Plaster Preparation

A niche




We are almost ready to put on the scratch coat of plaster. Walls have been weed whacked to flatten them out (but not too much).
Some people think a strawbale wall has to be a little wonky otherwise it just looks like drywall. We decided to spray on some boric acid and Borax solution to prevent mold, bugs and fire. We nailed double layers of 15# building paper over the wood to bridge it. You can get cracks at these junctions. Over that we put plastic mesh. A niche or three was carved into the wall, some wood blocks were also put in at the site of a shelf. Some casing bead was placed around the bottom of the plaster so it might end in an organized fashion. Plaster stop was put around the top of the wall for the same reason. I know I'm forgetting something important but I don't want to anger Dios by trying to equal her. Plaster will be three parts of the stuff we dug out of the ground ( mostly sand with a little clay) and one part pure clay Sam found by chance at an excavation site on his way to work. It is an amazing pile of clay of various hues. We chopped it up with the roto tiller and let it dry for a day and a half, grinding it several times during this time . It dried up pretty quick. Ed Raduazo is going to bring his hammer mill over on Saturday and we can grind it finer. So there you go. Exciting stuff, no?