The (Inside) Surface Bonding

Ah, surface bonding.

First Sam puts a 50lb bag of surface bonding cement (Quickwall) into the wheelbarrow.

Then he adds water and starts mixing. It's hard labor to get it all mixed up.

Eventually it turns into this sludge that he spreads over the concrete blocks.

He gets some sludge on the trowel...

...and starts spreading the sludge on the concrete blocks. It's messy.

It's important to really get it in the blocks and crevices.

The entire interior wall needed to be covered. So. Much. Wall.

This is what it looks like after it has cured.

Sam almost perfectly calculated the amount of surface bonding needed. We ran out with this much left. Sadness.

Money Spent: $178
$ 178 7 50lb bags of Quikcrete Surface Bonding Cement

The Roof: Part One

We erected 12 6x6 posts on the inner-footing ring.

On the posts we put double-curved capitals to support 12x6 beams.

From the wall to the beam ring we laid 24 12x6 beams with a tractor (Sam's best friend Cody helped a lot). We dropped the beams on rebar spikes, which had been set in the wet concrete. We drove more rebar through the other ends, pinning them to the ring. Then we laid 12 more 12x6s from every-other outer beam to the stove column.

Because the spans between beams at the edge of the roof was excessive, we used some salvaged 3x8s as "hemi beams." A 4' section nestled into notches in the big beams. Then we attached an 8' section to its center with 1" diameter dowels. Last we propped the ends on blocks on the wall.

Then we (with Cody's assistance) nailed 2x6 tongue-and-groove boards from beam to beam.

Because the big entryway arch would not allow tongue-and-groove planking in that orientation, it had to run radially. To diminish the span, Ben fabricated three sets of arch beams, which he set into notches in the 12x6s. The three sections of roof center that were to house the eyebrow windows received similar treatment on a smaller scale.

We protected the roof decking from the imminent bad weather with tarps and some 6-mil plastic.

Over the tongue-and-grove we screwed 5/8" plywood; Sam's highschool friend (and our now neighbor) Jay helped. We had to use two layers of the more flexible 3/8" plywood over the entryway and eyebrow sections.

A lot of work went into creating the eyebrow windows--they will look amazing!

Money Spent (so far): $10,278
$ 124 lumber
$ 488 3x8 lumber
$4794 tongue and groove
$3156 beams ($1700 was done in trade)
$  60 nails
$  67 2x6s
$1330 4x8x5/8 CDX fir 5ply plywood 50SH
$ 259 4x8x11/32 CDX fir plywood

The Stove: Part One

The footing for the stove had been poured along with the rest of the footings with some rebar sticking out of it vertically.  We specially ordered a 6 foot length of 4 foot diameter Sonotube to form the lower section of the stove.  For the smaller sections of the stove and chimney, we bought 3 and 2 foot diameter Sonotubes.

Inside the 4-foot Sonotube we needed a cavity for the welded iron stove to be later inserted.  To build the form for the cavity, we screwed plywood to cottonwood braces. The cavity form also had pipes attached for the stove's air intake and a bump-out to leave a hole for a fan to blow air across the stove. The cavity form sat on a welded angle iron stand.  With the help of Mookie, a most helpful neighbor, we then slid the tube over the cavity form and footing rebar, some of which had to be cut off to let the tube down.  Next we screwed the cavity form to the tube where the cavity form's front and back (where the fan would go) touched the tube. The cavity form had to be weighted down, or else it might float in the soupy concrete around it: to do that, we climbed in, opened the top, and dropped in some of the concrete blocks that we made from the overage during the first pour.  Then we screwed down the top of the cavity form and wired in vertical rebar.

Next a piece of 3-foot diameter Sonotube was put on top of the 4-foot diameter tube with cottonwood filling the gap. This second section of Sonotube had holes for the copper pipe (for the radiant floor heating). Inside went a length of irrigation pipe; into that slid copper piping coil with its ends popping through the holes in the Sonotube. Two rebar rings bound the vertical rebar.

To hold the roof beams securely to the stove column, we made an "iron crown." We made a  we welded a twelve-sided ring out of angle iron. To the ring we welded twelve vertical spikes of 1/2" rod.  The rods were threaded for nuts.

Money Spent (so far): $7299
$  61 welding wire
$ 573 forms
$  39 10 1/4 ft 4" salvage sched 40 pipe 3.75/ft
$  19 4 SS clamps
$  50 copper couplings, copper X FIP adapter, map-pro 14 oz cyclinder, 1 pound silvabrite 100% lead-free solder
$ 290 sheet iron
$ 106 50' copper refrigeration tubing and copper cap
$   6 PVC couplings
$ 109 iron pipe
$  20 stovepipe
$   4 5/8" x 36" NC all thread rod zinc plated
$ 3 thumbscrew
$ 14 stove paint
$ 5 steel scrap
$ 6 3/16 x 1/2 HR Strip 20'

The Second Pour

Once the forms were completed, it was time to fill them! Because they were high up, we needed to rent a pumper truck to hoist the concrete high enough to pour down into the forms.

Concrete truck and pumper truck!

The pumper truck crane and chute pouring concrete into the upper forms.

The kiddos thought the big trucks were pretty neat.

Sam, Ben, and Mark guided the concrete from the pumper truck chute into the forms; Sam's scaffolding came in very, very handy.

See that guy just staring up at the men working? Yeah, totally unhelpful guy.

We borrowed a stinger rod from a neighbor (the original moniker "vibrating stick" was nixed for obvious reasons).

Forms full of concrete.

Ben celebrating the success of the arch. "I was pretty sure it would hold."

The wood grain from the forms left an imprint on the concrete.

Money Spent: $2191
$1608 concrete truck and concrete for upper forms
$ 583 pumper truck for upper forms

The Arches and The Bond Beam Forms

Even more challenging than the footing forms were the arch forms. Ben brainstormed and experimented until he had something that worked. Sam built scaffolding so that they would be able to pour the bond beam from a comfortable height.

Sam and Ben built forms around the top of the wall and wired in three rings of rebar for reinforcement. Because the plywood needed to bend (to accommodate the circular shape), a curve had to be cut out of a 2x6 with the convex bracing the plywood on the inside and the concave bracing the plywood on the outside.

The windows required some extra work for a thicker bond beam and got extra rebar around them. They boarded up the windows. They built a special chute to funnel the concrete into the forms.


Money Spent: $1553
$ 233 plywood
$ 127 threaded steel rods, screws, fender washer, whitewood
$ 869 150 20' rebar
$ 181 2x6s
$   3 all thread rod
$ 140 small pieces of rebar