Dave Lot

Thank you for all the replies.

Will have to discuss this with the building inspector and see what he thinks...

Also pricing out the "ingredients " in my new home.  😁

Thank you for the replies...

Will have to look into getting a big bag of DE

Hello all.

I am in the process of buildiing a Hobbit Home.
Basicly a covered basement with a post and beam roof, covered in dirt.
My question for everyone, is this....

Is there a spice or a food item, when ground up - will deter ants and or chewing insects ?

My line of thought is, I when I am layering on the different layers of roofing material and waterproofing, would it stop or deter chewing insects, if (as an example) I put in a heavy sprinkling of cyan pepper under the last layer of water proofing membrane - would it stop the little critters ?

What about other powerfull spices?  Garlic powder ?  The space in between the layers is supposed to be a dry and stable environment, so it would not wash away...

Hello all.

I am in the process of buildiing a Hobbit Home.
Basicly a covered basement with a post and beam roof, covered in dirt.
My question for everyone, is this....

Is there a spice or a food item, when ground up - will deter ants and or chewing insects ?

My line of thought is, I when I am layering on the different layers of roofing material and waterproofing, would it stop or deter chewing insects, if (as an example) I put in a heavy sprinkling of cyan pepper under the last layer of water proofing membrane - would it stop the little critters ?

What about other powerfull spices?  Garlic powder ?  The space in between the layers is supposed to be a dry and stable environment, so it would not wash away...

Welcome to the illegal world of rocket mass heaters... Canadian style.
I am located in Ontario Canada, and have a rocket stove in my workshop, that after burning for 6 hours, will heat the shop for 3 days....
I have talked to several insurance companies about putting one in my main dwelling, only too be told "no".
My brother wanted to put one in his home close by, and was told "if a light buld starts a fire in the front of your house, and we find out you have a rocket in the back of the house, your insurance will be null and void" - NOT ALLOWED
In Canada, you have to find someone who is willing to build it for you (or with you) then turn around and certify it. I have talked to at least 6 different masons and wood stove people, and they all say the same thing - not interested....   Of course, why would they be ?  I built my rocket stove for less than 200 $ and it requries very little maintenance, while these guys have the market cornered on 5,000 dollar wood stoves, that burn out and need to be replaced, inspected and cleaned regularly....

sorry, my bitterness is showing... but Rocket Mass Heaters are not acceptable or allowed in Canada.

Welcome to the illegal world of rocket mass heaters... Canadian style.
I am located in Ontario Canada, and have a rocket stove in my workshop, that after burning for 6 hours, will heat the shop for 3 days....
I have talked to several insurance companies about putting one in my main dwelling, only too be told "no".
My brother wanted to put one in his home close by, and was told "if a light buld starts a fire in the front of your house, and we find out you have a rocket in the back of the house, your insurance will be null and void" - NOT ALLOWED
In Canada, you have to find someone who is willing to build it for you (or with you) then turn around and certify it. I have talked to at least 6 different masons and wood stove people, and they all say the same thing - not interested....   Of course, why would they be ?  I built my rocket stove for less than 200 $ and it requries very little maintenance, while these guys have the market cornered on 5,000 dollar wood stoves, that burn out and need to be replaced, inspected and cleaned regularly....

sorry, my bitterness is showing... but Rocket Mass Heaters are not acceptable or allowed in Canada.

It has been a while since i have logged onto this site, been busy getting ready to build my Hobbit Home.

Daves Hobbit Home Build  - on facebook - @undergroundandlovinit
As for moving the portable rocket stove around....  I have demolished a couple of my buildings to make room for the new house, and the work shop has become a storage shop - so the rocket stove heater has been moved into a corner and buried with "stuff" ..... and yes, as expected - it is difficult to move, but it does move ...😁 Heavier, wider wheels with a larger weight capacity would definitely help with that.

After repeated firings, the rocket heater is now all dried out and burning nicely.
Since I have made the burn chamber .5 of an inch smaller in one direction - there is no smoke back, or puffing at all.

Loading the stove up with cardboard, gets the stove really hot !

This is why I warn people, when building one of these stoves, to leave plenty of room around the barrel.

I had to urethane some window frames out in the shop.
So, I went out at noon, and fired up the portable rocket heater.
At noon, it was 28 degrees F.  By 1 pm, it was 40 degrees F.  By 3 pm, it was around 65 degrees in the shop, and I started urethaning the wood.
After that, it quickly reached 72 degrees, and I had too open the door too cool off.

In total, I used 8 pieces of 1.5 x 1.5 x 36 inches plus 2 - 2x4s - 48 inches long - as a test for back burn - there was none.

It works.

Edit.  After burning the stove full out for most of the afternoon ( 5 hours or so ), the outer bricks around the fire box ( the ones with 2 inches of perelite inside ) only reached 90 degrees F.  or so.  Perelite is a REALLY GOOD insulator.

After a week of sitting in the shop, it was time for a full on burn.

No leaks, and very good draft.  6 inch pipe thruout the build.  The one thing I did differently is too make the entrance to the burn tunnel .5 of an inch smaller in one direction.  That increases the draft in that area, and I can now load up the burn chamber as full as it will go, and I have no smoke back or back burn issues at all (so far).

I also find, that the 4 or 5 feet of bare chimney pipe is losing almost as much heat as the mass was absorbing.  I know that I cannot tell what the inner temperature is on the stove pipe, since it now gets hot enough to melt the regular stove thermometer I was using, but the new chimney thermometer I picked up, is telling me that it does not get over 200 F . I do notice a difference at the top of the chimney outside, as there is no smoke, no steam, nothing to see - as if the stove is not even running.

On the plus side, with that large slab of concrete covering the manifold, my coffee stays hot ...