ferrocement niche gate - mikey sklar |
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niche design1005 viewsThis 12' tall middle eastern niche design was hand bent and welded together with 3/8" rebar. A retired set designer from Hollywood (Smoke) built this in his workshop in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Apparently ferrocement building is practiced regularly on movie sets. It is used as a gate to Green Acre a eco-hotel in Truth or Consequences, NM under construction.
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Gate Location894 viewsWhile building a 300' papercrete fence out of tilt-up panels we left space for a little ferrocement gate so that our personnel and guests can enter the property.
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niche install985 viewsIt was a exciting day to bring the well constructed niche to its final resting place. We also built 2' tall boxes and placed them in the ground for cement to be poured into. Note that the upper lath, electric light, door bell box, and light switch were all installed before placing the gate in the earth.
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door and lath1002 viewsA door was constructed from 10 year old shipping container steel. The door weighs about 200lbs and has a digital combination lock for keyless access. Large 5/8" bolts were used in combinationed with 2x2" angle iron to hold this door on the nich ferrocement structure. It swings very smoothly.
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gate lath1115 viewsIt took about 30 work hours to install the lath. We used rebar wire and vice grips for the inner areas. At the end I was finally able to twist the wire and snap off the end so nothing would stick out in one smooth motion. We also used hog ties on the edges where the lath and rebar met. The $8 manual hog tie clamper gave me some terrible blisters after three days of usage.
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spraying papercrete1350 viewsI used the tirolessa sprayer to shoot my usual papercrete mix on the lath. My compressor is a 60 gal., 220V, 6HP, 11.4CFM that I picked up from Habor Freight for $600. The papercrete mix is 1 part paper and 1 part cement by dry weight. The first coat went on at 1/4" thick and covered all the lath. I sprayed at 60psi. Usually I spray at lower psi for papercrete, but I had some hard to reach areas.
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spraying papercrete (2)1119 viewsIn just minutes it is easy to rapidly spray a thin coat over much of the lath. I would lightly spray a area then come back to it about 30 minutes later with another light coat. It took about 7 hours of spraying to build up a strong 1/4" papercrete stucco that could hold its own weight. None of the lath was visible after this time.
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spraying papercrete (3)1272 viewsThis is my favorite spraying moves when on a ladder. A sort of over the shoulder and behind the back blind spray. I have a very crappy ladder which one day will be the death of me. This was the safest way I found to spray those hard to reach areas. Note the bright blue air compressor in the background. It is nearly 100' away from me thanks to the $200 of 1/2" high quality compressor hose.
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spraying papercrete (4)1223 viewsThe day after I sprayed my arms and wrist hurt. My wrists (which have carpel tunnel) were not at all happy about holding a gallon of papercrete mix over my head for hours. However, spending a few hours of trowling would have been a lot worse. I took next day off.
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dry time1307 viewsFinished, well almost. The first coat(s) have been applied and I am letting everything dry out. As the papercrete dries it will lighten in color. The next day I checked and the color was a almost exact match the fence beside it. It still amazes me that the stucco can hide so well the dramatically different architecture of the fence and gate niche. The fence being pure papercrete slabs and the gate being a ferrocement rebar structure.
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Placing the Rebar1047 viewsAs the curved horizontal supports and being introduced we simply used spike wire to attach the rebar to the verticle supports. The verticle supports were every 4' and had a poured concrete footer of one cubic foot.
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Welding the Rebar1066 viewsSince we are only using a papercrete stucco that has very little strength we need to actually weld all the rebar together. This process goes quite fast. Pictured here is Smoke with his little MIG welder.
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