#183 Huge progress on our brick ruin renovation

Six years ago, we bought this abandoned piece of land in Portugal to find a new way of living. And since then, we have been discovering old ruins on the land, rebuilding them with used materials and documenting what we do, so we can all learn from it. And in this video, we will build the heating system for our brick ruin and plaster the interior walls. Welcome to a new Project Camp update. In the past year, we've been clearing, demolishing, reinforcing, rebuilding, unbuilding, and continuing to convert the brick ruin on our land into a cozy home. Now, we will build our long-awaited heating system. Let me show you the design. The inside is a traditional wood stove that is fed from the galeria. The masonry built around it serves as thermal mass that radiates the heat slowly into the two separate bedrooms. The pocket where the wood stove sits in is open on the galeria side. This opening will create a draft of cold air that will heat up and move to the top of the brick chimney. In the future, we will place a concrete slab that closes off the chimney and creates a pocket of hot air. Beneath this cap, we create air vents to let warm air flow into the two separate bedrooms, as you can see here. A little disclaimer. We had all of our forces working in a parallel on two projects in the brick ruin, so we will jump between both teams. Now, let's get this place ready for the next steps. Our first step is going to be finding the center of the room and then we can work all of our measurements off that center line. So, my feet are on the center line. We are laying out bricks at the moment to see if what is in the design is actually correct. And it seems to be. We're going to build a row of three bricks there and three and a half there. And then we are going to start with the base. We want it to hold a little bit before it falls off. So, that's great. There we go. Brick laying 101. So, this is where bricks come to die. We might use them. We want this part off. So, we make a notch here in the middle. And then we clean it up. Ross, what do you think of this? Oh, yeah. A bit pointy. Oh, I couldn't have done it better myself. With the bricks and the mortar ready, we can now actually start laying bricks. We're not masons. So, if there's any pros with feedback, feel free to comment. You ever buttered a brick, my guy? Don't come around me when I start laying. So, we got a couple layers of the outside base. And now we're going to fill in the middle. And the part in the middle is the base for the wood stove. So, the wood stove will sit on that. So, it is a little bit elevated off the ground. See, I knew it was perfect. Just before lunch, amazing Ross. By the way, you're on the mortar. And all the other people. No, I'm not on the mortar. And all the other people. Everybody. Team effort. Team. Yeah, but you said Ross. But under the guidance of Ross. Ross, Ross effort. Of Ross Mercury. I said it, yeah. I'm going to do a nature effect. For this, we use the showcase, bro. Guys, looking to get some brick laid? Don't hire me. Yeah, hi everyone. We got a yawn. I think we're doing great for non-brick layers. Yeah, it's fun. I like it. So, we ran out of sand. So, now we're back to our little sand pile. But we have to sift it. So, that's what we're doing this morning. Sifting sand. I don't know who's going to carry this wheelbarrow. Up the hill. Being shaky. These are different than these. Because these are fire bricks. And they make a nice solid foundation. They have no holes in them. So, it's a nice surface for the stove to sit on. Good morning. We're back in the brick ruin. And today, we're going to prep for plastering. So, we're going to plaster lime. It can be very messy. And we don't want the lime to get onto the wood. Because it could stain it. But also, the wood moves differently than lime. So, we just don't want them to be in contact. And we also don't want lime to fall onto the window seal. To make the window crunchy. You know, that's terrible. And we're going to also protect the floor. Because it's going to be a bit of an explosive process. We also have that the plaster comes here, right? We want to have a little line of cork here. That is going to absorb the movement of the wood. And prevent the plaster from breaking. And landscape team is making so much noise. Good morning. It's the plastering day. The first one. Made sure that our work environment was protected. And we also, at the last moment of the day, watered this wall. And it's still a bit damp. And today we're going to re-water it again. We don't need to have a projection layer. Because the surface is quite full of holes. And ready to have something to clean on. But if the surface was completely flat. We would have needed to do a super watery projection lime sand. We're not going to do that. We're going to immediately move on to the one centimeter. To one and a half centimeter of lime plaster. And another detail that's going to happen. Is that we're going to put these little baguettes of things. Of cork. And we're going to put them in between the lime plaster and the wood. We don't want any cracks. So we're going to put some cork to absorb the chocks. The chocks. Okay. So. Oh man. Let's go. Let's do it. Okay. We're doing it. I'm just making sure that I'm getting all the corners. The corners, huh? We're going to prepare the wall by wetting it. Okay. We've made these little baguettes of exactly one centimeter and a half. And I've wet one side. I've put some tartine of lime mix. And we're just going to see if it sticks. And if not, we're going to have to improvise. So let's see. If it sticks. If it sticks, we're golden. So we're kind of cheating, no? Because it's resting against the floor. Yeah, it's not very sticky. Maybe I should have just screwed it. I don't know. I like not using screws, but good enough for me. We safely climb the ladder. Don't hit her. Should I help you somehow? All good. Wiggle a bit. We're putting a lime putty here. Blocking it. And then putting it on the wall. And from down to top, we are placing the lime. For now, the mix is very, very liquidy. So we're just going to make sure it's evenly placed. And when it's going to be more leather hard, meaning that I can do that without pulling it, you know? This is too liquid. But if I touch it and it will move but not come with me, that means it's time to level everything. So now we're just applying it to the wall and making sure it stays. So we finished the whole wall with putting on the plaster. And because we're a little sloppy, we need now to smooth it. Usually, we could wait a couple of hours to dry. But at this time, it's really hot in Portugal. And it's 35 degrees. OK, not 30. I'm exaggerating. It's 30 degrees. And it's not ideal. Lime likes a good 20 degrees with a bit of humidity at night. We're doing it. But we don't want the lime to dry too fast. So we sprayed the wall again after putting all the plaster. And I'm coming here with a trowel to make sure everything is kind of flat. And we're going to have to come back and check regularly on the lime plaster to make sure that it doesn't get too white too fast because that would potentially make cracks. We are making progress. It is slow and steady. But I'm liking the result. And I think it looks pretty good. I'd say we're getting faster by the brick. I was going to say we're getting speed. These are cut to size. Let's see if Ross can use them. Ross? Got some bricks for you. Wow, clean. Last row, right? Although done with... Done with this step. Exactly. This is the pocket. Stove pocket? The stove pocket. Let's call it the stove pocket. The stove pocket. Yes. One more brick to go over there. And from there we need to taper. Taper, yes. But this is already a very big achievement. Look at that stove pocket. Stove pocket. This baby right here is still drying. We're going to accompany him through his drying process. But this is not all that we're going to do. We're also going to do this wall here. And you know the drill. We're going to come. We're going to wet it. We're going to prepare our mix. Come with a bunch of ladders. And it's going to be done. We're done with the applying on the wall the plaster. And now we see that there is a bunch of space where we weren't super regular. Because we're not professionals. Sorry. We step away from the wall. And we're going to look where the light makes shadow pockets. And we're coming with a trowel and a sponge to sometimes wet it. Smooth it. Make a better repetition of the mass. So we're working the wall a bit better and a bit more precisely. We're going to swing back to the fireplace. And we're going to reuse our lintel from the inside as the new lintel for the fireplace. So we've got to prepare this edge up and make it look pretty. So look how smooth these edges are. Before. After. Let's dry fit it. We got a lintel now. The lintel is in place. Ross and I are going to continue building the chimney. But before that we take the wood stove out. So Marianne can start restoring it. All that work. But for a functioning heating system we need something that produces heat. We're gonna go with a wood stove. We have plenty of wood. So that's always a good way to heat here in Project Camp. We're gonna treat the stove with some metal brushes. And then with a specific product that can withstand high temperatures. And like give some polish and shine to the cast iron. We'll clean it first. But yeah. Let me show you how it looks before we do anything. These are vents I think. Like especially here on the feet. It just has this like surface rust. Which hopefully it's going to be really easy. Here it is a bit more rusty. Again like surface rust. This is also okay. From the other side. Also very nice. Then this is the ashtray. Which doesn't look good. But it's okay because it's just the ashtray. But you need to be careful in there. This is the base. We're gonna give a touch up to this. And then the door also looks very good. It had a glass. But it was broken. So we went to the factory and got a new one. The door looks very good on the outside. On the inside we'll take care of this. Make it look good. And yeah. Let's start. After all the grinding it's really nice to apply this thing and see it transform. And I'm doing both brush and cloth. Especially like here in the front. Okay. Mixed results. We wiped off all the excess paste. And the stuff is looking very good. That's good. But as the manufacturer said. If you touch it. Like this is my finger. If I go here. I will always like get something. Depending on the areas I get a bit more. But we're gonna put it in place. And no one's gonna touch it. So that's okay. Since the plastering team was advancing quickly. We decided to pause the chimney for a moment. To build the outer wall for them to plaster. And to build that wall we need half hand blocks. Fire season officially started today. High fire risk. So we're gonna cut them by hand. Because we can't use a chainsaw this afternoon. If we use exactly half a hand block. We have the right size. There we go. So these beams are not fully straight. Like the this gap is a little bit tapered. So these are too small. But the nice thing is that. We need some cork on both edges. Because the wood expands. We're gonna plaster it. So we want a flexible layer. To prevent the plaster from cracking. So we're gonna build it up all the way. Use the brackets to connect it to the wood. And both sides will have a nice strip of cork. And then we'll plaster them. And we're gonna look awesome. Smack it on there. Okay let's try. An error. Then we plaster it afterwards. But it has to be a little bit higher. So the bracket is in the mortar joint. Should I go higher than that? I think that's good. Well we'll put a second one just in case. Exactly. Lots of brackets. So the hub wall is connected to the wooden structure. The mortar will go around the stainless steel bracket. So it will form a joint. Am I right Ismael? Yeah. Well it's okay. That ain't going anywhere. That one's a bit high. But I think it's okay. Some mortar first. And then you put this bracket in. That's how it works. See that jelly? Yeah. You might need to squish it down from the side too. This goes. That's in there. It doesn't move anymore. It's good. We have the other post to go. We're drilling holes for our electrical conduit to run through the wall. Because we're going to have an outlet here. Maybe a light switch. But we need space inside the assembly. So we don't mess up our beautiful exterior wood. Should have done the holes earlier. But it's okay. We can still do it. This side has a little bit more space. Would it work? Well we need to fill up the gaps. So no air can go through. It will be plastered very nicely. But for us first is filling up the gaps. And we're using tiny bits of cork. But we make sure that it's moist and tight. There you go. There we go. So we're pulling wire while we have space above the walls. And we have some wire here for this one. Will be for a future socket. But we have enough wire that goes till the end of the wall. Just so that we future proof ourselves. And then later on decide where we want to place things. And there's also this wire. Which is for the light switch. Which will be here. When you come in into the bedroom. Slide the door open. Turn on the switch. And there's a light. So this is for light and switch. And this is for the socket. So we're going to label everything. And pull wire. So that we can close the walls. Hello. So we're bringing two cables down in this area. We're in the galleria. One for the sockets. We're going to have a socket outside here. And one for the light. Okay. Nice. I think we leave it here loosely in place. Ross can start filling this gap. And we can keep going with the electric system. And that is some more cable. And junction box number three. And this cable is also gonna go here temporarily. So it looks better. So we are all for the looks, aren't we? Also so that Ross can build the wall. The last row of hemp. For now. It's messy. But this will be officially closed off. And we're gonna do this part next. This guy. In the middle. And we are finishing the wire. So the plaster can break. Here we have our last block. Wow. That is satisfying. I'm glad that's done. So regarding cable management. Caroline tucked away the cables here. So we need a small chamfer on the cork. And this is behind the bracket. So the idea is that the plaster can go on top easily. Don't mind this. This is gonna be the light. So it's gonna be out of the way. And the light will be there. And the socket will be there. There is also a little channel in the hemp here. For the socket. The electrical is about to be finished. And the hemp wall is closed off. And as you can see, Colleen has started plastering. Look at that. She's finishing. I mean you can just say that I'm killing it. I think that's accurate. You heard it here folks, she's killing it. We are adding the ventilation shafts. As a quick reminder, the hot air from the stove is directed into the bedrooms through these shafts. And now we're doing the hemp blocks for our final wall. So our lintel that we cut down, we're now cleaning up. And we're going to use as the gut filler for our fireplace slash chimney. This gap, little hole. Because of the fire regulations, we can only use power tools inside the buildings. The grinding of stones can create sparks and that's a fire hazard. Outside, there's a lot of flammable dry grass. So the risk of starting a fire inside is way lower. Lintels on the side are looking good. We'll add a lot of abrasion so there's a good bond between the lintel, concrete, wood, and masonry. So hopefully this works. But looking really nice. Going all the way up and down. So pretty happy that we could use the lintel in a fun, playful way. I'm going to now drill big old holes so we can put metal supports on the bottom so it doesn't topple over. And hopefully it lasts as long as the brick room does. Let's see if our marks line up. Holes are drilled. Pretty good. Let's see how it fits on top. All right. Why do I always choose to do this by myself? All right. Fits on. Just need some mortar. We'll mortar these guys today and then wait a couple days to put the top piece on. But we still need to connect them like this. So afterwards they can be one long piece. Got the notch cut out. Time to do our last mortar mix for this fireplace. As you can see, we got this nice overlapping joint. Very similar to some joinery, but with concrete. I'm very happy with it. It's crazy to think this is all because of the brick wall space that it created. And now we're just kind of filling the gaps. But we're using the materials. It's going to look really cool at the very end. I'm very happy. Let's finish it. Our heating unit is complete. We have our beautiful stove that Mariana fixed up and polished. Inserted in with our brand new chimney. The masonry is done. And we've reused the concrete lintel that we took out. We also used it on the sides where the brick was supposed to be. They had a large gap. So now we have a continuous piece of concrete. Let's go check out the inside. As you can see, our beautiful masonry is done. We've got a big base. Lovely taper. All the way up to the lovely vents at the top. The concrete lintel you can see is still curing. But the idea with the top to close the gap is to make a little shelf. So the people in the room have a nice shelf. Building the masonry was a big milestone in a brick ruin. The next step is installing the exhaust and testing out our hybrid heating system. If you like what we do, you can support us on Patreon. There you will see the next video two weeks ahead in 4k and without ads. If not, we see you here in two weeks.