While we are on construction hold during the cold weather I have decided to build my Earthship “virtually” using 3D modelling software I use for my work. The idea of this is to see how well I interpret the information shown on our Biotecture drawing set and hopefully find errors I make before I actually make them in the real world!
We have read the books and taken the seminar in Taos where we did a bit of hands on work ourselves but I know many people have volunteered on builds and have much more experience than we do. I would love to get any feedback or tips regarding these posts that you think may help us this spring. You can click on the comments icon to submit any thoughts you may have.
Thank you everyone!
Virtual Earthship – Post 5, Concrete Work
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Here are the latest renderings of my Virtual Earthship. For those of you seeing this series of posts for the first time, I am building an Earthship virtually to get a better understanding of the process before I start the actual work on the construction site. I am hoping that people reading these posts with previous Earthship building experience may point out some errors or offer suggestions.
Planview
Isometric View
Elevation
In this series of renderings I have added all of the concrete work and stem walls for the inside greenhouse walls. I have modified the stem pours slightly to accommodate a larger opening off the kitchen and living room areas. Our hope is to install partition window walls that can be removed in the warmer months to open the house directly into the greenhouse. The stem pour positions line up with vertical beam positions that will support the transfer beam. I am getting this reviewed by a structural engineer to be sure we will not have any issues.
In this series I have also added the rear buttresses. Although it can not be seen, I also virtually built the rebar support structures. I found the details of this portion a bit vague on our drawing. I plan to bring this up during one of our telephone consultations with Earthship Biotecture but if anyone out there has poured these buttresses and can explain the rebar pattern I would appreciate any information you might have.
Ninth Course of Tires
Here are the renderings with 9 courses of tires added. I have added the vapor wrap and an exhaust vent out the side of our cold storage.
Planview
Isometric view
Elevation
Fourth Course of Tires
Not much to say on this post but it shows another two courses of tires!
Planview
Isometric view
Elevation
Second Course of Tires
Planview
Isometric view
Elevation
Here are the renderings for the second course of tires. This is what I have learned so far…
1 – I need to set each course of tires back by 1.25” from the previous course to get the proper lean into the berm.
2- There is some play on the corner tires so I do not need to be as precise as I thought with tire sizes.
3 – The vent tube positions may shift slightly from what is shown on the drawings to better match the tire layouts.
4 – The concrete filler beside the vent tubes and at the ends provide more play to compensate for varying tire sizes (tire tread wear etc.). So again, I do not need to be as precise and will be less picky when collecting tires.
First Course of Tires
Planview
Isometric view
Elevation
Here are the renderings for the first course of tires. This is what I have learned so far…
1 – How to layout the first course using the instructions on the planview drawing (very clear).
2- How to layout out the three tire turn.
3 – The corners on the north side of the building are not the same as the three tire turn and require some tweaking.
4 – I will need to learn how to mix concrete right away!
5 – Pounding a virtual tire is much easier than a real one
