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Construction of "Kay Espwa" (House of Hope) A Prototype Earthbag House in Mizak Haiti, 2010 by Michael Windover |
In January 2010, I was asked to design and build a prototype Earthbag house in Mizak. I am a retired pharmacist who with my wife 30 years ago built a house that had been roughed up on a basement for us. I have done minor remodeling, but, am by no means a qualified contractor. The request specified a one room house with porch. We were also asked to do a program called Operation Safe to aid children traumatized by the earthquake. This entry will present the house project part of our trip. With the help of more knowledgeable people such as Pastor Gary McDonough, Owen Geiger, Kelly Hart, Father Marc and others, I designed, as requested, a one room sandbag house with porch. I also added a grid system to prevent the roof tin from blowing off in a hurricane. The Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI) coordinator who had asked me to do this together with Pastor Paul Prevost of Mizak chose a local contractor for us to work with. He and another man went to LeCaye to learn about "The Sun House" before we arrived. No advanced preparation or gathering of materials was done mostly due to difficulties in communication and my lack of knowledge of how much sand, rerod, cement, etc it would take. It was left until we could talk together in Mizak to determine these things. Before beginning, have a meeting with all leadership in the project. Get a clear understanding of who is boss, what the workday will be, how much the pay will be, who will hire and fire, who will pay, who will order materials. Copies of all receipts should be obtained as well as a translation of them into English. Our receipts from the hardware in Jacmel were in French and Haitian dollars. These are all things that came up as problems. Know exactly what is ordered as it is being ordered and how much it costs. Have everything delivered and then double check the inventory. If the site is difficult for delivery of materials, plan on extra workers, wheelbarrows, buckets, shovels, etc to move materials. When buying materials and equipment in Haiti use caution. Some wheelbarrows fall apart in a couple days. Some shovels are so thin as to bend easily. This year a hammer and sledge hammer both broke the first day. I'm talking about the steel head, not the handle. I suspect they were Chinese steel. The French wheelbarrows held up well. The Brazilian shovels were good. Boards were not the nominal measurement like ours but actual 2x4's and 1x4's both 16ft long. Planks were 16 ft long. Rerod comes in "ba" s bent over in the middle and about 20 ft long. The wire used to tie bags and rerod structures comes by the pound. I am not sure but think we used about 30 lb. Also barbed wire is sold by the pound too. We used a full three rolls of unknown wt. Plain wire is called "fil fe" Barbed wire is also referred to as "fil fe" but can be clarified to be "fil fe -----?" Sorry lost it. The 1" square steel tubing called "tib" is about 25ft long. Sand comes by the truck-full. This cannot, it seems, be converted into tons or yards of sand.
The layout of the house at the site was made based in part on the requirement to leave the old house standing until the new one was done. Also the lack of another level place left little choice. As a result of the slope of the land, the foundation was made higher on one end than the planned 8 inch above grade planned.
The boss didn't understand or want to use a spool holder to dispense the wire. Barbed wire is very effective at preventing bag shifting, however, it is very difficult to use. In our case, we used so much rerod to stabilize weak areas or mistakes that we might as well have just used rerod.
We used a tall step ladder which was very handy. The workers rejected ideas of scaffolding. As you can see, they are quite imaginative at use of 2x4's without cutting them. I had suggested that gaps could be left in the walls at strategic points to allow 2x4's to be slid into the holes to support scaffolding like the typical technique used in block wall construction. The holes could easily be filled when the wood was removed.
When the roof support system was put down, the purlins extended out over the sides an appropriate distance for the planned overhang. However I turned around at one point just in time to see the boss man sawing off the last of these along the wall line. As a result the roof has no overhang on the sides. Since we left at this point, it is yet to be seen how he will treat the wall/roof juncture.
The columns for the porch were set into the corners of the foundation. The square rerod structure consists of two large, two medium rerods tied by squares of small rerod at 6-10" intervals using the wire to fasten them together. We didn't pour the columns until we could lay a 2x4 along the slope of the bond beam to determine the column height exactly.
Because of all the delays we were not able to complete the house in the two week period. Two of us, Carla and I, stayed an additional week but when we left, they still had to complete 98% of the parging, and the painting. I really liked the idea that the LeCaye house had a name, so, Eugene, the home owner chose Kay Espwa (house of hope) as a name. An artist has been commissioned to paint a bowl of flowers on the front of the house with the name below. The work crew will install a gutter made of a PVC pipe cut in half along the porch roof. The square steel was left to overhang the roof by about 8 inches to support the gutter. The two water barrels used are given to the owner to collect water. Something that we came to realize is that the local builders do not seem to be able to comprehend the written plans. I drew many extra drawings to help them visualize things. They agreed to them but didn't act as though they really understood. It is possible that reading or using even pictures is something they are not accustomed to doing. Even though we usually get along well without an interpreter in other areas, we believe that a very good interpreter with experience in building language is necessary. When we left after 3 weeks, the parging or crepitizing (cement coating) was started on the inside. They will finish the parging inside and out. The gutter is yet to be installed along the porch. The last thing I did before leaving was to install a grid of 1" square steel tube on top of the sheet metal. This will prevent the metal from being blown off in high wind. Originally, I was going to weld the grid. The plan was changed due to lack of a welder. It is connected and fastened into the rafters with 5" lag screws. Fortunately, a generator was available to enable me to use an electric drill. The bit bent about 1/3 of the way through the installation however or another cross member would have been added. When walking on the roof, use planks on the roof to avoid denting the very thin sheet metal. Trying to walk over the purlin areas is too difficult. The steel tubes were left extending out about 8 inches to support the gutter. The two water barrels were left for the homeowner to collect water. An artist has been commissioned to paint a bowl of flowers with "Kay Espwa" (house of hope) underneath it on the front wall. This is the name chosen by the home owner. (I liked the idea of naming the house like was done for "The Sun House". With everything considered, I think we were successful in our mission. The house will be safe in earthquake or hurricane. It will be as cool as any house can be in Haiti with excellent mountainside breezes and ventilation. Hopefully when the house is finished, it will have a pleasant appearance. The next trip I intend to go down early to enable all leaders to conference together point by point all the way through the plans in detail. This may take a couple full days, but, it will be worth it. This would also be a time to clarify the chain of command and workday expectations. On this trip, the boss man didn't understand or resisted that I was the authority on the project, not him. Middle man and interpreter didn't have the ability to cope with making this understood either. We assumed an 8am to 5pm work day. After the first such day, we were told that the day should end at 3pm with a following 30 min. cleanup time. Also, we were unfortunate enough to have Good Friday and Holy Saturday fall during our project. I asked whether we would be working or not trying to be sensitive to their wishes. I was told they would work. As it turns out they worked half days for each of these days. After the fact, the boss man got angry because he was only paid for half a day each. He thought he should have been paid whole days on each. Therefore watch for special days. Make clear what the hours of work are and how much they will be paid before starting. Our differences, however, were resolved with forgiveness all around as Christians should do, with the help of a “peacemaker” spirit. All in all the experience was not that unusual. Challenges came at every turn. Plans were continually in flux to accommodate surprises. It tests the metal of a team for sure, but, in the end the project will be successful. The house will be finished. It will meet the requirement of earthquake resistance. It has a roof that should not blow off even in a hurricane. It will be cool due to excellent ventilation and a good breeze due to it's mountaintop location. Hopefully it will have a pleasing appearance. The home owner is happy and will be safe along with her husband, father and seven children who will share the 13ft x 13 ft home. This report precedes the re-writing of the design plan to accommodate the lessons learned. There is a pictorial presentation that should accompany this report which is found on our blog at: tbumchurchhaitiumvimteam.blogspot.com. |
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