RMH in place

Rocket Stove is mortared in place and the barrel's paint stripped off. The paint came off much easier after burning in it a few times.

We also got the remaining gravel into the house for the first base layer of our floor. We will need to spread 1-2 inches of road base for the second base layer to support our earthen floor.

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Discovered a couple free bags of cement which were put to good use for our RMH platform. We used bricks as a quick form and will hopefully be constructing the RMH tomorrow evening!

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RMH build

 

This is the test burn for our Rocket Mass Heater, which will be the source of heat in our cob home. Fore those who don't know much about RMHs, they are fed vertically with small scraps of wood and burn almost entirely clean (no smoke).

The barrel is a 55 gallon drum that will set over the top of the firebrick chimney and re-burn all the smoke from the fire. The heat is then transferred into a cob bench and in turn heat the house. More photos to come of the build process.

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Free bricks!!!

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More urbanite stacking

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Stem wall going up!!!

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Rubble trench finished!

Trenches are filled after one day!! Really took a dent out of our gravel pile. Tomorrow goes on the drain cloth and first layer of urbanite.

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Drain Pipe

Pictures are hard to get with the amount of sun we are getting. The 4" perforated pipe is in and ready to drain any moisture out of our foundation. We used larger rocks to keep the pipe fixed in place while putting in the gravel and keeping it from pressing against the sides of the ditch.

This is where the pipe Tees and drains away from the house.

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Gravel!

Well we finally got some gravel for our foundation and base layer for the floor. This 12 ton pile cost $135 and will be more than enough. Luckily, a friend was willing to use a work truck to pick it up and deliver it to the site reducing the $100 delivery fee to a few promised home brews.

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Trenches finished!!!

Finally finished digging the trenches for the rubble foundation. We used our pick axe to draw where the benches and RMH would go. The circle in the middle is our table (3ft wide).

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