Offgridburbia

The Buda area got somewhere in the vicinity of 20 inches of rain in the past two weeks. Buda gets on average 37 inches of rain per a year. So, I was anxious/excited to see what kind of damage the flood had done to our little construction project. My Mom had looked under the tarp earlier in the week and reported that one of the blocks had melted. Yikes!

The melted block was the one my Dad added the day after we did most of the rest of first course. It appears like there wasn’t quite enough lime in the mix.

A closer look. The block on the right is the first one we did. Apart from a bit of weathering on top it is holding up pretty well. I noticed that the blocks we did later on the first course didn’t hold up as well as the first ones we made. With the later ones I was trying to get a drier mixture so we could remove the forms faster. Perhaps the lime didn’t mix in as evenly with the drier mixture. I think the solution will be to stay with a wetter mix, make more forms and leave them on longer.

A couple of inches of sediment had built on the west end of the building. Eventually, I was planning on grading the soil away from building and making a shallow swale to divert water running down the slope around the building.

Digging out the form boards.

In addition to making more of the standard 12″X12″ forms I wanted to make a corner form. First step was to make sketch in my notebook. Second was to make the cuts.

Third step was to clamp it in place.

Fortunately, all the boards fit together like they were supposed to

Fourth step was to nail the pieces together

The fifth step was to add legs to the form.

We also added legs to all of our 12″X12″ forms

2 months into the project and we finally have T-brick forms.

Note how the legs of the T-brick forms fit over the gap in the course below it.

I made the mix wetter and used plenty of lime. I’m going to let the blocks set up in the forms for a while.

Covering for the inevitable rain tomorrow