16th day

Today was a drying day - the weather has improved, and even the dome on the outside starts to become drier. Still it was too wet inside to do any more plastering in the dome.

Because we had not followed the usual rules, not to plaster on wet clay plaster, the dome is getting some fairly big cracks... clay contracts where there is too much of it at one place. The dome will need another layer of plaster eventually.

We started plastering the vaults with the fine PICAS clay:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

In one vault we added a bit of straw, just like the dome:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Another group started leveling the floor inside with a second stamped clay surface.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The stamping tools work better with a layer of plastic, the clay does not stick that well:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Outside the lower parts are plastered to create a level surface for the EPDM we will put on next week.

The oak facade is progressing, but stainless screws did not arrive so we had to fix them preliminary with normal screws, later we will exchange them for stainless steel.

Tomorrow will be another big plaster day, with plaster on the outside and finishing the vaults inside... hopefully everything will dry over the weekend.

15th day

The weather is awful - this morning the droplets of rain were so small the wind carried them below the tent. Definitely not a weather to dry clay plaster. Luckily in the afternoon rain stopped and the temperature has increased. Hopefully no more rain tonight...!

Because of the rain another shelter was built using the ladders - now the group working on the facade could set up their equipment.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The 32mm oak boards were laid out on the marked space and cut to fit. The stainless steel screws did not arrive yet, so they could not be mounted.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

But several m2 got prepared. The wood will be placed vertical with 8mm gaps in between. With time the oak boards will become a shiny silver grey color - just by aging naturally.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Some clay mixtures are better done the traditional way:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The dome got some last smoothing finish -

From Strawbale Dome Minke

the straw in the clay is standing out giving the dome a golden look.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Outside the bottom of the dome got a smooth layer of clay/gravel mix.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Most of the day was spent smoothing the arches inside:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Today the most fun part was making the clay floor in the small clay dome we made last year. The floor is a trial floor for the straw bale dome.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

After bringing in a clay mixture with linseed oil the floor was compacted by dancing - great way to get a hard and smooth surface, although not completely even.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Tonight we are forcing the drying process inside - with 15KW of heating and 20000m3 of air moved around with ventilators an hour, we hope to achieve a fairly dry inside by tomorrow. On top of this 2 dehumidifiers are running....

In the evening the youngsters had fun with the diabolo sticks...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

14th day

Not everything went by the plan today - the gravel was delivered in the afternoon instead of the morning, there was less of the facade paper than anticipated... but still a lot got done.

Here the facade covered with the UV resistant windbreaking paper. Later a oak facade will cover up the black areas. We got dry gravel level the terrain. The gravel will also be covered by the EPDM membrane later.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Working hard sometimes demands a good massage!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Others were busy trying out different mixes for the floor. The trials done yesterday were cracking too much.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

In the evening the Oak boards arrived for the facade. We will not treat the wood, the oak will become a shiny grey/silver just by aging.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Even filling Earth bags needs the right technique, a bucket is very helpful...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Carrying them to a big pile:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Max after working on some details in the dome - good it's just clay!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Sitting on the scaffolding...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Mixing clay plaster:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The evening meal with different spreads (and some ready made from Alfabio) and homemade bread. The cooks are doing a good job giving us healthy and tasty food:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

40 people are about the maximum we can manage in our living room :-)

From Strawbale Dome Minke

After diner the Plaster guys went back to work in the dome - the plaster has to be just wet enough to be smoothened so this could not wait for tomorrow... the dome is looking great already!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Max putting finishing touches on the edges:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And to give them all a good time Pierre is playing the flute in the top of the Dome :-)

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Great day!

13th workshop day

Today was the beginning of the next workshop. A mix of new and known faces. In the morning Gernot Minke had his usual lecture about clay buildings, strawbale construction and green roofs. This time in our living room:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

In the afternoon the cutting machine was demonstrated and I had a short presentation of what had been done so far in the first workshop.

After the 4 o'clock tea work started... unfortunately I have no pictures today, the two hours passed so quickly I did not manage to get the camera out...more tomorrow when work starts for real!

Summer in Slovakia

This year has been rather wet and cold. We were lucky to get dry straw bales...

In the free week some participants choose to make a trip to the High Tatras - but the weather they experienced was not what you would expect in this time of the year!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

But they had had a great time in spite of the weather!

Here in Hrubý Šúr the plastering continued inside and outside. For the dome some acrobatics are necessary to get the plaster on:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And we are getting new spectators every day - today there was even an article in the tabloid sunday paper "Nový Čas":

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The dome is becoming a popular talking item in the village as well and a popular sunday walk destination...

Plastering the dome and vaults

Friday and saturday were plaster days! Piet and his helpers have done a lot of work plastering the dome inside on Friday and 6 vaults on Saturday.

Here in the top of the dome on Friday, where a lot of irregularities had to be made even:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The second layer of plaster covers the straw:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The vaults are also getting a more even finish - good work:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Zuzana helping out:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The surface is then made rough for better adherence of the next layer:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Piet making a nice curvature:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Spraying the top of the vault is not so easy:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

We now have closed the windows with some PE membrane and heat the interior of the dome. At the same time the ventilators help draw the moisture out from the walls and once per 30 minutes the skylight ventilator pulls out the air from the inside. Hopefully this will make the plaster dry fairly quickly.

And in the evening some participants of the first workshop came back from their trip to the High Tatras - they experienced over 1m of snow. The weather has really been very unusual for this time of the year!

Drying plaster for one week...

This week has been a drying week - or at least should have been. Monday and Tuesday there was a lot of rain and wind, with the rain going almost horizontally. This was later clearly visible on some wet spots on the borders of the dome. Luckily there is only foam glass below these parts and no straw bales:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Inside the ventilators are doing a good job, as you can see the drying process proceeding slowly but steadily. We have 3 ventilators in th edome with each about 7000m3/h keeping the air exchange very high. So far we used about 330KWh for ventilation during the last 5 days.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The strong wind gave us some concern in the beginning of the week, the 1,2m long metal bolts did hold but moved in the soft earth. Most only a few cm, but this one at least 15cm - luckily the forces are nearly horizontal, and the bolts did not get pulled out.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Here you can see the aerodynamics of the tent: Pushed down on the right side and lifted on the left side:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Now everything is dry and on Friday the plasterers arrived - more on their work in the next blog.