Fun at Diamond Mountain

This is some footage of our current project taken earlier this year. The home is close to completion. Please see our current project page for the latest pics. Enjoy!

Adobes We Love- The Hearst Church

The Hearst Church is located in historic Pinos Altos, New Mexico. It was built in 1898 by the Hearst family of newspaper fame and now serves as home to the Grant County Art Guild. The gold used in decorating the Hearst Castle in California came from the local Hearst Mine. The church houses the hearse used to carry the body of Pat Garrett, the lawman who killed Billy the Kid.

Erik investigates the 100+ year old adobe.

Buttresses help support the building walls.

Local wooden shingles adorn the upper facades.

Beautiful stained glass is found throughout the church.

The cement stucco traps water and eventually flakes away from the adobe over time.

During the summer months, the southwestern NM church is transformed into an art gallery, featuring arts and crafts created by about 50 local artists. The gallery is open 10- 5, Fri-Sun each week from May through early October. For more info visit the Art Guild website: http://www.gcag.org/

Current Project at Diamond Mountain

Beyond Adobe is currently working with the Israeli crew from Diamond Mountain University to build a retreat home in southeastern Arizona. The walls are slurry stacked with unstabilized adobe bricks. This video shows project completion through the first concrete bond beam. Thanks for all of the great help Israeli crew! More project videos to come!

Muddy Hands “form” the Future of Building.

Today in Flagstaff, Arizona, kids from across the Plateau met with Beyond Adobe at the Coconino Community College for an adobe brick making class. The kids learned to identify soils good for adobe brick, field test the soil, mix the mud and yes, hand-form the mud into the forms to make 3″ x 2″ x 8″ mud bricks.

The kids, much to the displeasure of surrounding parents, greatly appreciated the “hands-on” approach, as illustrated by muddy hands below.

Stay tuned for next year’s event and thank you to all staff and volunteers who put on a great Sustainable Living Fair!

Beyond Adobe & Crew Making Pressed Adobe Bricks

The Israeli crew from Diamond Mountain University works with Beyond Adobe to make pressed adobe bricks. The adobes are made purely of earth and are not stabilized with cement or asphalt. The bricks will be stacked in the walls of a retreat home in Diamond Mountain. Another hard day of work!

N. Arizona Adobe Workshop

Beyond Adobe returns to Norhtern Arizona’s Sustainable Living Fair this week October 24th. Two workshops will be presented; Making Small Adobe Bricks for Kids and Making and Applying Earth Plasters for Grown-ups.

Adam Wayne will be the workshop hosts and will provide all the mud required to make bricks, plaster and a general good muddy mess of things. Kids will be provided with one adobe form and a brief explanation of what adobe is, the historical importance, how to make adobes and some practical ideas for building around the house. Attire is semi-formal and white after labor day is perfect. The workshop starts at 11:30 and runs for one-hour.

The plaster workshop will highlight both how to make plaster from local soils and how to apply hand-made plasters as well as American Clay Plaster. Participants will have an opportunity to try their hand applying mud on dry-wall substrates. The workshop starts at 3:30 and runs for one-hour.

This year’s Workshop Event will be at the Coconino Community College Lone Tree Campus Commons Building in Flagstaff from 9am-5pm on Saturday, 10/24.

Gila making sun-dried adobes in the Chiricahua's.

Beyond Adobe Completes First Permitted Adobe Home in Coconino County

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Adam Wayne
Project Manager
Beyond Adobe
adam@beyondadobe.com
928.203.7900

Beyond Adobe Completes First Permitted Adobe Home in Coconino County

FLAGSTAFF, AZ – April 13, 2009 – Beyond Adobe, LLC completed the first permitted adobe home in Coconino County, Arizona in March of 2009. Casa Desierto is a compact, resource and energy efficient adobe home that is sensitive to its owner and surrounding environment.

Constructed mainly of adobe bricks, wood and concrete, the home also features other “smart building” methods such as passive solar design, on-demand hot water, local ponderosa pine, American Clay plasters, low-water fixtures and appliances, local custom cabinetry and recycled furnishings.

Beyond Adobe is an adobe brick maker and green building construction company specializing in earthen-based methods and materials. Beyond Adobe is committed to building with earth – as it is a healthy, sustainable and affordable remedy to the present day “sick home” syndrome associated with common construction methods.

Beyond Adobe has a history of earth stewardship, environmental consciousness and a strong belief in sustainable communities.

Please check out Casa Desierto and other projects on www.beyondadobe.com

PROJECT: CASA DESIERTO
OWNER: DORIS BERAN
LOCATION: ALPINE RANCHOS, LEUPP RD., MERRIAM CRATER CONSTRUCTION: 800 SF SINGLE STORY ADOBE HOME
UTILITIES: OFF GRID SOLAR (600W, 800AH BATTERY)
WATER: 5000G STORAGE, RAINWATER HARVEST
GAS: LP
HEAT: SOAPSTONE WOOD STOVE

For inquiries and other information please contact:
Adam Wayne
adam@beyondadobe.com
928.203.7900

Casa Desierto: Adobe home in Arizona

Soy-crete concrete stain and natural interior finishes.

All natural clay plasters throughout the home.

Interior adobe walls of Casa Desierto.

Adobe Home Project Demonstration in FLAGSTAFF

Beyond Adobe is hosting a demonstration for our current adobe home project in Flagstaff, Arizona November 5th through the 8th from 9am to 3pm.   This is an open-house sort of thing, so feel free to drop by any day during those times to observe how an adobe home is constructed!  For more information, please contact Erik at (928) 288-6022.  Hope to see you there!

New Project Photos up on our Website

We have posted some new photos of recent projects on our website at www.beyondadobe.com.  These projects took place in Camp Verde, Sedona and Cornville, Arizona.

If you click on the Portfolio part of our website above, you can check out the below photos and many more in a larger format.

Wingfield Building in Camp Verde, AZ

Cornville Guest House

Adobe Privacy Wall in Sedona, AZ.

 

 

Beyond Adobe article in The Camp Verde Bugle!

Check out this article in the recent edition of The Camp Verde Bugle!  We are excited about it.  The link to the article is at the bottom of this entry.

Sutler’s old adobe walls going back up

By Steve Ayers, Staff Reporter

Just weeks after a micro burst leveled one of the historic adobe walls in the Wingfield Building, construction crews are putting it back up.

Building owner Robbie Allen has hired Beyond Adobe, a Camp Verde company that specializes in adobe construction, to restore the wall to a resemblance of its former self.

To strengthen the rebuilt wall, foreman Josh Baker said they would build an exterior wall made from new bricks that contain Portland cement along with an interior wall about three feet high also with the new bricks.

Photo by Steve Ayers/VVN. Foreman Josh Baker and bricklayer Mike Carlile of Beyond Adobe have begun rebuilding the 137-year-old adobe wall of the Wingfield building that fell down during a microburst last month.

Then they will use the adobe bricks salvaged from the old wall and possibly some new bricks made from the damaged ones to build the upper part of the wall on the interior. The interior wall will be more decorative than load bearing.

“Our challenge will be to make the new wall look as close as possible to the old wall,” Baker said.

According to Beyond Adobe owner Adam Wayne, they will use a mix of whitewash and a ferrous sulfate rust-like stain to try and recreate the patina of the old walls on the interior.

Once the wall is up the exterior will be covered in a lime-based plaster, which, according to Baker, will allow the adobe to “breathe again.”

Photo by Steve Ayers/VVN. Most of the original bricks from the old adobe wall were salvaged and will be used in the rebuilt wall.

Sometime back in the 1950s the old adobe walls were covered in a Portland cement-based plaster, which effectively sealed its fate.

“The Portland plaster was what caused the wall to be so unstable. When water got between the adobe and the plaster it had nowhere to go so it was actually causing the adobe to melt,” Baker said.

After the wall is completed, which should take about a week, according to Wayne, his crew will pour a bond beam linking the old south-facing wall to the newly constructed wall, effectively stabilizing both walls.

“We are using methods similar to the way it was originally constructed,” Wayne said.

The entire project, which will have to be completed in phases, will take about a month, according to Wayne.

Baker, who has taken an interest in adobe construction since making the change from traditional build methods to adobe, said the old building is built in a traditional territorial style.

“The territorial style, which used adobe walls and a steep wood framed roof, first began around Taos, N.M., where there was a readily available supply of lumber. This is really a classic example that is being restored to its original look,” Baker said.

The walls were originally constructed in 1870 as part of the Sutler’s store owned by William “Boss” Head. The sutler was a private contractor hired by the Army to provide goods to the military not otherwise supplied by the government.

To view the story online, please visit: http://campverdebugleonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=21004&TM=57198.67