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| First, one final effort to stabilize the cracks. I filled the few remaining void areas with dry sand/clay powder and wet out the entire crack. Then I traced the cracks with a fat popsicle stick, pressing down as hard as my fingers would allow. Last, I pounded the crack with a short stick to densify the material as much as possible. |
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| The pour progressing nicely. Note the plastic on the walls to protect against splatters. |
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| Friends had helped me pre-mix 4 batches in the mortar mixer the day before. (The recipe was 1 bucket clay, 2 3/4 bucket masonry sand, 1/3 bucket chopped straw.) The goal was to install the entire top layer in one day to avoid having joints show in areas poured on different days. I ended up needing a total of 8 mixes, but because this was Monday, I had no help available to parallel process mixing and troweling. |
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| It ended up being a 14-hour day, but I got it done! Here, is the floor a week later after drying out. Unfortunately, it dried out too much. It was still a little too wet to burnish on Friday; I was away for the weekend; and this was how it looked on Monday before I did the burnishing. I had to use the paint sprayer to re-wet the surface, but it was still not as good a job as if I'd been able to do it a couple days earlier. |
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| Still a little wet after burnishing, so I walked on the foam boards to avoid denting or scuffing the surface. Luckily, there were no issues with the painters tape damaging the clay wall plaster, so the plastic came down without drama. |
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| My Cinderella moment: if your hand fits the print in the floor, you own the house! |
