tiling in retrofit

This past summer we had someone come to visit who is interested in intentional community. She stayed with us for a couple of weeks and we discussed community and our experiences with it and shared knowledge. While she was here Sarah Haas shared her tiling knowledge with us.

Sarah is a dancer who decided that she wanted to build her own home and performance structure that could go with her as she traveled the states.  When she told me she had interned with Dan Phillips I was excited to pick her brain because I had found his TED talk very inspiring. Dan Phillips gave a talk on building creatively with reclaimed materials in Texas.  While there Sarah gained a foundation of tiling knowledge and then expanded her knowledge to do some tiling professionally.

The first project we worked on was a small table. Sarah cut cement backer board and we used Versabond thin set mortar to set the prearranged (largely by Phoenix) scrap tile pieces in place. I know that when working with plasters and cement the right mix means lasting work. Knowing this is a good brand and how particular Sarah is about work that will last I will probably stick with this unless I hear otherwise.

The line of blue dragons' tears down the center Phoenix collected somewhere random.

Once the mortar had been given enough time to set (about a day or check label) we squished in a reddish grout. Sarah was a little nervous about staining the tile with a darker grout but Phoenix picked red and we decided to go with it. Once applied we sponged it off the tile within 2-3 minutes and then wiped any remaining grout off the tiles with a cleanish rag. There was very little staining. A couple of the white tiles had the tiniest amount of color change.  After grouting we used a water sealant, and quickly scrubbed it off the tiles before it could dry on them and make them look foggy. 

I showed a friend later how to tile a coffee table. It was much easier to grout when we were able to keep the tile pieces level by varying the amount of mortar on the individual pieces of tile. When using scrap tile the pieces have different thickness and keeping the pieces level not only makes grouting easier but minimizes sharp edges that could stick out. 

The table turned out amazing! Second project: stairs. We have a few stairs leading down to the kitchen that are made of wood. Each stair had a small lip that stuck out. Jerome said that this is because of a visual effect and how our brains interpret depth. People are more likely to trip without that extra lip, but it would be really hard to tile. So I got out the sawzall and butchered the stairs as I cut off the lip. Then we laid cement backer board to support the tile and create and even surface to prevent future cracking. 

The tile we used came partially from what Sarah brought that people had given her as scrap and what a friend had given us from someone else's left over tile. I decided I wanted to get creative and use our collection of bottle caps that Phoenix had claimed. This was fun but did take a little longer to lay the bottle caps. We cut tile for the step edges to that there would be not sharp edges.  This was the first time I actually used my tile saw for tile. Previously I had used it to cut glass for bottle bricks. 

 I took the most time on the top stair. At first I really got intricate and took my time . . . then I decided the stairs needed to get finished more quickly because they were being walked on and pieces were getting knocked off and sideways. . . so a number of people chipped in to make our small community stair mosaic.

 Phoenix designed the center that looks like a ship anchor/bird and Jerome finished it by grouting her creation. Before she left Sarah designed the golden cap portion near at the right that looks like a sun and the trees on the side. Phoenix and our WWOOFer Sam from Utah designed the sides of the top two stairs. A WWOOFer couple from Ohio helped to grout and water seal a couple of the stairs. Our neighbor Donna contributed clear marbles left over from tiling her coffee table (I love how these feel on my bare feet).

When applying the water sealant I used two different brands. The brand "Miracle" that Sarah recommended seemed to soak into the grout much better. The cheap brand kind of rolled around on the surface a lot and needed a lot more work to apply. 

I love sharing knowledge and stories. It is fun to read the stories in our mosaic. The point beer caps are from every time Jerome's family visits from Wisconsin. The bird tile is a hot pad I found at a local thrift store and grabbed because I wanted to copy the bird for a sketch. Gluten free cider caps tell their own story. Some of the scrap tile came from a CSA member who snatched up a bunch of tile a friend was going to throw away and shared with us.  Jerome probably knows more about the other beer caps, and maybe which WOOFers drank each. . . or maybe not, but I really like the bottle caps and would like to do more with them. 

I can claim that the tiling fits in with sustainability because we are repurposing scraps and "trash".  Done right tile can last a long time, which also is a form of sustainability.  A lot of floors include poly something or other, and maybe some of my materials do;  I think it is minimized.  There is a bit of a trade-off in the use of mortar and grout with embodied energy, but creating a creative and lasting mosaic is worth it to me.

Tile can also be laid in an earthen plaster, but our home is in the midwest and partially in the ground so I want to avoid possible moisture issues by going with more traditional tile methods on the existing cement floor.  

the Strawbale Studio part II

Here is a video I found online where Deanne gives a brief tour of The Strawbale Studio.

She is offering internships in January and Feburuary!

This is a picture inside The Strawbale Studio sculpted out of cob. I like the branch added at the top. 

Deanne and Phoenix in front of the in-progress hobbit sauna.

Holes for pipe inside the sauna where the wood burning stove will go. 

A fish sculpted on the side of the rocket stove.

Rocket Stove (rocket mass heater)! This is inside a storage building, but still beautiful.

A spiral hut

A soon to be children's house 

Inside the children's house. The floor has the exhaust of the rocket stove running through heating it.

 Deanne at her rocket cookstove made of thrown together bricks

One thing I love about Deanne--everything is useful and everything is art.

testing materials: Earthship

We are planning to build an Earthship on the land in the next couple of years (hut/nest style). Here are some pictures of where I have started testing some of the materials for a toilet facility inspired by Earthship Haiti. The facility is on the back-burner for now, until we get the house winterized and after I've stepped further into the permit process. I had some better pictures of this after it dried, but I can't find them right now. Maybe I will post them later.

The Earthship Haiti toilet is pretty simple. It has a simple shower and a toilet. It catches its own water on the roof for the facility. Used water is then filtered through constructed wetland

Our land is close to the river, so we have some natural deposits of sand. I wanted to see how our local sand (after we sifted it) would do in the cement mix, and if the humidity here would make a difference in how it dried. It dried hard and there is no cracking.

As I was working with and researching the cement I began to wonder more about natural, local building materials. I would like to attend a workshop in the midwest with someone who has built entirely out of natural materials such as adobe. Earthships use adobe inside but not outside. How much weight can adobe support and how does it hold up to different elements? I am looking into visiting Dancing Rabbit ecovillage in Rutledge, MO, sometime soon and hope to get a chance to ask some of the builders there about their experiences with natural, local materials.

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Earthship retrofitting: "The most versatile/economical building design"

http://earthship.com/retrofit/Retrofit-with-Earthship-Biotecture

I did an internship at Earthship Headquarters Taos, NM in March of this year. It was a great time and I learned so much about economical building. Earthships are designed to be off the grid. Each one is a piece of art. We are planning to build at least one on our property. Currently we are retrofitting the earthberm house that came with our farm.

This weekend (July 8, 9, 10) we are digging out the house, adding plastic for water protection (rain seeps in some of the rooms right now) and pounding earth into tires around the house. After the tires are finished we will add a row of insulation behind the tires for a thermal wrap and berm it all back up. This is going to be a lot of work! We would love it if you would come help and learn--or just come keep up company.

I am excited to see what this yields, especially in the winter. We will hopefully have some extra South facing windows by then to catch us some winter heat.

Pictures:

1. A solar array at the Lonetree work site in Taos. The array was used to power the tools for building. Later it went up on roof to provide power for the home.

2. Tires: an Earthship tire wall in Taos. Eventually this wall (internal) got covered in adobe. The external walls were bermed in with earth.

3. Me happy to be building in Taos.