Barn Project | Page 3 | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

I was thinking that j, but not sure how well and stable that would be the higher I go up, I'll have to check the local rental places and see how small of a one they have

good point J. I hope I can find a small one

so the rain finally let up on thursday, and we decided to get back to work, I pulled off the tarp and went around and checked to see how the bags had set and I wasn't happy the way this corner came out

I tried tamping them again, but that just made it worse, lesson learned, if not happy with the layout, fix it then, so I pulled the corner up

I had tarped the soil after the hard rain on monday and was concerned that it was to wet, it was much damper but I figured I could work with it, so I filled some bags

I started tamping and the first thing I noticed was how much easier it compacted with the wetter soil, the second thing I noticed was the bag was bleeding water. The bags were still a little spongy and had not set as hard as the other day

I thought to myself, that's not good. So I went and grabbed my book and did some reading, I had read the book a couple of years ago and had been just skimming through it since I started it. I came across this.

" we can take the same soil sample as above with lower moisture content and pound the pudding out of it , or we can increase the moisture content," jiggle tamp" it, and still get a strong block. What this means to us is less pounding(FQSS!). Tamping is hard work, and although we still have to tamp a moister mix to send good vibes through the earth, it is far less strenuous to jiggle-tamp a bag than to pound it into submission.... Weeper bag or bladder bag are dirtbag terms we use when the soil i what we used to consider to moist, and excess moisture would weep through the woven strands of fabric when tamped. The extra moisture in the soil would resist compaction. Instead of pounding the bag down hard and flat, the tamper kind of bounced rather than smacked. The weeper bag would dry exceedingly hard, although thicker than it's drier rammed earth neighbor, as if it hadn't been compacted as much....If you have a big crew capable of constructing several feet of wall height in a day, a drier mix will be desirable...with a smaller crew completing two or so rows of bg work a day, a moister mix will make their job of tamping easier.." pages 18-19

wish I had read that earlier

so with my new found knowledge we started laying out barbed wire which acts as a velcro tying the two layers of earthbags together, giving it lateral strength as well

we proceeded to start filling and stacking

they suggest using some wood stickers to set the bags on and slide them into position, but with the wall still low they were easy to place

when we got to the pillaster we staggered the joint

and set in a end bag

and continued around

compacting went much easier

We proceeded to knock out the other side

the pile is getting smaller

so here is the plan as it sits, since I have to let the courses set for a couple of ays for the moister soil to firm up, my goal is to do course on sunday, tuesday and thursday weather permitting. As long as it isn't downpouring I should be all set. Today I want to knock out the third course. My wife flew home for a few weeks so I'm going solo on this, we shall see how it goes.

I figured I would keep a tally of costs on here as well.

As of right now

600 cement

120 rebar and 5x5 wire

500 pump truck

220 bags ( this will be cheaper, I think I will end up using 700 bags)

63 for soil ( I think I will need another 12-14 yards so this will go up, but the clay soil is only 7 dollars a yard)

to be continued

lol, it did