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Rainshadow Natural Builders - clubhouse beginnings Our Services

09/30/2012 0 Comments
Here I am standing on what will
become the foundation for the
Rainshadow Natural Builder's
clubhouse. These pieces of broken
concrete are often referred to as
"Urbanite", as in stone from urban
areas. While not stickly natural,
they are an abundant waste product
from our society and eminently
suitable for building. Very strong and
with flat top and bottoms, little
masonry experience is required.
Mostly I was the mortar man for this
one day work party, mixing sand, lime
and cement as fast as I could. Also,
and what turned out to be the more
important role, I found myself giving
everyone else permission to build by
eye, out of square, and to go with their gut.
Jason Temple specializes in
hand crafting highly
efficient masonry heaters.
An environmentally
sustainable way to heat,
and beautiful "heart of the
home".
TempleFire is based in Port
Townsend, WA and
provides service to the
Olympic Peninsula, Puget
Sound, and greater Pacific
Northwest region.
-Member, Masonry Heater
Association of North
America
-WA Registered Contractor
#CCTEMPL**88260

I am a part of the this loosely organized group of like minded folks. Our
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intention with this building is to demonstrate traditonal, local and natural September 2012
building materials and techniques - cob, stone masonry, light straw clay, August 2012
round pole timber framing, sheep's wool insulation ... and to have a place to June 2012
meet regularly. May 2012
April 2012

Categories
All
Bricks
Building Conservation
Micah, the Building the We nearly
leader urbanite completed the Historic Restoration
spearheading foundation. I foundation in a Port Townsend
this project, mixed a Type N day. I prefer Traditional Lime Masonry
clearing the site Peeling Doug Fir mortar and the this sort of
for the new poles w ith a stones w ere set building - out of
building. Yes, it draw knife for directly on square and out RSS Feed
w ill be rafters and undisturbed of level, it w ill
squeezed beams. earth. be fun to see
betw een the this building
tw o existing arise.
structures.

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Breathing New Life into Cob Oven at PT EcoVillage

09/13/2012 0 Comments

I was invited by Laurence Cole, of

the Port Townsend EcoVillage, to

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 help with lead a restoration workshop
of their cob oven and bench. It had
been built some years ago, but didn't
have a proper covering and so
languished under a tarp.

Laurence lovingly crafted a beautiful

shelter and a new door for the oven.

The state of the cob Reshaping and Lacey at w ork w hile I

bench just before the strengthening the cob start to plaster the
w ork. The oiled bench w ith a new layer bench.
earthen plaster had of structural cob. The
done it's best, but the friable surface w as
horizontal surfaces prepped w ith clay slip,
(and other surfaces and the new cob w as
below ) had succumbed clay rich to maximize
to w ater and w eather. adhesion.
The underlying cob w as
extremely friable,
sandy and w eak; the
clays having been
w ashed out by rain.

Lacey, my amazing
apprentice, and me - all
smiles at the end of
the w ork shop.

Laurence, the driving

force behind the cob
oven.

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Cob Workshop
09/12/2012 0 Comments

I recently hosted a 9 day cob

building workshop. The course was
led by the very talented Bernhard
Masterson from Portland, OR. A
wonderful experience hosting people
from all over the globe (Spain, Italy,
USA, Canada, Mexico, and Brasil) to
live and learn together about this
wonderful earth building technique.

In addition to mixing and building

with lots of cob, we raised a
madrona post and set a large doug
fir beam. Here Jonah and I are
pointing the madrona post, and it's

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 stone plinth, with natural hydraulic
lime mortar.

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Masonry Heater Workshop with Scott Howard

08/30/2012 0 Comments

This last weekend I co-taught an

introductory workshop on masonry
heaters with Scott Howard, a
talented natural from Portland, OR.
A great weekend, we started
building a Finnish Contraflow heater
in a beautiful cob house Scott has
built in Sequim, WA. Everybody had
a great time learning about masonry
heaters and heating with wood,
laying bricks and getting muddy.

The base of heater, Here we see the start

showing the downdraft of the firebox, built
channels and opening with firebrick. The
from the firebox into white strips are
the ashdrop. expansion gaskets.
A close up of the
hearth. Combustion
air will come primarily
from from the large
opening on the left
(will receive a grate).
The 4 central slots
will also provide air.
The dry laid bricks
that form these slots
sit lower than the rest
of the hearth, forming
a depression to speed
the burning of coals at
the end of the firing
cycle.

A couple of days after the Viewed from the kitchen, a direct

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workshop, the heater is nearly fired bake oven.
finished.

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Rob's Bread Oven

08/30/2012 0 Comments

In July I built a bread oven for Rob

Easton in Salem, OR. Here we are
after completing the vaulted plinth
for the oven. Designed primarily for
bread, this oven has 4.5" thick walls
and vaulted ceiling, and a 2.75"
hearth.

Starting the The hearth is Laying the A smoke hood

oven, a layer of laid on a 1/2" vaulted ceiling. is built around
insulating bed of clay A compression the oven
firebrick is laid mortar to allow harness opening to
under the for adjustment counters the channel smoke
hearth. to get hearth thrust the vault into a future
flat and smooth. places on the chimney. The
The hearth side w alls.. oven is
bricks are laid insulated w ith
dry for easy 6" of ceramic
replacement if refractory
necessary. This insulation. Rob
photo show s w ill complete
the skew cuts the project on
at the top of his ow n from
the w alls ready here, w rapping
to support the the insulation in
vaulted ceiling. metal lath and
Also, note the finishing w ith
corbeled side an earthen
supports to plaster.
hold the
channel iron
during harness
assembly.

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Grundofen - II
08/30/2012 0 Comments

Sorry for the delay since my last post, perhaps

I'm not ready for the Web 2.0...

I finished the grundofen in July, this photo

shows the heater nearly complete. It's fully
fully functional, and ready for a finish plaster
by homeowner. The white bakeoven features
soapstone hearth and ceiling. The curing fires
were completed in early August and the heater
is performing exceptionally well. Thanks to
Jerry Frisch for the excellent design.

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Grundofen
06/21/2012 0 Comments

Started new masonry heater project

near Port Townsend. This heater will
feature a low overall height (~5.5ft),
a white bakeoven and heated bench.
This photo show the first course of
firebricks dry fitted, an ash pan,
outside air supply path (bottom left)
to ash chamber. The exit to, and
return from the bench are on the
right.

First course mortared, laying out the second course.

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Downtown PT Bricks
05/31/2012 0 Comments

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 In the last two weeks I've been
invited to review 2 historic masonry
structures here in Port Townsend, and
submit proposals for their restoration.
I have a love of traditional lime
masonry and am excited about the
potential of being involved in these
projects. Many of the old buildings in
town are in need of appropriate
restoration and hopefully I can
contribute.

Here is a brick veneer located two

blocks from the sea on the windward
side of a building. You can see that
the original lime mortar has weathered
significantly, although the bricks are
in sound condition. The most severe
deterioration is found in the courses
of brick near the door handle; a few bricks have lost all their mortar. This is
likely a combination of vibration/mechanical wear due to the opening and
closing of the door, and rain splashing off the door handle, and window sill on
the right.

This brick wall is on a different

building, and is situated directly
over the beach and sea. This
portion of the brick wall has it's
original lime mortar and remnants of
an old render (aka external plaster).
The lime mortar has done it's job
well, weathering back with time but
doing a great job of protecting the
bricks. The soft and porous lime
mortar allows the bricks to settle,
expand and contract, and dry out
very quickly after a soaking. Lime mortar is more porous than the bricks and
any moisture in the wall will exit through the mortar joints during drying
conditions. Repairing this wall is a straight forward affair - tidy up the joints
and re-point with a natural lime mortar.

Just a few feet away from the above

photo is this section of the same
wall. Here is a classic example of
the detrimental effects of re-pointing
traditional masonry with modern
mortar containing Portland cement.
Portland cement mortars are very
hard, brittle and have a very low
porosity. This puts a lot of both
physical stress and moisture stress
on the old, soft bricks. The only
route for water to leave the wall is through the bricks as the modern mortar
is practically impermeable. Also, the bricks are now surrounded in a rigid
lattice and cannot expand naturally when they become soaking wet. This
causes compression stress failures and buckling (spalling) on the exposed
surface of the bricks. Once the surface starts spalling it is more vulnerable
to weathering, weaker, absorbs moisture more readily and a vicious feedback
loop begins. So this part of the wall shows an opposite weathering pattern
from the middle photo, here it's the bricks that weather and recess back
while the modern mortar begins to stand out. This is more involved to repair
- beginning with the slow and careful removal of the modern mortar back to
original lime, then repointing with new lime mortar. Also, some bricks will
need to be replaced.

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Wildacres 2012
04/27/2012 0 Comments

I've recently returned from the 2012

Russian single skin heater w ith
bakeoven and cooktop. Workshop
build led by Alex Chernov.
Masonry Heater Association's annual
meeting at Wildacres, NC. My first
time to this event it was an inspiring
and remarkable learning experience.
Over 100 heater masons, novices
and masters, meet for a week to
share, teach, learn and build. It was
truly a pleasure to meet so many
warm, friendly and talented
craftsmen and women.
Heater-wise, one of the highlights
for me was Alex Chernov's
demonstration of a traditional
russian heater. This style of heater
is typical in villages and rural areas
and has proven to be a practical,
economical and sustainable way to
cook and heat, in an extremely cold
environment, for millions of people.
Other inspiring builds were Derek
Frisch's central european style
grundofen, and Doug Hargrave's
Norccore finnish style contraflow
heater with bakeoven.

Grundoven, central european style Norrcore Finnish style contraflow

heater w ith bakeoven. Workshop heater w ith bakeoven. Workshop
build led by Derek Frisch. build led by Tom Hargrave. I like this
use of soapstone and brick.

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New Fire
04/26/2012 0 Comments

Today I kindle a new fire - templefire.net and launch

this website to encourage those thinking about heating
and sustainability to consider the benefits of masonry
heaters. While not widely known in North America,
masonry heaters are an old tradition in central and
northern Europe. They offer efficient, elegant heating
solutions with centuries of proven sustainability. I offer
hand crafted masonry heaters, custom designed for
each client's needs, in Port Townsend and the greater
Puget Sound region.

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C reate a free website with

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