Whitewash Formula

Before:
3 parts white portland cement 1 part hydrated lime mix until plastic. hose the brick liberally before applying so it does'nt suck the moisture out of the wash. Apply with 8" mason's brush. Mix enough in a wash tub to apply, and then mix again as needed.

It is a learned skill by stucco mechanics, but I have spent only an hour or two with them until they get it right. The painters bid to apply paint was over $20,000, The stucco sub did the job for less than $4000 with two men. The material cost for less than $100 for the entire house. This house was a renovation and redesign of the front facade. The red common brick could never be matched to the existing red common brick and the white wash gave the house a real presence it did not have originally.

After:

^That recipe sounds very high in the cement ratio.

This is an Historic Whitewash Formula that I have spec’d. I have no clue why it includes molasses, but it does. Other recipes use ingredients like ground rice.

This recipe has two parts that are made separately and then mixed together, after they have cured for 12 hours. The ingredients are:

Part 1
Salt
Alum - Common Potash Aluminum
Molasses - Unsulfured, light brown/clear
Water

Part 2
White or Ivory Lime
Portland Cement
Hot Water

Part A: Mix 12 pounds salt, 6 ounces of alum and 1 quart molasses dissolved in 1.5 gallons of water.

Part B: Mix 45 pounds of lime and 5 pounds of cement with 5 gallons of hot water. Let this stand for 12 hours. After 12 hours mix Parts A and B together. It should have a brushable consistency.

Very important is to wet down all brick surfaces liberally before applying the white wash. You want the brick to have absorbed enough water so that the brick doesn't draw the water out of the white wash. It can be brushed on thick or thin, depending on the desired effect. My preference is to apply it thick and then wash it down after it has started to set. This thins the coating so that the brick shows through more. Working the hose creatively can create a natural wear pattern, which is too hard to accomplish with a brush, usually ending up looking too intentional. They say that white wash can be tinted, but I have never tried it.

Normally, the image of this is white wash on red brick. We used it on an awful yellow brick and the look was charming. Much better than painting brick, which can create all kinds of maintenance challenges.

Gravel Road base stabilised with cement, hydrated lime(my preference) or plant or synthetic polymers. You can also stabilise dirt roads with lime: When I have treated my clay road , I have used 50 # bags - about 1 every 20 feet or so. First cut open the road. Then using the bags, I place the bags along the road, then cut them open and carefully spread the very dry, fine powder across the road. (No Wind Day !) Then mix with a tiller, or disc, several times. You may have to add water, as the clay will dry out very quickly. After mixing, make sure you have sufficient moisture so you can clump the material together in your hand. Ideally one should then compact with roller, or vehicle tires, and keep damp for several days if possible. The chemical reaction will make a cement out of the clay. Handling the material in bulk form with a shovel would be terrible tourture to yourself..way too dusty. A dustless way, is to make a slurry out of the lime. 1 ton of lime to 500 gallons of water, makes 600 gallons of 30% lime slurry. Now apply the lime slurry to the clay, and behold: applying lime slurry to wet clay, dries up the clay, and makes a cement. Now, you still must mix - tiller or disc - and compact. As you mix, the clay will dry rapidly to a fairly constant moisture level, and become friable. Now shape, and compact, by rollers or vehicle tires. Keep damp for several days if possible...Hydrated Lime has been used for decades on air strips and roads for stabilizing it. 2-6% hydrated lime, tilled into the soil will make it impervious to rain/ heave/ swell, and can be done once you dig the footer/footprint for your cob house. www.lime.org and search for the documents below:

http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/arbu1.html
http://www.earthpigments.com/products/index.cfm?Product_ID=122&SubCat_ID=13
http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/lwdistempers/lwdistempers.htm

Glitsa Floor Finish:

It's a floor finishing system... traditionally solvent born precatalyzed
and stinks to high heaven when curing. The solvents include alcohols, MEK, formaldehyde, etc, so no, it probably isn't 'natural' by your definition... but it produces a hard durable surface that can be re-coated if lightly abused every few (5+) years. The sealer sinks into the wood (typically mopped on) hardening the top layer of the wood and preparing it for the final finishes. General maintenance is cloth dampened with water.

I am unfamiliar and haven't yet used the Glitsa waterborne finishes... but as wood is non-polar and water polar, the grain raises with water. That's why I use a solvent born primer before latex coating for interior trim, Waterborne may be ready for prime time now... but other interior finish products don't meet that test yet..

Head and Neck Injuries in Sports

Head and Neck Injuries in Sports: Papers presented at the symposium of the same name, held in Atlanta, 1993, published 1994.

Milton Gabrielsen, PhD and Arthur H. Mittlestaedt, Jr. EdD, for the CPSC

Causes of Pool Diving Accidents. Head and Neck Injuries in Sports, ASTM STP 1229, Earl F. Hoerner, Ed, American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia.

Increasing research into diving injuries and fatalities as revealed in litigation over the years, can provide an insight into prevention and correction fo the causes. These causes have been divided into the following categories:
1. Victim Performance…
2. Victim Unawareness….
3. Pool Facility Non-Compliance….
4. Other:

Other
As these statistics provided by the database relate to diving safety issues, the information is more remarkable for what variable it does not include. There is no information in this national database concerning depth of the water in which diving injuries occurred. For clarification, we must then look elsewhere for additional information. The 1988 White Paper on Diving Accidents from the National Spa and Pool Institute executive summary of the Arthur D. Little studies diagrams the annual number of spinal cord injuries. 75% of the ‘diving’ SCI occurred in the natural environment. Competitive divers use swimming pools, not oceans, lakes and rivers. Only 25% of the ‘diving’ SCI resulting in quadriplegia occurred in swimming pools. Approximately 95% of these occurred in the shallow end of the pool. Careless diving into shallow and mid-range water depths is the aspect of user behavior that needs to be addressed.
..
The shotgun approach to removing diving boards is not the cure-all to reduce the real risk of ‘diving’ SCI injury. There is no justification to remove competitive diving boards in sites with excellent safety records that provide appropriate supervision (lifeguard and or diving coach) and sufficient room to maneuver.

Removing competitive diving boards in supervised sites with excellent safety records is unwarranted. Although there is a risk of injury in any practically built diving area, the real risk statistically comes from diving into shallow water five feet deep or less. There is a more subtle aspect of user behavior that needs to be addressed to reduce the risk of shallow water diving injuries. Although learning to dive in shallow water may be safe for youngsters 4-8 years old, the risk of injury from head impact with the bottom increases as the child matures into an adult-sized body with increased height and weight. Facility users need to appreciate this increased risk and adjust their behavior accordingly.

Given the facts, removing shallow water, not diving boards, is the obvious solution. However eliminating shallow water, like elimination diving boards, is a Catch 22 situation. Overall, ‘diving’ accounts for only 8% of the risk for spas, pool and associated equipment. Drowning accounts for 75% of risk. The shallow water cannot be removed to prevent diving SCI without increasing the risk of drowning. Likewise, removing diving boards used by instructional, competitive and recreational programs eliminates programs with excellent safety records that teach safe water entry skills.

Providing appropriate supervision is a key factor in reducing the risk of injury. Providing appropriate supervision enables continual monitoring of user behavior. A classic ‘diving’ injury profile based on over 200 ‘diving’ SCI that occurred in pools, presented by Milton Gabrielsen, PhD., at the 1984 National Pool and Spa Safety Conference, points to the lack of supervision as a prominent predisposing factor:
- In 89% of the time the location of the spinal cord injury was a residential, motel, hotel or apartment pool.
- In 85% of the accident sites, no qualified lifeguard, instructor or coach was present.
- In 57% of the cases, there was evidence the victim had consumed some form of alcoholic beverage, mostly beer.

Impact on Competitive Programs

Throughout the country, divers are having the diving boards taken out from under them. The big community pool, country club or resort pool with diving boards seems to be a thing of the past. Only 15.2% of nonresidential pools have diving boards of any kind. Diving programs have been canceled in Parks and Recreation, YMCA, high school, club and local pools in (many states). One mother of two prospective young divers wrote to express her concern. The local YMCA permanently removed the diving boards because the insurance company would no longer cover them. …Olympic gold medalist, Greg Louganis, says, “the sport of diving has the potential of becoming extinct”.

The removal of diving boards throughout this country comes at a crucial time for USD’s future Olympic efforts. While the numbers of young Americans with access to diving boards is diminishing, the Chinese have developed a large base of young age group athletes from which to field their future Olympic teams....

The Liability Crisis

The problem is not simply limited to the issue of ‘diving’ safety, but is part of a greater liability crisis this country is now experiencing. “Over the years, courts have “increasingly based liability more on the theory that the defendant has deep pockets or the insurance coverage to pay and not because they have really done anything wrong” said Richard K. Willard, US Assistant attorney general and chairman of the Justice Department’s Tort Policy Working Group....

Townships Sections Quarter Sections etc

A good visual description of original survey lines:

 

Ghost Marks

Framing ghost marks are the result of differential surface temperature and can be cured with better insulation

See here