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100 %
Last replied
28 Feb 2024
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Details
Description
Hi all !
Here is a future Strawbale House, waiting for you to help with the building. A strawbale house that will be quite different from others, since most people consider making it with only one row of bales. Which in my opinion is not quite sufficient in a cold long winter in the hills.
There may be other houses alike, but this one will have one-meter thick walls, because climate is cold and winter is long. The house will be heated mostly with compost, by using a thermophilic bacteria reactor, but also will have - as a backup - a combination stove (kitchen + kind-of-fireplace) heating the whole house with very little fuel, using an unusual concept, related to bell-stoves and a bit inspired from rocket stoves as well, but still different and, more important, DIY.
Electricity comes from solar panels (even in winter, I have many panels, and I'm frugal when needed) and storage is in Lithium-Iron batteries, a quite new concept which is very promising (I'm already using them since mid 2015); Electric lights will be using DIY LED lamps; water comes from a ground well and from a downhill stream; will be stored in an attic reservoir, filtered in a local-made sand-and-gravel water filter; we already have a dry-toilet and I'm still searching a way to use this concept at the new house as well. I will pursue especially a permacultural approach for gardening, in the future living here.
What we'll have to do? Apart from learning all these unusual concepts and tehniques that I studied and planned in the last twelve years (2010+) since, we'll have to work, of course. But will not be so hard. We'll do mostly woodwork: timber for walls amd furniture, a staircase.. . In June-July we'll build floors, staircase, and we'll plaster the walls. In August plastering continue, and we have to do the stove. More details further in the Details section..
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
DIY and building projects
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We have plenty of historical and beautiful location to visit around: Deva Stronghold, Sarmizegetusa (2500 y.o.) ruins and others at 40 miles away; also here is a beatiful place to just stay and enjoy for a while, far away from cities.
From me, you may learn how to do your own photovoltaic system with not-so-big-money, how to make a house with extremely low heat losses, how to combine high and low technologies to make for a sustainable way of life in a faraway place. I described part of the tech in the introductory section...
And we have enjoyable neighbours, they also practice "workaway" and are hosts, and we meet all summer plenty of people, mostly form Germanic-Nordic countries, but also we had French and Italy. Lots of fun.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
From 2022 July: we'll do the plastering of the house. I planned and experimented with a 4 sqm per day schedule, which is doable, will have also to move and rebuild the scaffold, and to do the closure of the edge of roof, which imply some woodwork (cutting, position, assembly using screws and nails)
From August and September 2022: the stove. We still have to do some concrete for this, to erect the stove wall. After, we'll do the internal flames circuitry, using pipes, steel net and clay.
Old history (worked already), but some new bits as well:
2020: structure (mostly erecting and fixing wood beams and poles with nails and screws) and second floor infrastructure (wood beams and studs, screws and nails, and covering with timber floor), erecting the roof framing; at beginning of August we manipulated timber for attic structure, we constructed frames and rafters for roofing.
2022: We'll use mineral wool for attic insulation, probably around middle-end of October.
2022. Walls and staircase.
Main skill required: hammering. Nails. Lots of 'em. Let's not say it's hard in itself, but still being a lot... Some cuttings with electric saws. Assembly with screws... And a bit of vision, because not everything is on paper. Some things like stairs, door and windows frames, will may need a bit of changing, designing, improvising.
2021: August, was Strawbales building:
Needed no special skills here, because the work itself was quite easy and straightforward to catch: just to manipulate and insert the bales in the walls, press them into space, and then secure them with posts, sticks, steel wire and nails; also the bales were "treated" against pests with lots of sodium carbonate, and protected against rodents with a galvanized steel net.
2022 November: the walls water vapour insulation; involves sticking aluminized plastic foil on the interior of the walls; is a rather delicate process and foil needs to be kept intact, no holes; at the poles surfaces will be holes from the clips and nails used, but will be sealed with some silicone or other material to be impervious to air leaks. Air contains water vapors and must not go from inside of the house to the bales, because condensation will occur and bales will rot.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Romanian: Fluent
Accommodation
We have actually a room which can accomodate on bad weather up to 4 people, and otherwise plenty of location around, for tents and caravans. But I will keep the number of visitors to mostly 4 to ensure in any case (lets say we had days in June and August when temperature at night drops to 3-4 celsius) if is cold they can refugiate in the house.
We are not vegetarians; we eat various food, mostly romanian/balcanic traditional dishes (various soups and sauces, vegetables, with and without meat).
What else ...
Local transportation:
-Bus from Hunedoara to here (55km away) is in Monday and Wednesday afternoon, at 15:30; Fridays at 16:30.
-Bus from here to Hunedoara is in the same days at 6:30 in the morning.
Also there may be locals who go to city around 9-10 in the morning
-Buses Deva to Hunedoara (10km) are every 15 minutes in daytime.
-When you come first-time, I can pick you from Hunedoara to the location in my car (I have a small jeep).
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
thousands of sqm available; electricity & water as well; net through hotspot (you need a Vodafone card if away from mine)
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (3)
The days were punctuated by the construction site, meals, times with neighbors and film evenings. Busy days.
Construction of the… read more
They were comitted and both helped me a lot, even with quite hard work sometimes, when moving timber and building. Michael has some climbing equipment and with that helps me a lot when it was to work at some difficult part of the walls near… read more
They were comitted and both helped me a lot, even with quite hard work sometimes, when moving timber and building
We had great time together, they ate with us and they liked the dishes (balcanic and european), we discussed many things… read more
Photos
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The days were punctuated by the construction site, meals, times with neighbors and film evenings. Busy days.
Construction of the… read more
They were comitted and both helped me a lot, even with quite hard work sometimes, when moving timber and building. Michael has some climbing equipment and with that helps me a lot when it was to work at some difficult part of the walls near… read more
They were comitted and both helped me a lot, even with quite hard work sometimes, when moving timber and building
We had great time together, they ate with us and they liked the dishes (balcanic and european), we discussed many things… read more
They were comitted, they got involved also in some calculations and modification of the project I had at some point
Both helped me a lot, even with quite hard work at moving lots of timber i got from the manufacturer (I tried to protect Emanuelle a… read more
I cannot have other then good words about them. Wish them to have a beautifull summer… read more
