Ecowerks

Winter wonderland this morning on the farm!

Exciting day! Our doors and windows have arrived for the lookout dining room. Looking snazzy 👌

All double glazed, so this room will be nice and toasty, it gets very cold here!

When floods give you sand, use it!

During the floods at the end of last year, the pool in the picture completely filled up with sand from the higher mountain area. The pool is just below our building site.

We're now using this for all our building works. Yes, it's hard for the guys to carry the sand,but it keeps them fit and warm on a cold morning!

Also, we're not mining more sand for all our building efforts, helping with our sustainability goals. The pool also needs to be emptied eventually from the sand, so everyone is winning!

Nearly done with the ground floor works. Casting ring beams, columns and brickwork. Can't wait to be done with the messy wet works!

Then we go up!

Lovely timber work from Kimon

X marks the spot! Left a bit of my blood in the roof, blood and sweat.. No tears luckily 💪

Ceiling installation complete, looking sassy!

Beautiful sunset light shining on this chunky gum frame built by Kimon and team from Sentinal timbers! Beautiful joinery, no screws in site!

Onto the next round!

Gum timber frame starting to go up on the new addition dining room.
We're also stripping the existing roof and will then demolish the top half of the walls to make space for the new 1st storey.

Good morning everyone !

Welcome to all our new followers. I hope you find a bit of inspiration for your building journey or dream home here!

Have a great weekend 😎

I have a HUGE but small favour to ask whoever is willing…..
Please Go to my business page Ecowerks
- Go the the 3 dots at the top of the page
(on the side of the page)
- in the drop down menu, Hit invite friends
- Select “invite all”
- Done!!!
You just successfully supported my business for $0.00 and less than 30 seconds of your time!

Something as easy as this can play a massive role in supporting us.

Copied but wanted to share as this is an amazing way to help us, small business owners for free.
Thank you

Here's some progress pics of the new roof for the lounge. This wasn't part of the original scope,but we pulled it off in a quick 2 week sprint! Guys did exceptionally well!

The poles holding the roof were very uneven,so levelling this was quite a story!

EPDM wrap came on just in time for a rain spell that same day!
did quick work of this
The bottomed end still needs a gutter detail that will follow later once we have the lower roofs sorted.

After all is done this roof will be planted and will blend in with the landscape,can't wait!

Scope creep.. We started with just adding a new dining room,where the chimney is coming out now.

Now we're stripping the old tiled roof,which is leaking badly. This will be replaced by new EPDM lined living roof.

Also,the living wing on the left of the pic will become a double storey with glass all round to maximize the views! Looks like we'll be here till X-Mas..

More pics to follow!

Office for the day! Not a bad view!

Anyone out there that's a Quantity Surveyor that is looking for some part time work on a per project base? Or maybe you know of one?

Make contact please.

And so starts another year!

All the best to you for 2024!

We're off in the mountains being off-grid. We've started the demolishing work of this structure to make space for something grand! Keep an eye here for progress pics to follow over the next few months 😉

We completed this double storey wall last week! Forms part of the entrance to the house with a rim flow pool coming next to it, can't wait to see it all done!

How's that whispy little pattern in the white layer 😍

As always, pure earth wall with a touch of lime mixed in, maximum compacted 💪

Windy Saturday morning in Cape Town!

We stripped the formwork on this big wall yesterday, today we start the curing process of wetting it twice a day.

We'll keep doing that for about 2 weeks at least.

Going up!

Decomposed granite from the mountain becoming a mountain again!

This spot is showing off its beauty today!

Main house has strawbale walls with clay plaster, overcoated with lime plaster. New timber walls has h**p block infill with h**p/Lime plaster.

Timber for cladding, Lunawood, Nordic Pine.

Very close to being finished!
**pbuilding **p

First reveal! In turbulent times, little victories rock!

Busy busy bees.. All coming together!
**pbuilding **p

Exciting day! Interior floors are going down! Big change coming.. Check those sexy round plaster corners 😍

Setting out is not for the faint hearted! You do not want to make a mistake here, as it translates later on in your build. Take your time to get it right the first time!

Here we are building the stem walls for the addition to the strawbale house. Brick stem walls will have rock cladding and timber frame walls on top. That will be filled with h**p blocks and coated in a lime plaster.

Looking forward to see the end result 👌
**p **pbuilding

Day 1 of a new project. This little strawbale house is nearly 20 years old and in need of some love.

We'll be doing a complete re-plaster inside and out plus extending the footprint to include a dining room, scullery and outside deck area.

Watch this space!

Few shots of the build at Helderberg couple of years back. We built the rammed earth wall in a horseshoe shape.

I made my first batch of natural paint the other day! It's called Swedish paint and is actually very simple to make.

Came out great on our little cottage renovation!

Thanks for sharing the recipe with me. Had fun making it!

Plaster samples made in my driveway for a possible collaboration with a big retailer. Holding thumbs 🤞

Top to bottom order:
Lime/sand
Clay with chopped straw
Clay 1
Clay 2
H**p/lime plaster(hard to see fibres)
H**pcrete
**pcrete **p **plime

Could you believe it possible?

Stronger Than Steel? - H**p Rebar Could Start an Eco-Friendly Movement in Building Materials Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic and other reputable institutions point out that h**p could be a perfect replacement for steel. These scientists claim...