clay render on a straw bale house

Anaig is a specialist in clay renders and I have worked along side her on a couple of straw bale build projects.  Here was slightly different, it was her project.  For years she has put her time, energy and expertise into building houses for others and now it is her turn.  I wasn’t sure how the experience was going to unfold.  Either there was going to be stress, angst and aiming for perfection or else a very laid back attitude.  Thankfully it was the latter.  A great team of volunteers, mainly there to gain experience before their own builds and some just for the sheer heck of participation and in return for the great work they have already received.  I think that once you’ve done some clay rendering there is always a hankering to do a bit more.  It gets into your blood so to speak.

I’d missed the first week, where they’d concentrated on rendering the outside of the building and arrived just as the interior was commencing. There had just been raw bales of straw at the start, which need to be promptly covered to protect them from the elements and rodent attack.  We worked at an unpressured pace, achieving a huge amount of work within the allotted time.  Just a small section upstairs to complete at a later date and a couple of patches that needed quiet, undivided attention to get right.  I got stuck in to some of the more challenging tasks such as corners and getting the two sides of doorway and window openings to match.  It was great to be given the opportunity, wonderful to have advice and guidance of a professional within the field and a proud moment to be told that my work was ‘superb’ by someone as exacting as Anaig.  

The week flew by, we never left the building site, dining in the adjacent barn or outside when it was fine, showering in a makeshift shower room with camping showers hoisted up by a pulley system and spending the evenings discussing our various projects and plans for the future.  

I’ll have to pop back again later in the year to see how work is progressing.  The site stops and starts as Anaig is still working on other projects to fund her build. 

what a beautiful setting

waiting for windows, doors, cladding and a roof

core render complete

straw walls before render

now that's a picture frame

some of the tools we used

architect visits

With several failed attempts to engage an architect, I now have a good ‘un, or so he seems for now.  We’ve had two productive discussions in his offices and a very useful visit to site.  He was impressed with the location and am very proud with the fact that he thinks my plans should fit in very well with what remains of the old farm.  We tiddled about with a few details inside and even moved the house  by a few metres, from it’s initial location.  I think it’ll be a much better arrangement now.

For his visit I had cleared the front of the old house of all the brambles and mess of collapsed walls and detritus that has gathered over the last thirty or so years.  The building looks a bit more proud than it has done up till now, and definitely worth keeping, even if it is going to become a workshop rather than a home.  There is a concrete path running along its length which will marry in well with the proposed covered terrace and has set levels for the whole project.

Not much treasure yet, just some lovely old bottles and a couple of pan lids.  The rest is tiles, mainly broken, which is no surprise, along with roots of brambles, brambles and more roots.  Stupidly or otherwise I am taking the time to sort the rubble as I go.  The tile fragments will be ideal hardcore for later use or even rough track grade for more solid access around the site.  The beams, rafters and other timbers are fairly rotten to date, but still coming in useful for raised bed construction and any excess will be put to one side for future projects.  I’m still waiting for some decent bits to construct a frame for a fruiting arbour.

in need of attention

beardy man clearing brambles in french farmers uniform

my first treasure

concrete.  a bit of a rarety here

all clean and tidy

The ruin is going to be saved in part.  The walls are going to come down to the height of the window sills on the first floor then a structure is going to be erected within the footprint of the building which will support a new roof.  The walls will be left intact but will not be expected to bear the weight of the new roof.  Facing due south, an excellent place for a few/plenty of solar panels. 

from overhead

Annoyingly, most of the video footage we took is too long (large) to upload onto blogger and I don't have the software to edit it down.  So here are a selection of arial photos that show most of what we saw.

from the west, the dots are fruit trees that I planted in November, including some within the huge bramble
patch, the paths really stand out.  Over the road, the new drive, veggie plot with raised beds to the right of the drive.
Huge oak tree still with bronze leaf cover and the village of Vieuzos off to the left in the distance.

from the east

from the south east

right overhead, that's Me and Tom on the left by the chalet, my new wooden panel pathway and a
big store of lovely clay under the tarp.

there you/we are

warmed by godin

It doesn't look much different from the last picture I posted about a month ago.  though now, it works.  All the parts for the chimney have been sourced, ordered, delivered and fitted.  I fired her up and she burns like a dream, keeping me hot and toasty for the sake of three or four logs an evening.  THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH Brigitte.  

The flue passes out through the wall directly behind the stove before rising to above roof level outside.  I thought it would be easier this way to make/keep the chalet watertight.  The home made double lined flue is insulated with perlite which is held in place with steel wool at each end of the second tube.  The flexible outer tube starts before the insulating boards inside and extends some 15cm past the wall on the outside of the chalet.  It also has a light steel wool stopper at one end to keep vermin and the worst of the draughts out whilst allowing much needed air flow close to the stove.

wood burning stove instillation

Next task, to install the wood burning stove.  I’ve had it for ages and not been particularly concerned, it being a Godin, one of the most popular makes in france, about getting fittings to install it in my home.  How wrong was I?  Very.  I spent most of Monday visiting a variety of fireplace and DIY stores on the way home, to no avail.  I spent the evening beginning to prepare for the instillation and the following day started in the local scrap metal dealers.  Metal plate was easy, bought by the kilo (50 centimes a kg) then back to the quest for chimney pipe.  The stove is old and the new regulations have increased pipe sizes dramatically, no one has the appropriate bits and I go from shop to shop, waiting an eternity each time, it’s the first really cold day of autumn (everyone and his dog wants a fire installed and now) just to be told the same story.  By chance an engineer in one shop decided to try and help those waiting, he told me to try the Godin showrooms out of town.

The Godin showroom, joy at last, the kind lady knew exactly what I wanted and corrected my measurements by a millimeter or two to be precise.  The catalogue showed they were still made and she would order them with some other parts later in the week.  Result, although patience will be needed as the delivery won’t arrive till later in the month.  Good job I’ve got my thermals and I can sleep easy knowing that the problem can be solved.  I shan’t make the hole in the wall just yet, but wait till I know all can be done at once.  By now it was five in the evening, just time to drive home, catch my breath and pop to the neighbours for dinner.

bricks to support the metal plate where the wood stove will stand with battens on the
wall for the rock wool insulation panel

metal plate in situ.  (it has two more bricks underneath now to take the
weight of the stove)

first panel of wall insulation in place.  It'll need a hole cutting through when I have exactly the
right dimensions for the chimney pipe.

second metal plate to deflect heat and protect the wood store from  too much radiant heat

stove in position.
Now all I need is the flue pipes and I can heat the chalet

Slightly groggy start to Wednesday but that soon went when I started digging.  Tidied the weeds from the paths between the new vegetable beds then headed into Lannemezan, market day, to pick up provisions, made the most of the trip by gathering most of what I need for the water pipe work.  It’s too risky leaving buying things till the last minute, plus it’s easier to mentally check that everything has been thought about once the bits begin to gather.  Lunch with Pierre in a busy little bar by the market, everybody crowded inside  protecting themselves from the wintery weather, noise and activity filling the tiny dining area.

my temporary home

kitchen, dining corner 

library, planning and tool area

double doors with tools accessible from outside.
(keeps the floor cleaner) 

sunset from the kitchen window

getting more and more organised 

evening light

winter squash and nuts drying 

improved facilities

I have guests coming.  Well, now that I write a family of five have just spent a great weekend with me, they camped and we ate, drank and had a great time  around and about, including two great evenings in the comfort of my new garden shed/chalet.  Facilities were needed, something better than a chair with a hole, a bucket and a windbreak.  Thanks Dad, it was a brilliant start and will remain an emergency second, but things are moving on quickly in some departments and a better dunny is called for.  So I set too:

a collection of pallets and salvaged wood awaiting inspiration 

a path in the woods with no destination

I checked on the ground to see that the pallet base fitted

but not in the trees above.  The structure had to be moved to fit the walls and roof

a round hole in some planks to provide a comfortable seat

With a bucket below and a well fitting lid to keep everything where it belongs.  An old enamel saucepan to keep the sawdust and toilet paper dry and when I find one, a little brush to tidy the seat.

I finished the main construction with four hours to spare, the driveway had preoccupied me somewhat during the last week or so and I used a sheet of groundcover plastic as a temporary door.  Got a real one at a local junk shop over the weekend but haven’t had time to fit it yet.

It works like a dream, is comfortable, private and won't blow way in the breeze.

new drive II

Bertrand and Lionel returned as promised and laid a white carpet of felted geotextile membrane.  THis will stop the mud lifting through the stones and keep the stones from drifting downwards into the soil.  It looked almost too clean and neat to cover with stones but it disappeared soon enough with the first four cubic metres of stone.  They spread it with the digger whilst the lorry headed off for the second load.  Three hours later it was all done, or so they thought.  I was encouraged to get the van and give my new drive a go.

I rounded the corner, with slight apprehensiveness and started to climb.  The corner was tight but achievable, but I didn’t start with enough speed.  I stalled, then dropped back to give it another go, foot down, the wheels spun in the stones digging an impressive hole.  OOps. I dropped back again and realigned Percy managing to overcome the slope and get to the top without further problem.   After much gesticulating and tutting it was decided that the campervan was rather heavy and had a long wheelbase - yes, I could have told them that in the first place.  On top of that it’s turning circle (I forget the french for that) was rather pathetic.  Yes, I know that too.  So all was not good, they had a little discussion and came up with a proposition.  To acquire some tarmac and add a thin layer to the bottom of the drive, just enough to take in the worst of the corner and give traction till the wheels had time to straighten out again.  They’d head off and have a look on Monday, but it would cost another hundred or so euros.  I agreed and they went off home for the weekend.  

About twenty minutes later as I was busy with the terraces again, leveling the soil and positioning some plants to go in, Bertrand and Lionel come hurtling up the road in a pick up, overshoot and reverse straight back onto the drive.  They had come across a highway team, some of Lionel’s colleagues (from his real job) with just enough fresh warm tarmac to do the job and they were finishing for the day,  what an opportunity, not to be missed.  They got on with spreading it out and rolling in into the gravel sub-base just as promised.  The roller hadn’t yet been collected thankfully.   It looked rather smart and a bit over the top for a rural driveway, but if it does the trick I’ll be a happy man.

“Leave it a few days, and water it well” I was told.  It’s a new formulation with ‘eco’ oil products in it, whatever they are.  It was sticky and moved about under foot, so I vowed not to abuse it for a week and continue to do my turning round up the road just till it is right solid.  We had a beer to celebrate and they went away again, happier that they had completed the job in it’s entirety and confident that they’d done the best they could.  Fair play to a bit of later evening work on a Friday in the land or rules and can’t do’s.

it's going to change the landscape fast, that one 

before spoil

after spoil

overnight, with Percy in the background

it feels so bare and open

stabilizing in progress

roundhouse straw bale walling

No, not another holiday trip, though it has been quite a change of scenery.  I have been helping my friend Matty with his roundhouse.  It’s already something rather special and is going to be stunning when finished.  He has built it all by hand, mostly on his own, with the help of a few knowledgeable friends and that is where I come in.  He asked me, a month or so ago, if I’d be available to give him a hand with placing the bale walls.  I jumped at the opportunity to learn more as it will stand me in good stead for my own construction project and it’s always good to give someone a hand when possible.

Hence, for the last ten days we’ve been flat out preparing for and building the walls to his roundhouse, I think the photos explain most of what we’ve been doing, though not life around where we are building.... read the next post

Matty arriving with the first of many bales

foundation wall and baseplate for straw bale walls

spikes to hold bales in position next to doorway

second row of bales in position, window frames installed

hand made window frames

view from outside through one of the windows to the domed rooflight 

straw bale walls from the inside

initial straw bale work completed.  what a team