Glass

Bottle
Construction.

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Ar. Maghali Rastogi Arshi Khan

Ar. Swati Negi 160823025

Step 1: materials
Bottles, in assorted shapes and colors if you would like.

Ivory dish detergent

Wood posts, sizes vary depending on your project I used 6X 8 treated posts.
 Roofing felt.
Bolts to connect the treated post size depends on the size of your posts.
Staples.
Rubber gloves
Lots of sponges

TOOLS REQUIRED:
A mixing bucket or wheelbarrow to mix mortar.
A hoe or shovel for mixing mortar

Medium sized trowels (one for each person laying bottles)

Staple gun.
A level (standard or a string level)
String

STEP 2: CLEAN BOTTLES

The easiest way to do this is to soak the bottles in water. in large plastic boxes or
buckets adding a little bit of chlorine to the water helps prevent mosquito larva and
scum. It seems to help the labels slide off the bottles.
This step is mandatory. Do not even think about leaving labels on the bottles. Many
years ago a woman built a house in Nevada out of bottles and she did not remove
the labels when summer came the mortar contracted and the labels stayed with the
mortar

STEP 3:

After you clean your bottles, they need to be sorted by size and color. This will give
you palette for your wall design.

STEP 4: FRAMING OF WALLS

The large structure has a 5 inch foundation with 20 inch footers. Which exceeds the state
and county building codes in my area. The small building has concrete footings and a dirt
floor.

Sink your posts into the footings or into ground if you are doing a garden wall without
footers. I would not recommend skipping the footers except on low garden walls.
Use the level to make sure your posts are straight and level. You can use post
brackets to put the posts up. We used the brackets in the large building, but we sunk
the post directly in the concrete in the small building. I plan to stick with the brackets
for my next bottle building.
The beams can be laid across the posts and hammer them in with large nails. Or you
can use post and beam brackets, L brackets or large bolts to attach the beams. We
nail the beams down to the posts in the large building then reinforce them with roof
brackets.

STEP 5: PLAN YOUR WALL DESIGN

You can build your walls with a single  type and color bottle. But why? Glass makes a great
medium. You can rough out designs on paper or in sketchbook.

STEP 6: BUILDING OF WALLS

Mix the mortar according to the package instructions and add a ¼ cup of Ivory dish
detergent and 1 cup of lime to the mix.  The texture of the mortar should be about the same
as organic peanut butter.

Tack a level string up between the posts at the height of a bottle on it’s side  plus ½”.
There will be a ½ “ gap between the bottles. So you need to figure out the spacing of
the bottles, so that the bottles end up centered between the posts. If you have large
gaps on the ends you can make the gap between the bottles a little bit wider. The
gaps on the edges can be up to 2” wide if needed (but, smaller is better).
The first layer of mortar should be about ¾ “ thick . Slather  some mortar on the side
of a bottle place the bottle in the mortar and press bottle down firmly. Use the trowel
to form  a curve for the next bottle. (see the sketchbook image)
The mortar should not go past the shoulder of the bottles. It will block out light. It also
increases the cost of building significantly. The mortar on these buildings ended up
at about 4 ½ -5” from the base of the bottle. The small building was started first as a
test project and the mortar was 6” this was major overkill and wasted a lot of mortar.
After you have a couple of rows of bottles, stop and clean up your work use sponges
and clear water to wipe down the bottle bottoms and leave a smooth surface on the
mortar. It is easiest to do this with lots of sponges just use one for the initial wipe
down then switch to a fresh clean sponge and wipe it down again, repeat until the
bottles are clean. Clean off the tops of the bottles the same way. When you think the
bottles are clean, wipe them down again. Seriously, do it or you will end up with
mortar streaks on the glass. Be sure to wear rubber gloves while you clean the
bottles.
Don’t lay more than four rows of bottles at a time. GIve the mortar some time to set
between layers so that it does not sag.
STEP 7: FIXING OF WINDOWS
Put a window in the building across from the double doors for cross ventilation. We found a
window at the re-store. The installation was very simple. We built the wall three feet high and
placed a window frame on the bottles and built around it.

STEP 8: REPAIRS