I realize it must seem we have dropped off the edge of the earth. We have been taking lots of photos but do not seem to have time to stop and chronicle what we are up to. We are in the midst of final sandblasting inside the house (before windows are installed) and are currently installing the aluminum glazing system into which our glass will be inserted. In the midst of all of this I have been working for several clients (bookkeeping) and we have been trying to get the kids set up for homeschooling. Provincial Winter Fair just finished and lots of 4-H meetings are coming up. Eeeek. Will try to post soon, if only photos….
In regard to buindilg a (close to) uniform recycled tire wall, they did have a system to sort through the tires. They explained that there are usually two numbers on the tires: one that indicates the width of the tire, and one that indicates the distance from the outside of the tread to where it meets the trim. They used large tires on the bottom, all of equal size, and used smaller tires, all of the same size on the upper levels.They also used air pressurized pumps, pneumatic tampers (with an air compressor) to pound the slightly moist dirt into the tires. When I worked with them, there were four of us. One person would sort through and pick the tire and stack it on the wall (rebar was also pounded into the earthfilled tires to keep them in place), another person prepared the dirt that would be shoveled into the tires, and there two of us using the pressurized pneumatic tampers to pound at least 100 pounds of dirt into each tire. I think some of the leveling took place by putting simply putting in more dirt into some of the too skinny tires.They also used glass bricks in the wall to help offset the size difference of the tires as they built up the wall (using smaller tires). They are happy this this because it also lets in light in the back, north wall. It also took up extra space as the tires that were used were smaller as they built up the wall. (See the picture in the main article to see the glass bricks in the north wall.)They were creative in the buindilg process and instead of using concrete blocks at the end of the wall, they sawed tires in half and screwed them onto the adjacent one, then pounded dirt into it. In this way, every other level, the tires could be offset, but end in a straight line.Best of luck and let us know how your project goes.