TexasMadness
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Seed house
For a few years, we've been growing seeds at the farm in a greenhouse at the back of the garden. Just a metal frame with clear plastic sheeting over it. Well, my mom decided she wanted something prettier so we've started construction on the official Seed House!
The cob foundation is already complete. It's a waist high wall consisting of logs and cement. It's very good insulation and will help keep the house warm in the winter. The walls are just over a foot thick.
Here's a close up of the walls. The logs are mostly pecan from around the farm (well seasoned so they won't shrink!). We had a couple here recently that did this professionally, so we used them to build it!
The top will be covered with antique windows to form the rest of the walls. The windows will let the light in, of course, an that also means heating the house. We hope to not have to use much fuel to heat it as the plastic one.
A little work was done today - just putting up the first wall. I'll keep taking pictures as it progresses!
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1/14/2012, 7:35 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: Seed house
Wow, this is a cool project! (Forgive me the pun.)
I very much like the log and cement walls, they look very solid and yet quite decorative. What will you use for a roof?
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1/14/2012, 8:29 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Seed house
Firlefanz wrote:
What will you use for a roof?
That is actually a good question! Our fall back is corrugated clear plastic, but it's pretty ugly and gets real nasty after a few years because it's hard to clean. We are currently looking for alternatives, but haven't found anything really suitable yet.
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1/14/2012, 10:35 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf1
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Re: Seed house
What an awesome project! I love the cement and wood wall! As artistic as you are, it would be so cool to paint designs on the logs, once you get the rest of it built!
For a top, if you can find more windows, that would be a wonderful 'roof'. Even maybe some older storm doors that are all glass could be used. Look at junk yards in the area....you may be surprised what you can find for free....or a little of nothing! The only problem with putting the glass on top....if anything were to get blown onto it.....could break, but that goes for the windows on the sides, too. A way to help with that may be to get some clear plastic that is like contact paper...sticky on one side. That way, if a window were to get broken, the plastic would help keep it from shattering and pieces of glass flying everywhere into the seeds.
Can't wait to see the finished product!!!!
--- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
~~@Saijen@~~
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1/15/2012, 5:08 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: Seed house
We did think about a glass top...but Central Texas is known for hail storms! We have a big at least every other year. I'm afraid we'll have to do something a little sturdier!
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1/15/2012, 3:00 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf1
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Re: Seed house
Yeah....was afraid of something like that. Could get expensive replacing the glass...and tempered glass is way too expensive. If you could find some of that glass that has the metal between 2 pieces of glass (like in school doors)...that may work. You'd have to see if a junk yard had it though.....to purchase it outright would be expensive. What about something similar to what you did with the garden beds at the farm? The PVC piping and plastic? You know it works for that...why not for the seed house? May have to work it a little differently..... a way to help may be....lay the PVC flat...from wall to wall, like a grid....place your plastic, then do a larger grid on the outside, to keep the wind from ripping the plastic up and off. Could even paint the pvc....or, if you don't want to use pvc....if you have small enough around lengths of wood to tie in with the wood in the walls.....use that. Just make one # for the inside...and a larger # for the outside...you'd just have to figure out how to keep it in place. Possibly cement screws through the wood/pipe, into the walls?
Good luck on figure it all out. Y'all are creative, so I know you'll come up with something efficient and neat looking!
--- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
~~@Saijen@~~
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1/15/2012, 7:14 pm
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