Yurt: Earthen Floor Part 2

On August 20th, we removed the tarp from our first layer of adobe flooring.  We used the garden sprayer to mist it down again before covering it back up.  We spent this day screening more dirt for the second layer of adobe flooring.  The ratio was the same (4 shovels of clay: 1 shovel of B horizon soil) but less straw than the first layer (we did two fairly large fistfuls for the first layer and went to just one fistful for this second layer - we were kind of wondering if we used a bit too much straw in the first layer).  We did 15 wheel barrow full loads.

Adobe mix screened with quarter inch hardware cloth.

On August 21st (yesterday), we came in and removed the tarp.  Everything was nice and damp.  Brent used our leaf rake to rake the excess straw from it and do a little light scratching as he did so.  The scratches would help the second layer adhere, so would the dampness and the straw sticking up (that didn't rake up).

First layer of adobe looking good.

Using leaf rake to rake excess straw from surface of 1st layer.

Excess straw.

 We used two 5 gallon buckets to transfer the pile of adobe to the yurt floor.  I shoveled and filled while Brent carried them over and dumped them.  I am not able to really lift them when filled to the top the way he wanted.  He carried 76 buckets of adobe into the yurt floor.  That's a lot of dirt!

76 piles of adobe ready for leveling.

The next step was to use the leveling rake to level all the little piles.

Roughly leveled with leveling rake.

We didn't worry about getting it perfect.  The next step is dampening and tamping.  It was a sunny, breezy day so I was kept busy with dampening things while Brent did all the tamping.  He went over the whole things three times, but did it in sections.  Again, we found it tamped down tighter than we expected so we still have up to 2" to fill in spots to bring it up to the level of our bond beam.  

Second layer of adobe done!

A final dampening was done before covering it again with the tarp to keep it from drying out.  Today, August 22nd, we screened 11 wheel barrow fulls of adobe for our final layer of our earthen floor.  We will screen another 4 tomorrow.  Our mix was different this time.  We did 4 shovels clay:2 shovels Horizon B soil:1 shovel sand all screened through 1/4" hardware cloth.  We couldn't find 1/8" and the aluminum window screening proved too small.  We will use it, though, to screen some extra adobe mix that will then be used for any patching of cracks, etc.  The "Big Day" is Friday when we will put in the third layer.  We bought a plant watering can and some very straight boards to help us set up sections and use as scree boards.  This will be a bit more of a poured layer.  We won't be tamping this one and there will be quite a bit more water involved.  The previous two layers took about 23g of water each.  Brent is thinking that we will be laying this layer at a bit thicker consistency than our soil cement bond beam was.  We'll see how it goes.  Adobe dries more slowly and can be worked for a longer period of time, which is good as this is 300sf we're doing here.  Friday's going to be a long, dirty day!