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Earthen Floor

Aug 04
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The Decision To Use Pink Rigid Foam Insulation

By Moisture, Earthen Floor

I must confess: I’ve decided to use some pink foam insulation. I hate the stuff: it’s plastic, it’s a product of a polluting industry, it’s gross to work with, it’s non-biodegradable. And it has no redeeming ecological value. (Am I being harsh?)

It’s become clear that in my particular floor, at this particular time, and with my particular lack of willingness to experiment at this moment, it’s the “right choice”. Just over a week ago, April and I decided to go ahead and replace the entire earthen floor in the house, in hopes of continuing to alleviate the high humidity in Gobcobatron.

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Jul 25
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Sawdust Insulation (Or Other Natural Options) in Earthen Floor Installation?

By Moisture, Earthen Floor

To keep myself from typing the same thing over again, I’m going to simply copy the text of an email I sent to Bill and Athena Steen, in my hope to determine an appropriate natural insulation layer in an earthen floor installation.

– – – –

I’ve been living in my cob house for two years now, and I’m preparing to re-do the earthen floor. We think it’s a source of the major moisture issues we’ve been experiencing. It currently doesn’t have a vapor barrier, and that’s the main reason we are considering re-doing it.

Actually, I have two questions about our floor project. One is: if you use vapor barriers, what is your preferred type of membrane?

And more importantly, do you insulate your earthen floors? Can you recommend a material that would be suitable? I am not thinking a light clay straw insulation layer would be appropriate, because of the thickness necessary, and thus the change in floor height. Have you ever heard of anyone doing a sawdust-clay insulation layer? I did a sawdust insulation layer over the earthen oven I built two summers ago, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing something similar in a floor.

Any ideas? We want to avoid manufactured products as much as possible. (Not possible with the membrane, of course.)

– – – –

Well, there you have it. Ideas greatly welcomed!

Aug 08
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The Mud Room Addition Nearly Complete

By Moisture, Lintels, Earthen Floor, Design, Cob Building, Cob Shelves
mudroom-ext

The new front door (that will soon receive a new coat of paint to cover up that blase beige)

The cob walls of the mud room addition are finally complete and all that remains now is to plaster the walls once the cob has fully dried. I’m very happy with how the addition process went and the end result. We’ve now got a great (tiny) little space for storing shoes and hanging coats, and it gives us an extra bit of buffer against exterior temperatures. Here’s a few pictures of the new front entryway of the house…

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Jul 12
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All the current goings-on

By Earthen Floor, Cob Bed and Bench, Foundation

foundation-wide

Man, goings-on is a weird word. It just never looks or sounds exactly right. Anyway, there have been a number of these so-called goings-on lately. Here’s the lowdown on what’s been keeping me busy…

By now you know that the cob bed has been completely removed, but the wall has been replastered, and the floor redone as well. Just yesterday, I finished oiling the finish layer of the floor, so now it is curing. I can’t remember how long I waited last year for the oil to cure, but it must have been at least a week. Most of the past month of work on the house has been waiting – waiting for both layers of the floor to dry, for plaster to dry, for oil to cure. The actual work has been quite quick and simple. But we should finally be able to move back into the house very shortly.

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Jun 16
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Living earthen floor?

By Earthen Floor

I have been away from Dancing Rabbit for the past week, and friends have been monitoring the drying of my earthen floor, which I completed about a week before I left for New Jersey. My friend Liat just sent me some images of what the floor looks like… it isn’t dry, and there is now both grass and mushrooms popping up through the floor.

The last week has been quite damp there, but damn… it’s already been two weeks since the floor has been finished. (It’s 1.5″ of new material, so it’s not that much stuff that has to dry out.)

I’m a little concerned about what looks like definite mold… but should I be worried? Anyone experience a situation like this? I won’t be able to pluck the grass and mushrooms and wipe the mold until the floor dries…

livingfloor?

Hmm.

Jun 02
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And now… I wait.

By Earthen Floor

The final interior plaster is done. And yesterday, I completed laying down the earthen floor. That means I must stay out of the house until the floor dries, which could take up to a week or more. Once it is dry, I will oil the floor, and move into the house.

So now I must simply wait.

Nearly all of the work is done. All that remains is installing the skylight and plastering the cob bed and bench (which are still not dry), but neither of those things has to happen before I move in.

It’s a strange feeling to be nearly ready to move into this house that’s been the focus of my every day since last spring. It’s nice to be able to think about what I’ll do once I’m settled in. I’m excited.

Perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to relax while I wait on the floor. (Perhaps I’ll finally get to writing more about my rocket stove, earthen plaster, and now the earthen floor, too.)

May 18
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All that remains…

By Uncategorized, Earthen Floor

At this point, all that remains before I move into my new house is finishing and sealing the earthen floor, doing the interior final plaster work, and installing a skylight.

The plaster work will probably take the longest length of time among these three things, since I want to do a bunch of tile mosaics inside as I plaster. Those mosaics can take a while…

My skylight (a 60″x60″ piece of 1/4 in. clear polycarbonate) should be arriving at the end of the week, and I’ll probably start mixing my finish plaster tomorrow, as soon as I get some more cow manure.

Of course I’m tempted to estimate when I’ll move in… I figure I’ll give it a month. The floor and walls will need some time to dry before I can move my stuff in, so even if I finished in a week and a half, I can’t move in immediately.

Nov 03
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Starting to build the earthen mass floor

By Earthen Floor

And now… how to build an earthen floor:

When I began building, I decided to leave the topsoil in my house instead of hauling it out. I guess mostly to avoid the extra labor, really.

floor-dirt

Over the months, it has become quite tamped and solid from continually walking on it. I decided to leave it as is, with the original slope of the land, supposing that any moisture that does happen to get in there (which it shouldn’t) will run out towards the drainage trench.

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