*** CLASSES ARE ON HOLD DUE TO LOCKDOWNS ***

Learn the essentials of building a house with Compressed Earth Blocks! In this hands-on workshop you will learn how to mix the soil, how to press blocks, how to construct a foundation, and then build the walls of a small building.

This workshop will be repeating over multiple weekends in late spring 2020. You have a choice to attend on either a Saturday or a Sunday, or both. 

• On Saturday morning we will teach all about soil: how to test it, mine it, pulverize it, how to mix in sand and stabilizer as needed, how to measure moisture content, and how to press good blocks with a CEB machine, and how to store and cure the blocks. This is all hands-on.

• On Saturday afternoon we will lay blocks on an existing wall or foundation. You'll learn how to use story poles and mason's line, how to cut blocks, how to make slurry (earth mortar), and how to lay blocks and build straight, level walls.

• On Sunday morning we will teach about rubble trench foundations, which are the best type of foundation for our area. The foundation will already be complete for the workshop, but we will show you the methods for digging the trench, measuring slope, using batter boards, sloping a drainage ditch to daylight, bending, cutting and tying rebar, and pouring a concrete footer. 

• On Sunday afternoon we will continue laying blocks so everyone understands all aspects of the construction process. Knowing how to cut blocks and make slurry is just as important as how to lay blocks. We will also teach how to install window and door frames and build around them, and share three methods for installing electric wiring in CEB buildings. 

The same workshop will be repeated over multiple weekends if there are sufficient attendees. Anyone who takes a weekend workshop can volunteer on subsequent weekends for more experience. The walls will take several weekends to complete, depending on how many people attend. After the CEB walls are finished we will build a bond beam on top.  

We follow the New Mexico code for CEB. 

The CEB portion starts at 14.7.4.23, after the Adobe and Rammed Earth portions of the code:

http://164.64.110.239/nmac/parts/title14/14.007.0004.htm

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WHERE:

Wildflower Ecovillage, 6257 CR 3204, Campbell, TX 75422. (Google Maps will take you to the north entrance, and you want the south entrance, as follows.) Take I-30 going east of Greenville. Take exit 104 for Lone Oak/Campbell and stay on the access road. After 3 miles turn right onto CR 3202. Continue on CR 3202 1.7 miles until the road takes a 90 degree turn to the right. Just before that turn there is a gravel driveway on the right. Park inside the gate. 

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COST:

$100 for a single day

$170 for a weekend

We are not accepting payments yet because we don't know the exact dates. As of January 2019 we're getting blocks made from the local soil tested (applying 30,000 lbs of pressure on a block) and will go into block production after the test results.

We will update this information when we have the dates.

        *** CLASSES ARE ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19 ***

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