Living Walls Earth Plaster & Aliz

A beautiful timber frame structure to work on!

lots of stuff all around...

thank goodness for 5 gallon buckets!

we start with coco fiber mesh as lathe to span areas that might crack

this project had 36 rounds!

and lots of upside-down areas to plaster

the base coat goes over the Durasol stemwall and Light Clay-Straw walls

a nice pic of the substrates and base plaster layer

my mom joined in for a day of base coat application

somehow I got known to "love upside-down stuff"...

I guess it might be true :)

lots of taping off involved with a frame like this

scratched surface on the base coat

Ingredients for the final coat, how many bags of each do we need?

mixing it up in small batches

applying kaolin-based finish coat over the base coat

detailing those rounds!

and details around each framed opening

The gable ends were conventionally framed and covered with drywall. We primed the surface with latex paint that we added a bunch of coarse sand to. The surface looks like this and you can apply finish coat earth plaster right over it.

my plaster set up

working those gable end details

Finally time for some color! The client chose a light yellow aliz. Iron oxide is the best!

Details!

whose that monkey?

I must have climbed up and down that scaffold 100 times!

Joshua prefers to hang out on the tip top of the ladder...

but can he reach the very top?

the final texture is so beautiful

a nicely integrated 'truth window' shows off the plaster layers

sah-weet!

'Living Walls' plaster over an 'EcoNest' -- Working with Lime

Alright, this had been a big job, and hence, haven't written in a while. But finally finished and what a good one it has been! Especially for those of you interested in the super flat and super refined earth plaster style. Good to practice.

The structure is a heavy timberframe with a mixture of traditional european and japanese joinery and infilled Light Clay-Straw. It was designed by Paula LaPorte and the construction was led by her husband, Robert Laporte, of EcoNest. My mom was at the straw-clay workshop for this structure, where I got introduced to the project from early on. Little did I know, six months later, when the walls were thoroughly dry, I would be on a team of four to plaster the whole thing.

For this project, I joined the crew of Living Walls, a Portland-based earth plaster company, led by Joshua Klyber. We did a lime plaster system on the outside and earth plaster with aliz on the interior. And we had a lot of fun! This post will focus on the lime plaster portion and my next will cover the earth plaster work. Enjoy!

The site and our mortar mixer set-up.

The Light Straw-Clay walls to be covered.

Base coat of lime goes up

Greg works it!

Comin' around the corner!

base and finish coat shown clearly here

Joshua is so silly sometimes!

Pigmented lime wash

the fun part!

cleaning up the stonework with muriatic acid

classic Econest!

This finish is at minimum a seven-pass system. First, we prime or lathe all windows edges, corners and other expanses of wood. Then we apply the rough base coat of lime plaster which has a lot of gravel. Next we press the plaster with a wood trowel to compact the lime as it dries. Then we score the surface with a small rake or scarifier. Then we come around again with a finish coat, no gravel in it this time. We follow again with a hard-packing motion with a wood trowel. Then we brush all the loose sand from the surface. Finally we apply a lime wash to give the surface color, actually two coats. So in all, we have come around to every square inch of this exterior wall surface nine times. Labor intense, no joke!

Natural Building Colloquium 2009

Welcome to Camp Latgawa, and the 2009 West Coast Natural Building Colloquium

This is an annual gathering of professional and aspiring Natural Builders, who have come to share their stories, experiments and successes, discuss the state of the world, brainstorm ways to effect the main stream and build a few things while we're here!

Most of my photos are from the building projects that were going on during the week.

Peeling round poles for a new shade structure frame

Decorative hempcrete clings to a pole

This 10 year old plaster job is ready for a fresh coat

Well, we just so happen to have 70 creatives ready to fix that

Austin concentrates on his plaster job

the main gathering area comes together

the back of the bench

great work!

Darrel DeBoer teaches about bamboo construction

Julia tries a notch

fish trusses are fun

hose clamps make a connection without making any holes in the bamboo

Curving bamboo o'er an openfire

fish truss roof frame almost done

Sebastian attaches the posts and sheer bracing

good thing we had plenty of bales around

Chris and Jen from Ontario teach about Pre-fab Strawbale

Plaster is applied horizontally and saves lots of time.

Compressing the bales into the form

Big leaf maple prints in the plaster

Bob Theis leads an entry sequence revision. A new gabion retaining wall and curve is added the the entrance so that cars will park instead of drive into the camp. Perhaps the most important project we did this week.

Also, let's build a Rumford Fireplace down by the creek. With Ianto Evans here, how could we refuse?

a teepee frame in the meadow

a tiny little cottage, kids built this one a few years ago

i get an aerial silk lesson from a talented young girl

and there's even time for hikes in creek which surrounds this magical place on three sides

a newborn tree grows out of the moss-covered rock

mushrooms fruit from beneath fallen leaves

Two mushroom hunters accompany me on the hike

Art Ludwig leaves a cairn

Hope to see you all again next year!