[GSBN] earthen floor sealer in Haiti

[MARK SCHUENEMAN]

Greetings All, 
 
Has anyone noticed any adverse or positive effects of oils applied to floors with additives in the mix...such as casein, dung, blood, wheat paste, whatever? And, I would guess that warming the oil, whatever oil, would help the penetration. Heating it to too high of a temp may not be recommended. I have some cob window sills that look beautiful but they need a sealer to be most effective. All of this chatter (I say with all due respect) has helped me with my future experimentation with finishing these sills. I look forward to hearing how the Haiti project turns out. Thanks all. 
 
Gratefully,
Mark Schueneman
Colorado Straw Bale Association


 


From: graeme at ecodesign.co.nz
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:11:58 +1300
To: GSBN at greenbuilder.com
Subject: Re: [GSBN] earthen floor sealer in Haiti






Hi there Tina


My painting  genius friend has offered to carry out some trials with various oils on unfired clay tiles to help with sorting this out - so any pointers to readily available oils over there  would be very welcome I am sure






cheers





Graeme
Graeme North Architects
49 Matthew Road
RD1
Warkworth
tel/fax +64 (0)9 4259305
 
graeme at ecodesign.co.nz
www.ecodesign.co.nz


On 15/03/2011, at 11:43 AM, tina therrien wrote:

Thanks for all of your suggestions & input for the sealer- Jean Louis, one of our Haitian builders, is going to try to procure coconut oil from the market, which we'll test, although he just arrived, and as with many materials here, the coconut oil is proving more difficult and expensive to find than originally anticipated.  If we do the finish floor today or tomorrow, there should be enough time for it to cure by Saturday. Apparently they slaughter a cow just down the laneway every Saturday, so we may even be able to use some cow blood to seal the floor. 


I have found reference to molasses before in terms of finishes, and am now even more curious about it, but don't think we'll have time to try it out here, at least not for this project. 


Any other tips for earthen floors, either finish coat or for sealing, are welcome. I'll stay in close touch with Andy Mueller regarding the floor- I know he wishes he was here to work on it! Pics to come.



In reply to André (and hi, André, by the by!), the BWB website has a page about this project- both a blog and a photo gallery (http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/) Apart from that, both Andy Mueller & I have blogs. My personal blog is about various natural building projects I'm involved with here, and personal impressions of being in Haiti...certainly not all about building, but there are a few segments dedicated to building (including compressed earth block, earth bag, and soon to be light clay/straw if all goes well). http://strawhomes.blogspot.com/ (you'll have to skim through to find building photos & stories).


tina










Camel's Back Construction
Quality, handcrafted homes
www.strawhomes.ca





_______________________________________________
GSBN mailing list
GSBN at greenbuilder.com
http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN


_______________________________________________ GSBN mailing list GSBN at greenbuilder.com http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20110316/82a65798/attachment.htm>