How to build a straw house, part IV

It's been a couple of weeks since we last updated the photodiary of The LookOut, our eco-building near the Coffee Shop.  It's not that we haven't done anything, it's simply that we haven't had a chance to write a blog about it. And although we've managed the occasional tweet, it quickly became apparent that smartphones don't really like hands covered in clay. (And if you can operate one while wearing rubber gloves, I'll buy you a pint).

When we last wrote, we'd just finished the straw, and the roof had been made watertight.  Since then, we've been getting very messy, rendering the outside and the inside.

Lime time

The outside of The LookOut is coated in lime.  It needs two coats, a base layer that is smeared onto the straw bales and then a top-coat of lime mixed with hemp.  It's not very technical, but it is pretty time-consuming, and so we've been grateful for the help of a pool of volunteers, including some from other parts of RSPB Cymru.  

We've been kitted out in long-armed rubber gloves and safety glasses, because if the lime splashes on your skin (or worse, in your eyes), it'll hurt.  But the gloves get very sweaty, and by the end of an afternoon, it's a bit unpleasant.

We completed the base layer of lime in a couple of days, and that gave us a 'key' to which we could attach the top layer.  While the first layer is 'smeared' on, the top layer is thrown. The trick is to mould a little ball of hemp and lime in your hands, as you would a snowball.  Then you throw it with enough force to make it stick to the wall, spreading it with the heel of your hand so that it joins up with the pieces of lime that you've already done. Sounds simple enough?

The hardest part is starting a new section of wall.  Getting the first piece to stick is really tough.

Actually, no, the hardest part is when it goes wrong.  If you lay the lime on too thick, especially if the mix is a bit too wet, gravity takes over.  First a small crack appears. That turns into a large crack, and then you watch your last half hour's work peel away from the building and end up in a forlorn heap on the ground with a dull thud.  It happened to me on my first day, but I learned from my mistake and I haven't done the same again.

The top coat is about 3 cm thick, and when it's completed, it can be floated level.  It is probably best described as 'wholegrain' plaster.  Oh yes, and it smells really earthy, but not unpleasant.

Our hope was to complete the outside render by the end of last week, but we ran out of lime mix on Thursday and can't get any more until Monday. So, we've done almost three sides of The LookOut and it will be the priority for the start of next week.  We need to ensure it doesn't dry out too quickly in the warm breeze, so we hose it down each morning, and to ensure the edge where we finish each day doesn't crack, we have to add at least some new lime each day, so lots of visitors this weekend have had the opportunity to see us at work.

Clay days

Meanwhile, we've also been trained how to render the inside of the building.  Rae, from Strawworks (above) showed us how to put the two coats on the inside.  The clay is a by-product from a brickworks in Yorkshire, and like the lime on the outside, the first coat is smeared on, so that it provides a key for the topcoat.  Remember those plastic 'sticklebricks' you used to have? (younger readers, please read this - there isn't an X-box version so far as I know).  Well, the first coat needs to end up like the edge of a sticklebrick, so that we can attach the topcoat to it.

A couple of our fundraising colleagues came to help on Thursday, and had a great time.  If your childhood fantasy was throwing plasticine at the walls, you'd love it!  It was evidently Owen's fantasy, as he later described Thursday as "one of the best RSPB reserve experiences I've ever had".  One of our stalwart volunteers, Matt, finished with us last week - he'd helped almost every single day since we started the straw, so to date he's done more than anyone to build The LookOut.

The picture above shows the second (left) and first (right) coats of clay.  The top coat is mixed with sand and chopped straw that we chainsawed from the walls to make them even.  That will take a few weeks to dry thoroughly, and then we'll decide whether to leave it 'au naturel' or to paint it.  That's one of the nice things about this build: we can make some decisions as we go along, depending on what it looks like.

The squares of wooden shuttering in this picture will be 'truth windows'. When the rendering is complete, you won't be able to see any straw, so two pieces will be behind glass with some information to explain to visitors how The LookOut was made. Our thanks to Clifton Glass in Llandudno for donating the glass. (I'm not sure why there's a banana in this photo; it could be a modern art installation, or it may be Peter's lunch).

Telling the world

We've had lots of interest in the work from visitors, and this week from the media too.  

BBC Radio Wales came and recorded pieces for the Louise Elliott show, for Country Focus and for Good Evening Wales, with a feature on their website.

Julian explains what the work involves on this YouTube clip made by Huw Jenkins for Natur Cymru

And on Friday, ITV Wales News featured the work on every broadcast - you can see the feature here.

This week will be more of the same, completing the lime render on the outside and, hopefully, the clay render on the inside.  A team of staff from The Crown Estate, who have been a major funding partner in the Conwy Connections project and grew the straw for the building, are coming to help this week, so enthused were they by our slightly madcap idea when we told them about it a year ago.

We're hoping that The LookOut will be completed by the end of July, when we'll also be revealing the exciting new sculpture that is being created for the entrance to the reserve.