david s Thanks David.
My designed base allowed for 100mm ceramic fibre blanket, covered by 150mm vermicrete. At the sides I will need to add that so the sides of the dome meet the sides of the base, but I can go thinner on top with the vermicrete. If I got you correctly, I’ll plan on adding 4 x 35mm layers of vermicrete at a time, a week apart to allow each layer to dry sufficiently before adding the next. Our fist frost is possible from mid October, but we can still have warm days. Weather lotto, will just have to be flexible.
I think I’ll knock up a small test batch of a few liters of homebrew to test it and get the hang of mixing it. The sizes of the vermiculite and perlite is hopefully going to work, as I mentioned some time ago, i had issues translating fine and medium into German measurement standards. Maybe I could break my vermiculite down a bit if its not fine enough.
One question about the photos you posted showing the vermicrete being added directly over the blanket. The second shows a really smooth finish, is that only vermicrete, without render? If I can get something close to that finish I’ll be really happy.
My designed base allowed for 100mm ceramic fibre blanket, covered by 150mm vermicrete. At the sides I will need to add that so the sides of the dome meet the sides of the base, but I can go thinner on top with the vermicrete. If I got you correctly, I’ll plan on adding 4 x 35mm layers of vermicrete at a time, a week apart to allow each layer to dry sufficiently before adding the next. Our fist frost is possible from mid October, but we can still have warm days. Weather lotto, will just have to be flexible.
I think I’ll knock up a small test batch of a few liters of homebrew to test it and get the hang of mixing it. The sizes of the vermiculite and perlite is hopefully going to work, as I mentioned some time ago, i had issues translating fine and medium into German measurement standards. Maybe I could break my vermiculite down a bit if its not fine enough.
- 5 parts vermiculite (2-3mm)
- 5 parts perlite (2-6mm)
- 1 part portland cement powder
- 4 parts water (added 1/3 at a time and hand mixed in bucket or barrow)
- 1 handful of clay powder per litre of cement added
One question about the photos you posted showing the vermicrete being added directly over the blanket. The second shows a really smooth finish, is that only vermicrete, without render? If I can get something close to that finish I’ll be really happy.
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