Roofing/Siding/Flashing Installed

 Secondary waterproofing layer installed. Siding and flashing are aluminum.

We rented a 10' brake from our local hardware store to form the panels.

The roofing is painted, profiled steel panels.

The exterior of the earthship is finally finished - YAY!!!

Blueskin Installed

Waterproof at last!!! The primary waterproofing layer is Blueskin (TM), which is a peel-and-stick bitumen membrane (basically a form of tar that is easy to work with).

A huge thank you to the PLx4 family for their invaluable assistance (from left to right): Peter, Preston, Pauline, Pearson

Plywood Mullions Installed

The thermal panes are now secure without that unsightly blocking that was keeping them in place previously.

Roof Vents Installed

The roof vents are an integral part of fresh air delivery. As the sun-warmed air rises in the greenhouse, the raised vents provide an additional chimney effect that draws fresh air through the buried ventilation tubes. The vents being raised above the roof allows them to be used even if snow accumulates on the roof.

Meet the people responsible for building the roof vents (from left to right): Brice, Bruce, Greg, Victoria

Exterior Stucco Complete

 Lots of work but the finished look is well worth the effort...

Rainwater Update

It works!!! The sweet sound of water falling from the roof into the cisterns...

Roof Curb Complete

Bring on the rain! The roof curb for rainwater collection is now complete. We can now catch and store every drop of precious rain that falls on the entire roof.

Guess Who's Back?!

Remember our old friend that collapsed from snow load? Well it's back! Better than ever, with new and improved structural reinforcement to withstand the harshest of Hastings Highlands winters!

This took a lot longer than anticipated. I had to build it up, repair and reinforce all the original steel members, custom fit all new wooden reinforcement, label everything, tear it down, take it to the land and put it all back together again.

Oh, and not to mention the foundation had to be repaired too...

But, well worth the effort because now we can safely store the cement mixer and the generator while doing the masonry work.

Earthship Rainwater Collection System

For collecting rainwater off a roof, ideally you wouldn't want the first bit of water since it cleans the roof. A scupper is a device for diverting that first bit of water away, then allowing the remaining water to be collected. Let's build one and connect the roof to the cisterns.

We started by building custom ball valves for the scupper, consisting of a 3" ABS T-fitting with a wire-coat-hanger cage and a plastic toy ball as the valve.

We tested the valve action in a bucket of water to ensure it blocks water from entering the fitting... and it does!

The ball valve is installed inside a plastic 5 gallon bucket. The idea is that the water has to fill the bucket first, then overflow into the cisterns. As water fills the bucket, the plastic ball floats on the surface of the water until it seals against the T-fitting opening. The incoming water can then flow past the ball and into the cistern. Small holes are drilled into the bottom of the bucket to allow water to slowly drain before the next rainfall. Not sure if this will work so let's hope for the best!

Next we used 3" ABS pipe to connect the roof to the scupper/cistern inlet. We installed removable stainless steel mesh at the pipe inlet to block floating debris/insects/animals.

One system for each cistern. Note that any sediment will get trapped at the mouth of the pipe inlet since it will be raised above the roof surface by about 1". Any remaining sediment entering the system will get trapped in the scupper. The scuppers are fully accessible for cleaning.

Lastly, we installed custom scupper covers made of a 45 gallon steel drum cut in half. The covers prevent the sun's UV rays from making the plastic buckets brittle.

To complete the system we'll build a curb around the roof to direct the water into the pipes.