Underground Earth Bag Construction
Episode 15
Basement Soil Cement Subfloor
Moving Inside and Downstairs in the Mus-Art Studio
The dirty work begins or should I say "soil-cement" work. We level the floor, haul excess dirt out, top it with cement, and "rototiller" it up while applying water. Then we re-level the floor and tamp it down for good measure. Boom! The sub-floor is in. Check it out!
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Shae aka Winter_Apple
December 9, 2016
Transcript of Video
Bree: In the previous episode, we completed the reciprocal roof on the underground earth bag MusArt Studio.
Bree: The guys decide to start from the bottom up. They head inside and downstairs to start the soil cement floor.
Gary: Bryson, what do you think about getting it level?
Bryson: Do the same thing you did there.
Bree: With Garen gone, the dynamics change.
Gary: …not exactly the way I thought it should be done. So, I kind of muscled my way in. It does kind of look like the ground goes that way. Pull this dirt this way… So, I kind of had to stop back and say, "Hey, you know Bry can do it.
Bryson: We set the grade by taking two bricks for our leveling. Putting one in the center of the floor and at the sill of the door. And then we leveled from the sill to the middle of the room.
Bryson: We will have to take some dirt out.
Gary: We want to have the right grade and the right amount of dirt, so that when we put in the cement, everything gets mixed in there we don’t have to pull anything out.
Gary: There he is. We were fortunate to have our buddy Marvin come out and help again. This time we had hime wield a shovel. And so we did not have much to work on carpenter stuff. It was great to have him here.
Bryson: He was a great help.
Gary: He was huge.
Bryson: We have been chucking all the excess dirt over there and moving it out later. Our makeshift system for getting the dirt.
Shae: I’ve joined the Marvin Bryson Shae team.
Marvin: Yup.
Bryson: Is he trying to swallow that Bree?
Shelly: He is trying to pull. He is trying to help you.
Bryson: Ok. Diesel Pull on it. Go that way.
Shelly: Come on Diesel. Good Boy. Pull.
Shelly: So, Are you happy with it.
Gary: Ya…
Gary: I’ve done this every time…
Bryson: We turn this entire thing?
Gary: I turned by shovel first. Then you guys used the tiller.
Gary: The young guy in the room, Bryson, was able to do twice as much work for us.We’re seasoned carpenters, you know, so we are not as apt with a shovel as he was. So…
Bryson: A poor workman blames his tools.
Gary: I’m not blaming the shovel, I’m just blaming the bodies of the two old guys you were working with.
Gary: You didn’t know you were coming over to do this. Did you Marvin.
Marvin: Nope
Bryson: There is something really enjoyable about that.
Gary: Soil cement is typically 1 to 9. but we are doing something a little thicker for the floor. Our tiller can take about 4 inches. And, if we put 3/4 of an inch or so on the top of the dirt, it mixes right in. We have dumped in about 3 bags of about 94 lbs (Per bag) of cement down here. Gary: Alright Marvin, we are done down there for a while.
Gary: The rotor tiller can’t really get into.. we actually go around the edges. We premix…
Bryson: It doesn’t really look like a lot of cement in here.
Gary: You could another one.
Bryson: Do you think that’s ok Dad? It looks a little skimpy here.
Gary: Ok.
Bryson: Ahhhhhh. My Little Homestead Shirt. They are cool and exciting and mine is going to get all dusty and dirty now. And as we are rotor tilling it, we usually have someone spraying water down to kind of dampen it as it mixes in. We use the water to dampen and keep the dust down at the same time and I got a chance to spray Bryson. Which was fun.
Bryson: He only did it once. Surprisingly. I expected more. The cement itself is activated by applying water to it. Then having the soil mixed in is the binder.
Shelly: I know when we lived in the city, we were putting the kids in activities, which is great. But I think that those moments that we spend working along side each other, are properly the most valuable moments we have with them. It allows us to build that relationship with them.
Gary: They get to see too how we handle problems or how we don’t handle problems well. So they will some of our mistakes and they see that we are not as perfect as we think we are. It’s humbling and it’s enjoyable because you are sharing. the Kids get something out of it, I get something out of it. I learn all the time.
Shelly: Shae, you are a good leveler.
Shae: I mean with dad, not kicking dad out. Just helping.
Bryson: Big Rock.
Shelly: We get to see how the kids handle stressful situations.
Bryson: Shoot.
Gary: The rock bent the tines.
Bryson: Ya.
Shelly: How they handle situations when they are tired… It allows us these moments to intervine.
Bryson: I’m almost done with my crop circle. Dog gone it.
Shelly: Did you hit another rock? Oh no. It’s huge. When the kids are helping out, we make a conscience effort to say what is more important here. the relationship is more important than how perfect the walls are or how perfect the floor is.
Bryson: We can call the done eh? now we got to focus on leveling right?
Gary: That’s right. Well I’m just trying to get the big rocks out of here. If you want to help get the big rocks. The brick id the important part.
Bryson: And then when we are all done, we level it out again. And then we tamp it. This fells like a good floor. We don’t usually want it too wet, because too wet when we go to tamp it, it gets all sticky on the tamp. So we want it kinda damp. And it will really stick to this thing.
Gary: We can start watering this now. Thanks Bry! When you order cement, it comes in big trucks all and is all premixed. You pour it, let it set and you are all done. With this type of application, you get the water sprayed on. it needs a real good soaking. It gets right in there at the four inch level. It has to get down there with that tiller. It maks for a good floor. we let it soak, spray on some more, let it soak, and it cures in only 3 days.
Bryson: It is day 3 so we are wetting it down now. we got edges a little more wet.
Shelly: Oh no! Diesel you are going to get me in trouble. Don’t make any paw prints. Quick, quick.
Shelly: Stay tuned next time when we …not sure yet.
All: Thank you.
Gary: Great ingenious invention…was it the greeks that invented cement? i don’t know.
Bryson: Portland.
Gary: Mr Cementy? Cementy Portland….
Bryson: Cementy Portland.Cent standing as cement?Mr Portland Invented cement.
Bryson: Was cement made in Main?
Gary: Neither….
Shae: Our family moved from the city to the country. Thank you for taking part I our adventure. We have new video’s every Friday evening. if you would like to help us out, like this video, share it, subscribe or support us on Patreon. See the links in the description. Please consider supporting us on Patreon.com
Bryson: So Garen is gone and it took us a little bit longer than usual. I didn’t realize how good of a worker he really is. now that he is gone. If you are watching this, hurry back.
Gary: While you are skiing. put it on your phone and just watch it while going down the slopes.
Bryson: Put a jump at the end of the slope and points toward our house and just go full speed.
Gary: We could put some rockets on the back of him…it would be real cool.
Bryson: and he will just fly back.
Bryson: the parts have arrived for the drone that we are going to build. so we have these parts and we are going to take some parts out of this broken Phantom. And when I say we i really mean me. There is hope. we are going to get it working. we may have to buy more parts, but we will get it working.
Step by Step - Building of Bry's Earth Bag Room
Full Verion - Building of Bry's Earth Bag Bedroom
Walk Thru Our First Earth Bag Construction Project!
Garen's Earth Bag Interior with Rocket Stove
Garen's Earth Bag Room - the Exterior
Bree's Earth Bag Room
Partners
Resources
www.greenhomebuilding.com/adobe.htm
www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles.htm
www.earthbagplans.wordpress.com
We moved from the city to the country in 2005. Since then, we have been building structures, raising livestock and growing some of our own foods. We are crazy about family, nutrition and want the best for our growing family.
