Category — Construction Diary

July 27 – July 31

The end of this week marked the beginning of the end for us in this program.  With one month remaining on the build it is really time to kick it into high gear and begin finishing off some of the projects that will make the building both unique and sustainable.  One such feature is our green roof which this week was planted with a variety of local plant life including strawberries.  I guess this is our version of agriculture although allowing the children to attempt a harvest may pose some safety risks.  All joking aside, it is really rewarding to see those sprouts peaking up over the roof as they signal our commitment to being an environmentally conscious building.

Elsewhere on site the real push has been on getting some finishes going.  The shingling has really ramped up and it shows.  The amount of work involved in cutting, staining, and then placing and installing each one by hand, in perfectly straight rows of course, is enormous so my hat goes off to all those who have been a part of it.  I think everyone  is very pleased with how things are turning out so far.  The building looks truly outstanding. 

The first coat of earthen plaster on the north wall has had time to dry sufficiently so it was also time to get the finish layer on.  It is a little different than the last mix in that it contains no straw and a finer sand, as well as some rice flour paste.  This is a little trick that has been traced back to the Chinese and their Great Wall so it’s hard to argue with that success.  It is applied in a much thinner coat than the first as well.  For those of us that hadn’t had much or any experience with plastering it proved a bit of a challenge at times but we seemed to get the hang of having trowels as hands and the break neck pace eventually. 

Another exciting development this week was the installation of the two big poles that will support our photo voltaic panels at the south of the building.  The centre is not going to be off-grid since we don’t want to have any problems with winter energy woes.  Instead, we have sized the renewable system in hopes of being a net zero energy building which means that in peak times we will be producing more power than the loads in the centre require and selling that energy back to the grid while there will also most likely be times when the energy produced is not sufficient to run everything inside the building.  The hope is that annual production will exceed consumption which will result in some nice financial benefits through the feed-in tariff program that will hopefully soon be up and running. 

Another really cool accent in the building was also started this week.  A large circle was left in the middle of the floor during the concrete pour in anticipation of some creative tile work.  The floor team has outdone themselves by creating a lovely mosaic of a compass.  We are hoping that this image reminds everyone how important it is to pay attention to your orientation when planning and designing a building.  Passive solar design is something that we will be relying on and that comes basically free of charge.  It seems that conventional constructors long ago decided to ignore the sun as a free and easy source of heat we are eager to remind everyone of our connection to the main source of this planet’s energy.

July 20 – July 24

Ever since the idea was posed by Ben, who is involved with both our interior partitions and our waste management system, to have a wall made of cans and bottles, the students have been anticipating working on it and seeing it take shape.  This week was the week when all those late night collecting missions and Garbage Warrior screenings began to pay off.  We are using both aluminum cans and bottle bricks, which are two bottoms of the same type of bottle taped together, along with clay mortar to construct a wall that will hopefully serve as more than just a normal wall.  By selecting different coloured glass and laying the bricks in a specific design, we are hoping that a beautiful work of art will be the result. 

Speaking of walls, drywall has also started to go up in the window and door panels that were insulated last week with the recycled denim insulation.  This will be a long process since we are far from professional mudders and tapers but I don’t think this aspect of the project will really be a focal point of the building anyways with all the other amazing things to see.

In other wall news, the big job of prepping the south slipstraw and hempcrete walls for their lime plaster finish has also begun.  The plaster does not stick to wood so all exposed lumber must be covered with diamond lathe or plastic mesh to ensure adhesion occurs.  The lathe and mesh have to be secured to the wood and into the insulation extremely well to make sure that they stay behind the plaster and no portions are exposed.  It takes a lot of staples and a lot of patience but should be well worth it.  As you see above, the lime, which is the main ingredient in the plaster, is still enjoying its maturation process on site. 

Here you can see members of our entry shelter team hard at work creating the timber frame structure that will be the first thing people see as they arrive at the completed building.  The mortise and tenon joints on the timbers are being painstakingly formed, and working with these more raw materials is certainly not easy.  This structure will also be home to the thatched roof that has been quite the challenging process thus far.  I am convinced that the effort will be well worth it in the end.  Not only will we be showcasing a very rare roof type, it will act as a truly impressive welcoming committee to all that will visit the centre in the future. 

On the mechanical side of things, this week saw some more progress on the geothermal system that will be the heat source for our radiant floors.  The last pipes connecting the vertical tubes to the inner workings were connected and back-filled so the system is pretty much ready to be fired when ready.  The HVAC system, or heating, ventilation and air conditioning if you’re unfamiliar with the term, was also installed in the mechanical room of the building.  This piece of equipment is essential to ensure that the air in the building will always be safe and properly conditioned which is a growing concern among those who realize the effect that poor indoor air quality can have on both a building and its inhabitants.

July 13 – July 17

This week was a busy one on site as we really began our push on exterior and interior finishes.  Inside, the local cedar tongue and groove that will serve as our ceiling and some wall sections began to be installed.  It will have to be done in sections to allow us to blow the cellulose insulation effectively.  The lower pitched sections on the east and west will be done first, then insulated before we can carry on moving towards the peak of our cathedral ceiling.  The wood looks really great up and we are going to refrain from applying any finish to it since the natural beauty of the wood will speak for itself.

On the outside, the shingles really began flying up on the south side of the building.  We are using natural paints to finish the cedar shingles and it is allowing us to create some really great designs.  On the north gable a large sun will welcome visitors and on the south a few bands of warm colour will tie the scheme together nicely.  It is really great to see a glimpse of what the finished product will look like and we are hoping the Camp and kids will like it as much as we do.

As you can see from the first picture, the brick wall also was completed.  It really turned out well which is a credit to those who took part in it’s construction.  The other project that that finished early in the week was the hempcrete south wall.  That was the last wall system to be completed so we officially have a closed in space now (minus doors and windows).

We are also at the point in the build where many of the mechanical systems arrive for installation.  Arrivals this week included the rain water storage cistern and the geothermal system.  The only source of water that we will be using is precipitation so the tank to house it is rather large.  It was lowered into its hole to the south of the building and back-filled to the existing grade which is still quite a bit lower than the finished level.  It was then insulated with the same silverboard that surrounds our foundation and is beneath the floor.  The pump and filter for the system actually are fixed to the tank which is great since it will increase the amount of space in the office/mechanical room.  The vertical geothermal tubes run down vertically 100 feet at the northwest corner of the building.  They went into the deep holes along with grout to ensure that maximum contact between the copper pipes and surrounding earth is achieved which will maximize the efficiency of the system.  The tubes were then connected to the tank and the rest of the radiant floor system via a conduit tube below the floor that has been in place since the first weeks of the project.

One other project of note that has begun inside is the installation of recycled cotton/denim insulation in the framed cavities between the pre-fabricated straw bale panels.  As you may recall from previous entries, these gaps between panels house window and door openings so there isn’t too much space to fill around them.  The insulation was chosen because it is both recycled and much healthier to work with than most of the alternatives available on the market.  The one drawback seems to be that it can be challenging to cut to the appropriate sizes but the benefits certainly outweigh that downside.  Please check out the hundreds of other photos in our photo album and continue to join us on Tuesday’s for tours.

Recently Dave Conroy, one of the media specialists on this years build, was interviewed by a local online news provider.  Please check it out below! 

Click for the interview