@earthlink.net
You can also visit my website at www.home.earthlink.net/~hermit4
See Day 2 (7/31/08)Click to View
Everything back to normal. I can see that I'll have to order another 500 sandbags. In an effort to keep the sandbags light enough for me to handle in case My helper quits, I had him try to make them around 5 inches thick. So Its taking more bags than I originally figured.
With the help of two levels and an 8 ft straight 2x4 we managed to get the whole thing reasonably level. My helper learned how to make fat bags, thin bags, tapered bags and two-level bags. We installed the door frames in their permanent positions and now I have to get another tarp. I'll splice the 2 19'x39' tarps so they will cover the dome til its finished.
Day 14 ... (8/15/08)
Still trying to get The darn thing level and the bags flat and level
I gave my helper, John two days off while I completed the prefabrication of the loft rafters and the loft floor. The 2X8X10 ft boards for the rafters would be too heavy to lift up 7 feet in the air if they were completely assembled, so I made subassemblies.
Laid the 2 pieces of 5/8 plywood together and drilled & reamed a 1/4 inch hole in the exact center of the two. I used a 1/4 inch bolt, a piece of string and a marker pen to draw a 8 foot diameter circle on the plywood. Then sawed it into a circle.
When I finished the rafter assembly, I drew around the completed assembly with the marker pen. That way when the rafter assembly was up on the dome and the plywood circle was places on top, I would know where the rafters were under the floor. Easy to screw it down with deck screws.
The rafters, with John's help, were quite easy to hoist to the top and position onto the dome, then the two piece plywood floor was installed and mated by putting the bolt back into the center hole. Then (We) used a string and plumb-bob through the center hole to align the center of the floor with the centering pin that was driven into the ground and tack it in place.
After finishing the loft floor installation and locking in the rafters with a tier of sandbags we started our transition from dome to cone. When I tried using the 60 degree triangular template to locate the next tier of bags, the wind came up and caused a big problem, so I decided to use a smaller template.
I installed the electric hoist for lifting the heavy sandbags...
Climbed up and got ready to lift the bags as John placed them onto the hoist cradle.
This project is really tearing up my yard!!!
This morning, as I worked bringing up sandbags and the ring of tiers kept getting smaller, I came to the conclusion that the work area was too small for the sawhorses, the sandbags and me.
Day 36 went smoothly got 2 tiers of bags done - my helper arranged to get the second row finished 45 minutes early so we couldn't put the next row of barbed wire on top and finish another row. If the row wasn't finished the barbwire would rip the tarp to pieces, so he got off early.
As soon as it was light enough to see, I went out and removed the tarp from the work area then got everything ready for the Helper. I went back into the house and found a message on the phone. He had a flat tire and the spare was flat also, so he wouldn't be coming in to work today....Bah Humbug!!!
Although the work space is getting smaller and the tiers contain half the number of sandbags, my helper only completed one and a half tiers.
Took a while but all the bags are in place. It took 3 more tiers of bags and the opening at the top is now 26 inches in diameter. The trapdoor to the loft is installed and I'm ready to assemble the roof to the roof vent.
The vent is thermostaticly controlled and a little bigger than the picture on the box.
View looking North
Wrapped section of dome with 1" chicken wire & started to plaster dome with stablized earth mix - 3 parts earth, 1 part Portland Cement and water enough to make paste. Left to cure for 3 days...
View looking East
View looking South
Day 43 ... (10/23/08)
The materials cost a little over $3,000 and the labor cost & time is controllable by the individual. I chose to hire one helper and then two handymen to do the top coating to protect the bags from the sun.
A larger family with a few friends could put one up in less than a week. And that is the most practical insurance a family could have in an area where tornados are prevalent.
OCT. 31 Halloween ... The door is installed just in time because it started to rain while I was installing it & rain is predicted for the next 5 days. We will get everything ready to paint when the weather gets better - We means my daughter, Sherry. She volunteered - Hah!
The next two photos show the power installation. The cord has a male plug. Where it exits from the Dome is my next project. A sandbag housing for my 3,000 watt generator and two, 85 amp-hour batterys connected to an inverter. It also can be powered by an extension cord.
Loft Ladder
I decided to build the power shed attachment:
Covered the frame with sandbags & installed the door.
Installed Generator, Battery, Inverter, and solar power regulator.
Purchased The Solar Panels and decided to add a Solar Oven to my Survival Dome Project
Pictures of Survival Shelter so far...
To Be Continued......