Sandbag Dome Goat Temple

It's not everyday that somebody calls you and asks if you want to stucco a sand bag dome goat home.  That's what happened to me on Tuesday evening.  I had to make a little room in my busy scheduled life to fit it in...

It was none other than Joseph Becker of Ion Ecobuilding who would make such an offer. We drove down to Rainier, Washington yesterday morning to stucco the structure.

With this little Toyota pick up truck loaded to capacity, we picked up a mortar mixer and I caravan-ed with Joseph to the job site.

We used two orchard ladders, a maple plank as a scaffold to reach all parts of the structure.  The dome was built by a Earthen builder with plastic bags packed with sand.  It was covered with concrete, and in the winter rains most of the concrete chipped off, especially on the bumpiest sections.  Joseph specializes in traditional lime stucco and he used some concrete, at the request of the home owner, to make a stucco mix that would last longer.  The new mix used concrete, lime, sand, and fiberglass strands to increase the tinsel strength of the material.

The homeowner acted as the mix master.  She mixed each batch of the mud that the small team of Joseph, Roger and I applied.  We used a compressor and sprayer to spray on the stucco and troweled it flat with wooden trowels and our hands.  The bumps made it difficult to use the trowels so we mostly just used the palm of our hands to knock down the material.

The PVC tubes in the picture above act as windows for light and air to access the interior of the structure.  There were also glass bottles built in to the sand bags that functioned as windows.

The finishing touches,  Joseph pictured above. The goats are ready to reside in their temple...