How we Built our Stone Toolshed

in homesteading •  7 years ago  (edited)

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This post is about how we built our stone toolshed using local materials like stone and mud.

We used to have a manager who would take care of farm work in our absence.He was instrumental in arranging the machines for levelling our terraces and digging our well previously. After moving to Kodaikanal however, we realized he was slacking and not getting enough work done for the time and money we gave him. We contracted him to build us a toolshed using some of the money he owed us as we needed a safe place to store our water pump and farm tools. He got a shed built in a few weeks, but it had a few structural issues we needed to fix.

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I told him to build an 8 by 6 feet structure that would be enough for the pump and a few tools. He used that as the outer dimension, so when the rather thick stone walls were put up, the actual space within the room was much less. In addition to that he used a door that opens inwards, reducing our viable space even less. By this time we had networked with our neighbours who we were using as our primary source of labour. We asked them to contact local stone masons who collaborated with them on building our well. Our mason turned out to be excellent so after the well was done we retained our team to rebuild a better toolshed.

The Build

We decided to make us of our existing terraces, and locate the new toolshed in a corner, utilizing the existing terrace walls. First, a solid stone foundation is laid out. The stone pieces are chiseled by hand from boulders that were already on our land. Our neighbours also saw this as a chance to get rid of boulders on their land and provided us material at no extra charge.The team was divided into three groups. People breaking boulders and transporting the pieces to our site, the mason and his team chiselling and stacking rocks, and people digging out mud and mixing a mud mortar. There was also a tea making sub-group that supplied the entire team every few hours.

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The walls are built similarily to how we made our well. Stone is hand cut from larger rocks in such a way that the piecses interlock with each other. The walls are upto 2 feet thick so they can support their own weight. Each piece of stone is meticulously placed using wet mud as a mortar. As the structure is protected by a roof, there is no need to waterproof our mortar. The stones are capable of standing on their own and the mortar is used as a binding agent and to seal gaps. The walls are protected during the build with sacks and old tarp whenever it rains.The sides adjacent to the terraces are filled up with small rocks and debris and don't require as much material as the other two walls. The door and window are then transferred from the previous shed. Layer by layer, all four walls are built, ready for the roofing.

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The roof is made from tin sheets and wooden logs. The logs are salvaged from the forest and rest on top of the stone walls to which the tin sheets are attached to. The sheets are the only non-local material used in this build. While not exactly sustainable, they are cost effective and provide enough protection on a long term basis. The workers build their own scaffolding to construct the roof. We bought the tin sheets from town and transported them to our land via a pickup truck we hired. We had to halt work for awhile due to the monsoon, but eventually the roofing was done and the build was complete.

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The Toolshed

The tool shed measures about 18 by 12 feet from the outside and is about 10 feet tall at its highest point. We started our build after we finished our well in October of 2017. The build was finished in January this year. The new shed is a lot better than our previous one. We have ample room to store tools and even future harvests. As of now it's being used as a sort of recreational room for our workers who also keep their personal belongings there.

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The Interior

The mud plaster has cracked in a lot of places, but provides an interesting texture.The aesthetic is fairly rustic. The build was intended as a storage room so there's no running water or electricity, but it could be used to spend a night
at the farm. This build marked our first infrastructural building on our land and is rather effective at keeping things
and people safe from the environment.

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Future Plans

One of the things I'm considering is growing ivy along the walls and turning our roof into a living roof. It involves placing a tarp over the roof, and adding layers of dry and wet mud on which plants can be grown. It extends our growing space, provides a great aesthetic and blends our toolshed into the mountain while provinding extra insulation to the room. The only drawback is rain water collection might get impacted. Does anyone have experience
using living roofs and is it difficult to use them for rain water colllection?

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7 years ago by

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      ·  7 years ago 

    This is so interesting! Great work and I actually really enjoy the rustic look of it. LOVE the idea of a living roof...great insulation and what a reward. Thank you for sharing this!

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      ·  7 years ago 

    Thank you. I rather like the cracked earth and stone look but the tin roof looks out of place. A living roof and ivy would be great in adding to the whole aesthetic.

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        ·  7 years ago 

      Cool soul turtle! Looks great. I had to laugh that people looked at it as an opportunity to “get rid” of their boulders! Free material for you. If next time you want less cracks, fibers like horse hair, rice hulls, cow or horse poop w straw fibers, straw, etc can be added in to help that! So satisfying to build naturally!

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        ·  7 years ago (edited)

      Thanks, everything but the tin sheets was free material. Those rocks were fairly useless till we decide to make use of them. Our workers are also basically one large extended family so there's a lot of bonhomie and camaraderie while they work.

      We weren't too fussed about the finish cause it's a non residential building. Most of the plaster will crack, but the stone is solid and the overall look is unique. I do have to eventually build a home there and will consider wattle and daub with a lot of fibre.

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          ·  7 years ago 

        Harvesting from living roofs would probably require some sort of filter, or debris collection. Personally I would go for a more edible climber as my experiences with ivy have left me hating it! It is uncontrollable and will get into everything. Our neighbour's has worked it's way under our path and into the area where the gas pipes run. It's also grown into the steel fence and is slowly bringing it down.

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          ·  7 years ago 

        As this building is so close to our well, rainwater can just drain into it. Also as it isn't meant to be residential, so we can use a living roof without worrying about water collection. Good tip on invasive ivy. Perhaps I could use passion fruit or a similar creeper instead. I'd probably have to refrain from using a living roof for our home to be. Any tips on making that tin roof look better?

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            ·  7 years ago 

          Good thinking with the well. That would certainly save work.

          Tin roofs aren't pretty are they? Attract a lot of heat when the sun's out too. I wonder if thatching in some way would work. Or maybe even branches. I do like those growing roofs with soil, but I suspect tin wouldn't hold the weight of that.

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              ·  7 years ago 

            This post is underrated! I was recently watching Bushcraft Build-off on Discovery and this reminded me of it. This is very neat and thanks for sharing.

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              ·  7 years ago 

            Thanks a bunch. Discovery seems to have a lot of gohod homesteading content lately. I've only seen Planet Earth 2. I should also check out some of these shows.

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              ·  7 years ago 

            Shucks this is super cool. What I like best about stone foundations and walls with mud plaster is that your building can just return to the earth at any point of time. Also, that timelapse is mesmerising.

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              ·  7 years ago 

            Yeah, most of it is from the land that will return to the land. Kodai is a pretty mesmerizing place :)

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              [-]
                ·  7 years ago 

              Fabulous project and wonderful to have such a great supply of natural stones ~ And friends to help build it. Looks even more spacious from within.

              Love the idea of a garden rooftop ~ Although I'd agree with @minismallholding and avoid ivy. Just wondering if you could use some of the roof for a solar panel on case you need electriciy nearby. 🦋

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                ·  7 years ago 

              Thank you, we're quite blessed to have so many local resources.

              I doubt we'd need electricity or water in the shed as it's meant as a storage space. We have solar lanterns to provide decent light if we need to use it in the dark. I'll have to build a place to live next, and have to consider how to connect solar panles and water tanks. It's looking like this is the only building that can have a living roof because tin looks bad but functions better. We'll probably try implementing the living roof here in a couple of months just before the rains.

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                [-]
                  ·  7 years ago 

                Love this, and bet the cost was minimal too. An eco friendly project

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                    ·  7 years ago 

                  Thank you. Our material was basically free. With most builds that happen here, the labour is the most expensive part. It is a one time cost though and overall the project is fairly economical.

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                      ·  7 years ago 

                    That structure should last pretty much forever with minimal maintenance if it is made of two foot thick stone walls.

                    Interesting build.

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                        ·  7 years ago 

                      Yeah, it's pretty solid and not going anywhere anytime soon. We tried to use only local materials as far as possible. We'll have to see how the roof holds up for the worst of the monsoon. Also as it's non residential we took some liberties with the finish. It's used by all our workers and I'm happy with how it turned out.

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                      1 vote