Part of Phase 1: First Month
Shelter in Phase 1 covers everything from choosing a foundation to finishing the inside of a room, and Permanent Shelter is the overview article: a 3x4 meter room, built by two people in 2-4 weeks, houses 2-4 people, given a 3-5% drainage slope and water within 200 meters of the build site.
Permanent Shelter, Foundation Types, Foundation Work, Stone Foundation, Wall Construction, Log Construction, and Notch Types cover the structure itself, foundation up. Skip a foundation and a log cabin set on bare soil shows rot within 2-3 years in wet climates; footings generally need twice the width of the wall above them. Four foundation types exist without modern materials — stone piers, continuous stone, post-in-ground, and earthen pads — and stone foundation walls specifically follow a two-over-one rule, every stone bridging the joint below it, with tie stones every 1-1.5 meters. A load-bearing wall can’t have a door or window cut into it after the fact without risking collapse, which is why every opening gets planned before building starts, and a log wall’s lifespan comes down to choosing logs 20-30 cm across with under 5 cm of bow, debarked within two weeks of felling, locked together with one of four notch types — saddle, round, dovetail, square — from simplest to most advanced.
Adobe Bricks, Cob Building, Wattle and Daub, and Plaster and Lime Wash cover the earthen wall materials themselves. One worked mold turns out 30-50 adobe bricks a day per person, and a basic four-room house needs roughly 800-1,000 of them. Cob is mostly sand, not clay — about 70% to 20% — stomped into loaves and pressed onto a stone foundation in courses that cure for days. Wattle and daub has sheltered people for at least 6,000 years using nothing more than woven saplings and a clay-sand-straw paste pressed in from both sides. Limewash finishes any of these, starting with limestone burned above 900°C into quicklime, applied in 3-5 thin coats at least 24 hours apart or it never fully hardens.
Roof Systems, Thatching, Ridge Capping, Chimney Draft, Fireplace Build, and Heating Systems cover the roof and the heat underneath it. A roof left leaking more than 24 hours in wet weather starts a cascade — stored food rots, tools rust, bedding is ruined, the structure decays — and a roof ridge wears out 2-3 times faster than the rest of the covering, since wind-driven rain and capillary action force water through a gap just 2 cm wide. Thatching can go up within days using nothing but grass, reeds, or straw, with the plant material chosen deciding both thickness and lifespan. Chimney draft is the entire difference between a smoke-free room and a choking one — rising hot gas pulls fresh air in behind it through the firebox — and a stone-and-clay fireplace draws cleanly or smokes based on one thing: the proportions between hearth, firebox, throat, smoke shelf, and flue. Heating Systems makes the case for stove placement specifically: in a primitive shelter, air leaks alone can cause 40-60% of all heat loss.
Doors and Windows, Door Construction, Window Design, Flooring Options, Interior Finishing, and Moisture Barriers cover openings and the finished interior. Every doorway or window cut into a solid wall concentrates the load that wall used to spread evenly, which is why the opening needs a lintel to carry it, and a door’s diagonal brace only works running hinge side to latch side — reversed, it makes the door sag worse than having no brace at all. Before glass, oiled linen passes roughly 40% diffused light and lasts 2-5 years, against about 30% for animal membrane. A tamped earth floor finishes in 1-2 days; stone flags take 3-5 days but last 50 or more years. Bare cob, adobe, wattle-and-daub, or stone walls stay rough, dusty, and insect-prone until plastered and finished, and moisture barriers get sized against real thresholds — mold needs water activity above 0.85, bacteria above 0.95, insects survive down to 0.70.
Foundations and Walls
The structure itself, foundation up, including the two ways to lock a log wall together.
- Permanent Shelter
- Foundation Types
- Foundation Work
- Stone Foundation
- Wall Construction
- Log Construction
- Notch Types
- Stone Dressing
Wall Materials
Earthen walls, from brick and cob to woven wattle, and the limewash that finishes them.
Roof and Heat
Keeping water out from above, and the draft and placement that keep a fire from choking the room.
Openings and Finishing
Doors, windows, floors, and the interior finish and moisture control that make a shell livable.