GIMME SHELTER
(Page 2 of 2)
January/February 1972
By Tom Story
SLOPPIN' ON THE SLURRY
RELATED CONTENT
When you have the frame covered with burlap, you're ready to coat the fabric with a slurry of three parts sand and one part cement mixed up into a sloppy mud. Wet the tight, coarse cloth and try to work the thin cement completely into the fibers of the fabric . . . rather than letting it form just a surface covering over the burlap. Slop the cement on and muscle it into the burlap from both the in and outside. You want to work the mixture all the way through and around every filament of the fabric.
When the burlap is completely covered, take the rotten and torn bags which were laid aside earlier and soak them in water. Wring the sacks out sopping damp and spread them over the fresh cement so it will cure more slowly and evenly with a minimum of cracks. If it's a super-hot day in summer or your shelter is exposed to the broiling sun, you may have to splash more water over the old bags as they dry out. On the other hand, you'll probably find that the covering can be wrung almost completely dry before application and never redampened if your cement is curing in cool, humid spring or fall weather. The idea is to help the thin shell of concrete cure without cracking. A few cracks are bound to appear, of course, and shouldn't unduly worry you . . . but keep them as few and far between as possible.
If you attempt to spread a second coat of cement over the first or do any other touch-up work after the original concrete has begun to dry, remember to dampen the shell . . . otherwise the new slurry will not adhere to the old.
WATERPROOFING
Since cement is porous, the shell of your structure—no matter how sound—will not be completely waterproof. An inexpensive coating of tar will remedy that. Puddle it on and coat it with aluminum paint to reflect the sun.
The final result of these efforts should be a sturdy, waterproof structure at absolutely minimum cost. Ours, at least, remains intact after weathering some truly violent storms and now continues to serve nobly as a chicken coop and cement storage bin.
IMPROVEMENTS AND IMPROVISATIONS
Naturally, by the time we completed our shelter, we had figured out some better ways to design and erect such a building.
A quonset shape would probably offer several advantages over the igloo-dome-yurt design we used. The less-complex curves of the quonset would have made the stretching of the burlap and placement of doors and windows much easier. We're also wondering how a different waterproofing agent would work. An epoxy or fiberglas covering would probably be excellent. Improvise.
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