Scraping off cracked lime plaster from a to-smooth earthen wall

Failure: the omission of expected or required action. I think this is what they call “Another F-ing learning experience”. It’s sometimes necessary to make mistakes to learn what not to do. I thought I’d share mine.

A year ago we plastered a wall with a sand and lime mix. The mix wasn’t very precise and a little thin. It was applied to a wall that had little to no key, nothing for the plaster to hold on to. I have always finished the ’scratch’ coat with my hands in the past. I guess that left enough of a key or grip, but this was finished with a pool trowel. And huh… not scratched. Continue…

I had the good fortune of roaming around Portland, Oregon for a few days after my friend’s wedding. Surely I wanted to see what’s been happening on the cob and public art scene there, since it’s been so long since I’ve lived there. The Portland Hostel gazebo was new to me. It is similar to other artfully crafted places created by City Repair, though I’m not sure it was one of their initiatives. Fantastic! I love seeing cob art on the streets of a major city. This was particularly well done and a comfortable sanctuary off of busy Hathorne Blvd.

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I wanted to make an oven, somewhere to bake some pizza. So I started to work…
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You may have noticed the Operation Oasis post I made earlier in the season. Where Kevin and I built a small ( 280 round feet ) building. I’m glad to say that I am living in it now and typing on a solar powered computer! A hundred feet away I have started on a new building. Project SolUnit or Sununit; reminiscent of the Project Moonunit. Ok, it’s had many names… some of which has been Ouroborus SolUnit, iSpot or H-spot, Pod number 2. The ( mud ) building season is coming to an end so I thought I’d post something about what’s been happening since September.

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The finish on our earthen floor consisted of a adobe mixture of 1 clay to 2 sand, chopped straw, and some El Rey 200. I troweled a red iron oxide into the final mud coat and then later sponged more into the surface. To seal the floor we used boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits. It’s recommended that you warm up the oil, but we just left it in the sun for a while. The first coat was straight linseed oil with just a splash of spirits. The second was cut almost 50-50.

Spontaneous Combustion!

Since I do not like the stink of the oil I opted to only put two coats on. Later in the afternoon…
The sponge I used to apply the linseed oil and spirits started to smolder. Pew. It was on fire and it was in the house! I’m so glad I found it before it got out of control.

A word to the wise: When a container says “Product may spontaneously combust” - believe it!