21st day - Dome art

A bit of chaos in the beginning, no wonder when you have 5 plasterers working on the same dome simultaneously. In the end everything calmed down and the result is stunning. Here Eduardas and Guilietta putting the last touches to the relief:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

It started this morning with scratching, wetting and plastering the dome walls:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Then the relief was made by several plasterers, Eudardas keeping an eye on the overall look:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Some corrections were necessary, but for a workshop the result is fantastic:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

After the relief using the brush for smoothening the edges gives it a nice, soft look:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Here a view down the skylight with David on the scaffolding:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And a view of our house from the top of the dome:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The window team insulating the window edges with wood fibre boards from HOFATEX having a good time and doing a great job:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Outside the XPS fits perfectly around the window. Better insulated window "frames" will be difficult to find.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The cutting XPS workshop: using a hot wire and stencils gives a very precise result:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

and here the picture of the day dedicated to Pedrinho from Brazil who is following the blog every day. Happy Birthday!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Tomorrow the dome will get a warm white clay "painted" surface...

20th day

Today we have many good pictures - the windows arrived and final plastering has begun! In the morning the scaffolding inside was erected again, but we found the clay plaster to bee too wet to be able to put on another layer... so a heater is drying the top of the dome for most of the day and night.

Eduardas from Lithuania started to make a final plaster in one vault. Here is the preliminary result after 3 layers of different color, all done in about 3 hours time:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

If you wonder how he achieved the structure, here are the steps. After applying the plaster about 3-4mm thick, he took a rough roller for the surface structure:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Then he was punching holes and scratching the plaster by hand:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

This was then partially smoothened:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

On top of all this he applied a coat of Picas ART clay with a green tint, just slightly touching the surface.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

This is the resulting structure:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Then another layer of white Picas ART clay was applied, leaving some of the green clay visible:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

He said this is just the beginning, more will follow... but tomorrow it will be time for the Dome. Pavol and Christo did some preparations for tomorrow as well, putting on a red plaster with bits of Mother of Pearl. Looking forward to see the result tomorrow.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The windows arrived in the morning, but in the end we choose not to install them except for one example. There is so much to dry inside, without cross ventilation it would not work...

The Windows were delivered by Makrowin, they specialize on passive house windows, but in this particular case helped us to get frameless triple glazing. Just glass without frames are a good solution, but there are a few drawbacks - exchanging the window pane if it breaks is really hard and needs the removal of the inside plastering... and the windows can not be opened. Both is OK for us, we have a ventilation system and if we need new plaster inside it will be just an invitation to do some new exciting textures...

The windows were put in the opening and are resting on 2 plastic distance holders.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Below the glass we drilled one small hole in each side of the octogonal. This is for a minimal ventilation, in winter there is always a risk of condensation and this might help.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

I later explained the group what is important in windows, everything from the spacers to U value and air tightness.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Inside we are sealing the glass with a vapor and air tight tight tape, of course after having cleaned the OSB boards:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Outside we are using a very different tape which is vapor open but wind tight. Both are from Isocell.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The windows are fixed at the top and bottom. We plan to replace these with a frame of xps on the outside and wood fibre boards on the inside:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The outside XPS elements were cut by a hot wire cutter to the exact shape:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Tomorrow more about how we did the inside wood fibre boards and later also more about how we plan to glue the window sill to the glass!

Here are some pictures of technological advances as well, a mixing method much faster (and pleasant) than by hand:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

and scratching the curved surface of the clay before the next layer is applied:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

We are also using XPS from Isover to insulate the weekest areas of the skylight... this is later going to be cut and modeled to a smoother shape.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Now it is raining again - hopefully nothing gets too wet... probably only the bottom parts of the building. The measurements of realtive humidity are showing very high levels just below the outside plaster (95% RH) but luckily only 85% RH in the middle of the bales. Hope the humidity levels are about to drop now, everything seems to become more dry, inside and outside...

19th day - a new week

The last week of the workshop in front of us... just 5 days to finish the dome.

Today the facade team did a great job, really getting on with their work! Here glueing on the distance holders made from a water tube:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Several facades have been cut on top by Boris and are more or less finished:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Discussing some details about the curvature...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The Black & Decker is not as good as Edo's Makita, but the job is getting done none the less:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The main reason why this blog is written at midnight is Eduardas presentation of his plaster ideas for the dome... during the day he prepared several examples which he presented after dinner:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

After dinner his presentation was followed with interest:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And later everybody could try to make some "easy" relief. What looked simple was not so simple...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The dome is going to get a "flame" relief- the reasons are simple - many people can work on it, it is possible to correct the mistakes they make and will cover the irregularities of the dome. Light and shadow will make this dome to look very exiting.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The smoothening of the floor got finished today! Great job, nice and flat, ready for a second last coat of wet clay mix. Looking forward to tomorrow getting the scaffolding back in and getting to work on the dome!

18th day - end of 3rd workshop week

Today I will start with a picture from the small clay dome we built last year - the floor has been made and is drying and the entrance is getting a clay finish of a special kind. Gernot Minke has good experience with making clay plaster water resistant by mixing 8 to 12% of Bituminous emulsion (Bitumen that is water soluble) in the clay mix. Will be interesting to see how this works over time!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Inside the dome there is a lot of work levelling the floor, we calculated 120 man hours for the floor, so hopefully we will finish it on monday!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

If we had a ready mix the work would be much quicker. We also need just the right moisture content:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The facade is also very time consuming, a group of 4 people will have to work on the facade continuously for the whole next week if we want to have it finished. Here Edo is cutting out the circle for the window. He is not going to be here next week, we will definitely miss his expertise and tools...!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And the highlight today: meat for lunch, at least for the few of us who are not vegetarian. Chicken cooked in closed clay pots. Delicious as always. The cooks František and Daniel are doing a great job. Good food is essential for a great group spirit. Here František is explaining the food he cooked:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And as always - fun must be:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

During the weekend participants go for wine tasting, aquapark or are just relaxing. One more week to go to finish the dome... let's see if we can do it.

17th day

Main happening today was the removal of the scaffolding inside. The clay plaster on the inside of the dome needs more drying and we need to level the floor tomorrow. Rather a stunning view of the space, looks much bigger inside than outside:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Moving out the scaffolding did not take too long, and we took it out in big pieces, so that we can build it up again next week:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Last elements on their way out:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

And of course that needs an appropriate celebration:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Before we took the scaffolding down we had to fix the upper skylight - not easy to get it up on the outside because of the fresh plaster:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Finally up on top thanks to Pierre and Sam:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Edo fixing the skylight from the inside:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The skylight opening needs a proper cleaning - clay can easily be washed:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The outside has its last clay plaster surface - hope it dries by thursday next week!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The plaster masters Piet and Sunny are packing up and preparing to drive back to Germany at night. Thanks a lot for your great work!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The oak facade has gotten a nicely cut out window opening! This facade is very time consuming. The dark marks on the wood are going to disappear slowly with rain and sun and the wood will turn a nice silvery grey.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Mixing the clay mix for the floor on a sheet moving forth and back. Very efficient:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Today we nearly finished the basic layers in the vaults, here Roman leveling the plaster:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Tomorrow there will be more floor leveling, some places several cm are missing... and the facade will need attention several more days... looking forward to the final plastering inside next week.