Building a long term shelter from natural materials

[joe o]

I see your point there Sandbender. The notion that those of us who run courses are coining it in is most definitely wrong however. For full time instructors the financial rewards are very small, the risks are huge. Quality of life and continued learning are the upside. Never having a holiday or spare cash to buy kit, uncertain future every month seem to balance it out.

Maybe I should've asked someone else to post the link...

In all honesty, I was pleased with the step by step layout of the gallery and pleased with the project and thought this might be the perfect place to show off a little to likeminded people. Some of you have enjoyed seeing the process and hopefully been inspired by the work that has gone into it. I thought that might've entitled me to pop the website address on there...

Joe

 

[Toddy]

Hello Joe
Thank you for posting the photos and writing it up

Ah, don't take it to heart; everyone who links like you did gets a gentle heads up. Others who pay for the right to advertise are well within reason to be irked if someone else gets it for free.

On a side note, if you can put up a reciprocal link then you can have yours as your signature link and that will show on every post you make on the forum...and it doesn't cost you anything either


Back to the shelter.........Fiona helped do the hazel work on one of the shielings on the hill above Loch Lomond. The roof was done by bundling heather and tying it down to the rafters in layers, like laying slates, then the same was done with bracken and then finished off with bundles of rushes. It all helped shed the rain, and the bundles being lashed on really kept it tight against the wind.
I've never used a leaf piled shelter for longer than a couple of days, was surprised to hear that yours had lasted so well so long

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Corfe]

A superb effort, and it gets me twitching like mad to get out in the woods again. I live in a wee house by the sea that once was thatched, and (This for Toddy), every autumn my father in law used to turn up. cut sods and place them on the south-east corner without being asked. We wondered about this before the first winter ( he was 80 at the time), but after living here through the first January we knew just what he was at. Even though the thatch has been replaced by slate now, I still cut sods and put them on that corner at the turn of the year - otherwise, the roof gets stripped bit by bit by the gales - thatch was better!

 

[addo]

That was really interesting Joe. Thanks for posting up.
Soon as I get my wood and find enough time, I'd like to give it a go. I've made structures involving wattle hurdles and debris, but yours looks like it will really last with all the joints and materials. The door is spot on!

 

[Toddy]

Corfe that's such a classic bit of knowledge that gets lost as folks move on I know of a loose net of ropes with boulders hung from them over the top of the thatch of the old black houses to stop the wind lifting the thatch, and the cruck frames that created the A framing of the roof. The cruck frames were bedded down on stone to lift the wood out of the wet.

Sorry Joe O. we've slightly detoured your thread

Did anyone else think Joe's shelter minded them of the Hobbit house ?

cheers,
M

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Thats a great looking shelter looks warm and dry, everything it should be!
nice job.

Very nice indeed.

 

[kodiakjoe]

Inspirational stuff Joe and a great step-by-step gallery - thanks for sharing

 

[Biker]

Now that is really inspiring! As a carpenter I can appreciate the workmanship skill that went into making that door as well.

Can't praise that enough, well done!

Don't take the telling off to heart, I fell foul when I first started posting links to outside stuff here, I simpky didn't know the protocols. Trust me, this really is a VERY friendly forum with top notch moderators. not to mention people who appreciate seeing stuff like you've built

 

[joe o]

Thanks Biker and Toddy,

I'm not taking it to heart - more surprised than anything else. Someone else updates my website for me so I didn't even have time to sort a reciprical link before moderators were swooping in and editing my replies to peoples questions. Forum visitors have been very appreciative of the post, which is great. I feel disappointed with how I've been spoken to via PM by moderators.

I don't do 'being told off' no matter how supposedly pleasant it is! Certainly not on a public forum either!!

Joe

 

[Toddy]

Happens to us all
I got it on a paper modelling site I didn't know that they didn't do the swapping books thing, since that was ripping off authors, when I offered to post my copy of one to another member.

I came to the conclusions that it's just people. On the internet it's hard to hear the tone of the voice, and it's all too easy to feel that instead of explanatory someone's just being partronisingly narky.

Anyway, back to your shelter
We don't get much organic preservation really in this country, it's too wet and warm. Really, it is, everything rots; but in some sites, especially wet ones, like York, Perth, Aberdee, etc., we do find hazel hurdle walls.
Those for small homes were double walled with the interior space packed with stuff like bracken. It doesn't really stop the wind as dead as your wattle and daub, but it does act like a kind of cavity wall insulation and the interior of the building is warm, yet still allows fresh air to pass through without draughts. Stops the damp settling in apparantly and doesn't go mouldy.
Add a fire in the middle and there you go, medieval des res

cheers,
M

 

[grey-array]

That is looking prime ^^ superb shelter I'd say great work,
Perhaps I will steal some ideas from you, for the wals of the shelter I'm currently building it will house about 6 man,
But it is in a ranger rich area and thus I am afraid that they will demolish it might they find it.
and I still desperately want to get me self an auger it saves such allot of time and god I love Crux frame build houses/shelters
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Wonderful shelter