Peeled poles, stone and earth are enough to build a low-cost adobe cabin with lofts.
You can build an inexpensive hunting cabin made primarily from earth. This practical, versatile and surprisingly easy building method can save you thousands of dollars.
Instructions
1. Place your wall foundation stones or blocks on top of level ground at your building site. No mortar is necessary if your blocks are flat, like recycled cement, and you don't live in an earthquake zone.
2. Notice staggered ends and dark earth-mix mortar on this stone and brick foundation.
Lay the foundation blocks tightly together like a jigsaw puzzle by staggering and overlapping the end connections of each rock or block. This is called a stem wall. Make the wall about 1 foot high. Measure and leave an opening for the entry door.
3. Spread the mixing tarp on the ground and load two or three buckets of earth into the middle.
4. Test your soil for clay and sand contents by shaking a cup of dirt in a mason jar filled with water and left to settle. Examine the water to check for sand collected in the bottom and clay-formed clouds floating in the water that take a long time to settle. These two signs indicate clay and sand in the needed amounts. You may need to add these ingredients if there is no sand in the bottom of the jar or no long-hanging clouds formed in the water.
5. Slowly add what you need, along with water and straw. Kids can help by stomping, twisting and mixing with their feet. Pull the tarp from the corners toward the middle and continue to mix and pull until your earth mix looks and feels like bread dough or a folded bean burrito---thoroughly wet, but clay-like and ready to form with the hands. Mixing earth, sand and clay with water creates a bond between the clay and sand.
6. Load this mix onto your rock or stem wall. Shape this mass so the earth hangs slightly over the rocks, and no water can slip under your earth wall.
7. Keep loading the earth mix until your walls rise a foot or so above the door opening. Shape the earth up the sides of any window openings. Trim and smooth your earth walls as you go. Work the earth with your hands and fingers, and use a stick or tool to push the layers of earth together and into each other when you add new loads.
8. Embed any beams and rafters securely into the top of your walls. Place them to receive your roofing plywood. Nail the plywood sheets down directly on top of the beams and rafters. Make sure your plywood framing extends a full 2 feet out over all of your walls. Shape the edges to please the eye.
9. Glue a big sheet of pond liner down on the plywood as a labor- and time-saving water-repellent roof membrane. Reinforce with roofing nails, then give the nails a quick, complete dab of silicone seal. You can also trim the roof structure with 6-inch boards and fill with cardboard, carpet and 5 to 6 inches of soil.
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