Flooring the house in a grain bin
More free materials! A friend called to say there was a sort of deck about to be trashed at his construction site. Several large sheets of plywood and some lumber were available if i got there quick.
This was early in the project so i had not accumulated many tools yet. I borrowed my dad's flatbed and power tools. Unfortunately the power of the tools and myself were not up to the task of dismantling the glued and screwed platform.
His tools had ni-cad batteries which lose their charging capacity if not managed meticulously. This was a good lesson for me. When i began accumulating tools i chose only lithium batteries and so happy i did.
After i was unable to make much progress, the super nice guys at the job site helped dissassemble the platforms. I got 14 sheets of 12 foot long plywood! And also a bunch of boards. I climbed in their dumpster and retrieved all the usable boards i could find.
The salvaged plywood formed the subfloor for my bedroom.
Before i even got the grain bins bolted together, one neighbor who works in demolition said i could go through his piles before he burned what was removed from his demo sites.
His clients house had fire damage. Per insurance they had to deconstruct the damaged areas. So he ended up pulling a couple of trailer loads of double thick routed hardwood boards from the ceiling of that a-frame house. I didn't have a structure at that point so we used blocks and tarps to protect the boards over the winter.
Friends helped me remove fasteners from the boards.
And as soon as the subfloor was down, the handy chain hoist was used to move strapped bundles of boards up to the bedroom.
A bedroom of course needs a closet. As soon as i started building this shelving the cats decided this stud was a scratching post. So i wrapped jute rope around it and they spend each day clawing the rope to shreds.
Thanks for your attention. Next time i will share how i installed insulation and ceiling to a domed grain bin roof.
Way sweet!
I love it when homesteaders recycle!
Thanks! I estimate 90% of the wood, 70% of the wondows, and most the fixtures and appliances are repurposed.
Great project. Way to recycle everything. Love your vision and connections to the free world. 🐓🐓
It's very clever of you to make the stud a scratching post instead of trying to make the cats stop. You're home looked lovely on Stellabelle's post- you have a new follower!
Thank you! I've had to wrap new rope around that stud a few times already.
Amazing :) How long did it take you to do this?
Im glad I discovered you through @stellabelle
PS you might wanna check your cats for demons :P
I started in 2013. By the next summer I moved in although most of the space was blocked off with blankets that first winter.
(If you haven't noticed already) I am really enjoying your posts. Thank you!!
Welcome!
Thank you!!!
This is amazing. I cant even believe how ingenious you are!!!!!
Thank you so much!
Jute rope. Never thought of it. Just what I need for my scratching post.
How many puddy tats?
I've never built my own house, but I've helped with several and renovated a couple of centuries old cottages. The most recent build was with straw bales in stud frames. There is great pleasure to be had in building a new, alternative home or bringing a really old one back to life, even if it's not one's own. Your pleasure must have been fabulous.
I've been thinking about your hoists. If you think you still want them, try to scrouge a 6" I beam like you see in workshops. Makes them even handier and easier to use.
I can hardly wait for the insulation post.
I'm very interested in strawbale homes also. I considered insulating with strawbale but it takes up a lot of floor space and I was worried about sealing windows in walls lined with straw.
There is a straw insulated grain bin home at an ecovillage in Missouri. I hear they have had leak issues.
I agree, with a house like yours space is an issue, unless you put the bales on the outside. I've done that with brick or concrete, put foam on the outside. Straw would work too. With the mass on the inside you get a much more stable environment, the walls warm or cool the room quickly once you close the door. With a corrugated skin you have no mass, but I'm sure you found speed and cost to be reasonable compensation.
Window treatments are pretty much the same as with stick built homes except that the sill is much deeper. I've heard no more complaints about windows in 2' walls than in 6" walls.
Our walls didn't leak. 2" of sand/clay/lime render took care of that. The sand and clay came from a pit the owner dug on the property.
I just looked up tuxedo. Turns out:
We have a long haired brother and sister, he black and white (tuxedo, I now know,) she tortoiseshell and white. The white on them is virtually identical, so in dim light they are indistiguishable.
Since they are tuxedo mixes I describe the male as having white cumberbund and cravat. The girl has hardly any white, just a pendant.