Day 21 - rebar in pad foundations

Another partial day on site - a lot going on these days and it is hard to get in a full work day. The next load of concrete is not coming until next Tuesday, so we have not been pushed.

Pat was able to cut up all of the rebar mesh for the pad foundations, and we set up all of the pads. Once we get the vertical rebar bent and in place (which will tie the concrete block piers to the concrete pad) we will be able to

Day 20 - preparing pad foundations

We were only on site for a couple of hours today because of the rain, the kids being around and needing to sort out some of the details for the next phase of the project. But we did accurately lay out the positions and base height of the perimeter posts - using the old fashion methods of triangulation with two long measuring tapes, and a long board and level.

We then prepared the basic formwork for the 15 pads - most of them 1m x 1m square, with a bit of extra digging in some places and some filling in in others.

Day 19 - the cellar is finished

Today we finished the final course of the cellar walls, eleven working days after starting the blockwork (some of the days were very long and some were short). We even had time to clear out all of the extra blocks to be used for the perimeter piers, and cleaned the base of the cellar.



Each of the 5 chambers of the cellar has at least two ventilation windows, one at the top of each side wall. We also left a hole for the services to come into the each of the cellars below grade.

The bunker!

Day 18 - almost done the cellar

We made a dent in the 7th course today - the final course of the cellar.

Helpers waiting patiently.


The outline of the cellar can now be seen from a distance.

Day 17 - above ground

About half way through the 6th course ...
And the cellar wall is above grade.

Day 16 - lots of tours

We were trying to put in a full day today, to at least finish the 5th course, but ended up talking with 3 separate groups that were touring the ecovillage site, as well as numerous visits from friends and neighbors. The price you pay for buildig in the centre of an ecovillage.

We almost finished the course, and finally seem to be speeding up, though our hands are getting a raw deal.

Day 15 - more than half way done the blocks!

Pat did a lot of work yesterday, and we continued today to build up the wall, completing the fourth course of seven (these photos were taken the following morning).



There has been a fair amount of rain lately, and we have had to scoop out water from the floor of the foundation in order to be able to work. The level of the water in the main pit on the outside of the cellar wall is just below the level of the concrete slab.

Day 14 - solitary Pat

While I was in Dublin working on drawings of the wood framing for the engineer to approve, and to determine the amount of timber we need, Pat was working in the pit laying blocks by himself in the intermittent rain - not sure how he got on.

Floor Framing Drawings

These drawings are part of the preliminary sequence of framing drawings prepared for the engineer, and detail how we are going to construct the framing of the houses.
Layout of the foundation of the two houses with cellar in the middle and series of posts to the front and back.

Ground floor framing constructed with 225mm x 44mm (10" x 2") beams and joists, showing the two hatches into the cellars. this floor will have glued and screwed plywood on the top and bottom to help transfer the horizontal loads onto the central cellar/bunker.

First floor framing.

Second floor framing.

Roof framing (plan view).

Day 13 - blocks and rain

We both started on site late today - family stuff - and were stopped short by the rain which started mid afternoon, and became too wet and persistent to continue. Our first weather related delay/stoppage. But we did manage to get in most of the third course of blocks. (no photos though).

Day 12 - cutting blocks

Pat spent the morning cutting blocks. There are faster and easier ways to split blocks, but the cellar should have been planned better.

The pile of cut blocks ready for all 7 courses.

We finished the second course and got in place the corner blocks for the third course.

Day 11 - more blocks and excavation

We completed the excavation for the 15 posts at the perimeter of the buildings.

Each post is 60cm below subsoil grade, sitting on a pad 1m x 1m x .3m deep. These will have short piers of 3 hollow concrete blocks, filled with concrete.

Today we finished the difficult first course, and made good headway on the second course.

Day 10 - more concrete blocks

We almost finished the first course today. It is very slow going as the concrete floor is uneven and we are being more precise than we need to be in leveling and placing the blocks.


The mortar mixing station in the back of Pat and Wendy's house. The mortar is delivered in batches to the site about 100m away in buckets on the back of a trailer.

Leontien helping to level some of the blocks.



Site photo at the end of the day with the concrete blocks piles are going down. We laid another 52 blocks today (we are going to have to get faster at this or we will be in the pit forever).

Day 9 - starting the concrete block walls

It rained last night, and a fair amount of silt fell from the face of the excavation onto the plastic lining. We need to get the wall up in a hurry in case more subsidence happens.

It took us a while to get going, and to get into the rythem of block laying, and by the end of the day we had only laid 26 blocks.





The site at the end of the day.

Day 8 - concrete blocks

We removed the formwork for the concrete and prepared the site for delivery of the concrete block for the walls.


The concrete blocks were placed on the slab with amazing grace and precision.

The hollow concrete blocks are 21.5cm wide. We could have used a narrower block to satisfy the structural demands of the wall, but it would have been trickier co construct as most of the blocks need to be threaded down over the vertical rebar.

Most of the blocks for the walls fit into the slab, and if we are careful not to break any, we will have enough for the perimeter posts (we only have a buffer of about 6 surplus blocks out of the total delivery of 720!)

In total there is about 9.2 cubic meters of concrete in these blocks.

Day 7 - digging the post foundations

Today was a light work day. We had marked out the location of the 15 posts at the perimeter of the houses with chalk, and the extent of the excavation needed at each post, but when the operator of the digger started to excavate he felt that the depth of 1.5m that was originally specified by the engineer was too deep, especially in such hard soil, so he stopped. It was also felt that such deep excavations, would have required a trench which would have increased the risk of the sides of the excavation collapsing. After consulting with the engineer, we are going to go with shallower foundations under these posts.

Day 6 - concrete

The start of the concrete pour - made with Ecocem GGBS cement.

To fill the main foundation we needed 2 truck deliveries, and a fair amount of moving the stuff around.

This is what 14 cubic meters of concrete looks like (at 30cm deep). Two phrases come to mind - "over-engineered" and "ecological footprint". Ecocem is better than typical concrete, but it is still not good enough.

Frames of rebars were assembled and inserted into the wet concrete once it was leveled. These vertical rebars tie the footing base into the vertical walls of hollow blocks, the holes then filled with concrete to make one continuous structure for the base of the building. This was seen as necessary to deal with the horizontal and racking loading of the building (primarily from wind), and it allows us to use less structure on the perimeter of the two houses.

Robbie the donkey came for a visit to see what was going on.

The completed primary slab, with vertical rebars in place.

View of one of the cellar rooms with rebars for the perimeter wall and the structural fin walls.