The Doma - Part 2

Once the mix was finally mixed and spread out on the floor-to-be, the next order of business was compacting it into something that would function as a floor - we'd like it to be hard, relatively flat and not too easily scuffed. This we are still working on - we have achieved solidity, a fair amount of rigidity and enough flatness that we expect not to fall over while trying walk on it, but the hope of a floor not too easily scuffed has yet to be realized. We are considering treating it with boiled linseed oil and then waxing it.

Step 1 in compacting the floor was to spread the mix fairly evenly around the edges, and in our case, to pile lots in the middle because the old floor was quite worn down. We then walked on it a great deal, to change it from a layer of fluffy earth to a more compact state, with the clay in the soil beginning to come together into one cohesive mass.

Step 2 was to bring out the mechanical compactor. A really really heavy machine. It took both of us to move it. Shuzo got the task of pushing and pulling this monster around the floor, and he quickly discovered that once it was turned on, you CAN'T STOP! If the machine pauses over one section of the floor, the clayey earth sticks to the bottom of the machine and the beautiful floor-in-progress gets ripped up. After several rounds with the machine, each leaving him out of breath and covered in sweat, he had smoothed much of the floor, though the machine can't get into the corners or edges very well, and there were a few low spots where the machine hadn't had much effect.



Step 3 involved further physical challenges, as we had to tamper the sections of the floor that the machine hadn't been able to do. We used a variety of tamperers (tamps? tampers?) - a post with handles attached, a smaller bit of post with handles attached, a plastering trowel, a plastering hawk, Sara's flip-flops, a gloved hand and the wooded mallet, among others. This was exhausting.

Step 4 will depend upon what the floor looks and feels like when it is dry. We will probably try sealing it with boiled linseed oil, but are not entirely certain because our mix contains lime and the calcium salts, whereas the recipe that accompanies the advice about linseed oil does not have either of those ingredients. Decisions, decisions.

Is is any wonder that at nearly 9 in the morning we are both still sitting in front of our computers? That project was exhausting! Let's hope the replacement of the back roof, scheduled to begin next week, is a bit kinder to us.

The Doma, Part 1

Ouch!!! That's the topmost feeling around the house this morning. We are only able to move because we went off to the hotspring last night to soak our aching selvesfor an hour. A few days back we picked up the compacting machine from our friends and two days ago Shuzo picked up a rented cement mixer. We thought these modern technological innovations where going to make this doma (packed earth floor) project easy. HAHAHA. More fools us.

First off, the cement mixer, which we had planned to place in the entryway, just on the other side of the doorway where we would be laying the floor. Then, we thought, we could load it up, spin it around and empty the nicely mixed earth onto floor. Well, we couldn't get the monster off the truckbed. All of my labor carting the akatsuchi to the OTHER side of the yard, for easy access from the entryway, had to be undone, and all of the ingredients hauled up to the cement mixer, one bucketful at a time. 128 buckets full of akatsuchi, yamatsuchi and powdery, painful-to-mucous-membranes lime to be lifted up above our heads or to be carried onto the truckbed and dumped. Ouch, you see?



The next step was to turn the mixer on, run away from the resultant cloud of lime, trying not to breath if you forgot to put on your mask, and check the mixer periodically to see if the ingredients were mixing well. Once they seemed fairly homogenous, it was time to add the water, attempting to create a damp consistency that would clump together when sqeezed. Unloading took three trips, carrying a large tub between the two of us, to make a pile in the middle of the floor-to-be.

At some point, we decided that technology was not on our side, and switched to a low-tech mixing method that allowed us to mix three cement mixer loads worth at once. We carted in the akatsuchi and yamatsuchi, dumped them out on a large tarp spread out on the floor-to-be, raked them flat, and then dumped a bag of lime on top. This, too was raked flat.



Once things were fairly even on the floor, we each grabbed a corner of the tarp and pulled it across the room, giving a mound of ingredients, somewhat mixed, in the middle. This was then raked flat, and we repeated the tarp pulling in the other direction.

Once things were looking pretty well mixed (better mixed than we usually got from the cement mixer, in fact), we raked the mix flat and watered it. At this point we also added some calcium salts of a type used to melt snow and ice in the winter. When I added water to the bucket with the salt pellets, it heated quite rapidly. I can't read the characters on the bag well enough to tell you what exactly this calcium concoction is, but perhaps my chemist brother will chime in here. More mixing on the tarp, and some walking around in rubber boots to crush clumps of clay, and we were ready to dump the mixed earth off the tarp and onto the floor-to-be. Hoorah!

The low-tech tarp method of mixing took about 1 hour per load, whereas the cement mixer took about 1/2 hour to mix a load 1/3 the size (in other words, the cement mixer took 1 1/2 hours to mix the same amout that we could do in an hour on the tarp). My advice to you, then, if ever you attempt a packed earth floor, is to buy a tarp and go at it. Technology, shmechnology.

The Sunroom and Genkan (Entryway)

aaaak! The internet browser quit on me and I lost the post I was working on. So, we'll just have to make do with a quick one here, as dinner is about to go on the table. I'll be back to add the pictures soon.

So, what have Sara and Shuzo been up to over the last month? Mostly working on the sunroom and new genkan (entryway). We've constructed this addition from the posts and beams of an old 5 by 3 meter shed a neighbor took down a few years ago. Happily, we haven't had to use too much new lumber, and it has been quite a cheap project.

We have roofed the addition with clear poly-something-or-other roofing, with the dream of having a solar heat collector to serve us during the winter months. I expect you can imagine what it feels like to work in there during the summer. Very soon we plan to have a seasonal ceiling up to block some of the sun. I've also built some 2 foot tall removable walls to keep the rain from splashing in. They aren't stained yet, and looking at the building, I feel like it resembles a beach vending shack in an old movie.

Here, then is a picture of the mostly completed shell of the building.


The next, and very complicated (on account of the fact that we have no idea what we're doing) step is putting in the packed earth floor. First is a layer of "yamatsuchi" or mountain sand, a clayey sand soil. On top of this goes a layer of "akatsuchi," a red clay mixed 2:1 with more yamatsuchi and with a hefty dose of lime added in. Here's a tip: wear gloves when working with lime. It's not really very good for your skin. My thumb has almost stopped bleeding from the dry cracks that resulted from an afternoon's playing with limed dirt without gloves. This we shoveled in to the building and spent hours and hours walking on and pounding on, to insufficient avail. We are going to borrow a mechanical compacting machine from some friends tomorrow.

Mixing the akatsuchi, yamatsuchi and lime:



Here we are spreading and pounding it:




I'll try to get some photos of us with the compacting machine tomorrow. Now, though, I will put dinner on the table and tear Shuzo away from the phone. Since I know she'll be reading, I would like to now apologize to Shuzo's mom - I'll tell him to call back soon. I'm just so very hungry!