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Sep 23
Love0

Secondary rafters for reciprocal roof going up

By Reciprocal Roof

Ok, I’m still waiting on receiving some of the many photos that were taken during the reciprocal roof-raising the other day, so I’ll wait on the ultimate rundown of the details of that day and the frame itself.

Though I will say that things are now progressing again. I am using the original poles as secondary rafters, one between each main pair. That means I will have a total of 28 trees sitting on my cob walls! Yikes.

That makes me wonder how much wood goes into a traditional gable roof. Granted these are very small trees, and you would hardly get but a couple of 2x4s from each were they to be milled, but still…. 28 trees sounds like a heck of a lot wood. It’s weird to translate pole wood to milled lumber construction.

Also, I want to say I am now a big fan of black locust. It is an incredibly hard wood and very rot-resitant. It is something of a “weed tree” (farmers usually like to get rid of it), and it grows quickly and easily. The bark is very thick but incredibly easy to peel off, and because black locust oftentimes has few knots, the peeling is just that much easier, too. Black locust is solid. Also, it smells almost like green beans when you strip the bark.

Sep 20
Love0

Reciprocal roof video: removing the charlie stick, the final step

By Video, Reciprocal Roof

Here is the only video footage that I had captured of the second reciprocal roof frame construction. This is the final step, after removing the support braces from the ‘charlie stick’ (or temporary post): knocking charlie out of its support position.

As you might be able to see, the roof did not drop at all, since the construction was very tight. We actually had to pry the last rafter into position, which pretty much guaranteed that the frame would not settle once the charlie stick was removed.

Here’s the video clip (be prepared to tilt your head!):

Sep 18
Love0

The (second) reciprocal roof frame is on!

By Reciprocal Roof

reciprocal roof frame

What an incredibly arduous past two days, but oh the excitement! Yesterday I made a mad dash to transport twelve new black locust poles for my roof to my building site, and then I spent the entire afternoon (and into the evening) stripping bark. My body was aching, to be sure.

This morning I finished stripping the last of the twelve poles. At 8:00 a.m., I began dis-assembling the original reciprocal roof frame with the help of Tony, Tamar, Mark, Apple, and Arrien. It was easy work – much easier than putting the thing together. We jammed the charlie stick (the support post) back under the first rafter, and worked backwards to slide each rafter out. It went quickly and smoothly.

Then we re-positioned Charlie and started lifting the newer (and much beefier!) black locust rafters into position, tying them together with wire at the top as we went along. They were a little slippery, and slid around a little bit once they were in position, but they couldn’t go too far with the wire at the top and some wire around the butts at the wall.

By the time we were ready for the last rafter, the inner ring of the frame was already tight, and we pried the last rafter in with a bit of leverage at the butt end. They slid right into place and the roof was done. We took out the charlie stick and the roof stayed put – it didn’t drop at all since the construction was already so tight.

reciprocal roof frame (wide)
(The reciprocal roof frame from afar [it looks like some sort of alien structure!])

Overall, it went great. The new rafters are much stronger than the old ones and I am very satisfied with the integrity of the structure.

I plan on writing at length about this process in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy these few pictures!

(Tony was brave enough to climb the frame for a little photo opportunity)

Sep 17
Love0

Tony Wrench’s low-impact roundhouse saved from demolition

By Uncategorized

Tony Wrench of West Wales, famous for his hand-built, low impact roundhouse, has recently been deemed victorious over official planners wanting to demolish his home.

Get the full story here.

Natural builders often have a difficult time dealing with local bureaucracy and its restrictive (and short-sighted) building codes. There’s plenty good reason why Wrench didn’t bother to seek out official permission, which is made clear in this article.

Congrats, Wrench!

(Fun fact: Tony Wrench has been very kind enough to answer several of my reciprocal roof questions via email, and I totally appreciate the time he has taken with me. Check out his book, Building a Low-Impact Roundhouse for the only published information on reciprocal roofs!)

Sep 17
Love0

Preparing for the reciprocal roof… again

By Reciprocal Roof

Last week, I managed to cut down a dozen more black locust poles for my reciprocal roof frame. I will switch out the current rafters for these newer, beefier ones, and the old ones will become secondary rafters. Recently, I have been working more slowly thanks to some killer rainfall lately – last week, we had nine inches dumped on us! This year is truly incredibly wet. (Figures that I decide to build a house out of dirt during the rainiest year on record, too…)

I transported the new trees to my property with the help of a few folks, and hopefully I’ll have enough energy to strip them all this afternoon to have them ready to hoist up tomorrow.

Here we go again!

Sep 09
Love0

Reciprocal roof frame constructed, but…

By Reciprocal Roof

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Ok. The long-delayed and long-anticipated reciprocal roof raising finally happened over this weekend on Saturday. It went smoothly, despite a bump here or there. The whole thing was up within a few hours.

However. I am going to take it all down and do it again (!)

There are some imperfections. The peak of the roof, or the inner ring is not centrally located, making the span on the west side of the house significant longer than on the east. The skylight hole is not totally circular (see above), which is ok, but again: could be better. There are a couple other things that could be improved, too.

Sometime soon, the poles will be taken down, and then hoisted up again, and it will be even better. More balanced.

I’ll wait to get into the nitty gritty of reciprocal roof raising until then.

Stay tuned.

Sep 01
Love0

Red oak borer larvae found in roundwood

By Reciprocal Roof

Today, I found some red oak borer larvae living in some of my pin oak rafter poles. At least one of my roundwood rafters has been lying in the grass (on some pretty measly sticks of wood to keep it off the ground) with all of its bark intact since perhaps April.

Needless to say, I wasn’t happy to encounter them tunneling through the wood. I’m not sure how serious this issue is (thankfully, the wood wasn’t completely riddled). I cursed their existence generally. But I think the pole is still good to go for the reciprocal roof construction.

This whole roof business has been a bit like walking blindly down an alley for me, since I have never worked with pole wood or built a roof (or even helped to build one). I have been quite uncertain about the whole process thus far: whether or not my poles are strong enough, whether or not they are long enough, whether or not they are seasoned enough (this I know is not the case: most of my poles were only cut in March, but I’m going for it anyway), etc.

Well, I guess I’ll know at least some of these answers on Wednesday when I have a roof raising party and get the reciprocal roof assembly built!

Aug 31
Love0

The cob walls are complete

By Cob Building

194.5 batches of cob stomped by foot and applied by hand and you get:

100percentcobwalls

Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I put some final touches on the cob walls, leveling them in preparation for the soon-coming reciprocal roof. After I smoothed out some of the last cobs, I took a minute as I stood on the lean-to trestle, just staring down at the walls which now easily tower over my head, and I wondered in amazement.

It has been quite a journey to this point, moving over 40 tons of material. That’s a lot of earth. More specifically, it’s been 194.5 batches of cob so far. All this over 57 days (which were not all full work days, mind you.)

And it’s not over yet, but this massive portion of the process is, at least. Here are some photos of the structure.

100percent-int-s
Interior, looking southwest.The bed will be positioned along the far wall, under the window. The joists will support a 7.5′ wide, 22″ deep storage shelf.

100percent-int-n 100percentcobwalls-n
The north wall interior, with nooks and a shelf at the foot of the (future) bed. The rocket stove will be to the left of the window. Exterior backside, looking southwest.

100percent-doorway 100percent-biigshelf
Entryway with storage nooks. A gigantic corner bookshelf.

100percent-whew
Happy.

Aug 29
Love0

Cob walls are 99%

By Cob Building

Here’s a couple of photos of the 99% complete cob walls. I figure I’ll be able to finish them off tomorrow, perhaps Sunday if it takes a couple more batches than I expect. Reciprocal roof: here we come!

Also, in the top photo you might notice a post near the entryway. This black locust post will bear one of the reciprocal roof rafters, making for a nice little overhang near the entryway. Call it a really small porch, maybe, but this should provide some decent extra coverage from the elements.