terrace – Tinos Eco Lodge

Xerolithies – Dry stone walls

Tinos Eco Lodge — Sat, 16 May 2015 13:46:47 +0000

The dry stone walls that can be found all over the island and have been supporting the terraced slopes for centuries are under threat! The fields are abandoned as they are no longer being cultivated and their walls are collapsing because there is no one to maintain them. There used to be a rule that the neighbour from above is responsible for maintaining the stone walls below. So here we are fixing our stone walls on the border with the neighbour, which have been down for the last 4 decades!

Pergolas in the small house

Tinos Eco Lodge — Sat, 16 May 2015 13:42:11 +0000

The view from the small house terrace

Summer is coming and the sun is hitting strong! The small house is now protected by two pergolas on the verandas and it’s fresh and cosy to sit outside!

Things are coming together at the upper house

Tinos Eco Lodge — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 08:14:30 +0000

Construction 24/7

Tinos Eco Lodge — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 21:10:19 +0000

The day has grown longer and work goes on until late! With Rafa here we take advantage of this and usually stay until sunset, also we are running now to meet ESPA deadline of 30 June!!! And to be open for our first visitors in July!!!

A beautiful spring day on the plot

Tinos Eco Lodge — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:05:00 +0000

I just love days like this! Everything is green, blue and bright, the stream is full of water and we can hear it running and the birds are singing, its spring at last!

Stone plates

Tinos Eco Lodge — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 08:01:50 +0000

We started our first expierience with laying stone plates. First attempt was to lay them in mud with this simple but time consuming technic we realized a pathaway and an sitting area under the mulberry tree at the small house. The second technic was to lay them into mortar. Its quiet a bit faster and much easier to level them to each other.

Rain Water Cistern of 100.000L

Tinos Eco Lodge — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 10:51:52 +0000

The cistern is the central part of our fresh water management, it stores the winter rainfall that is collected trough out all hard surfaces like roofs, verandas and stairs that we created through out the building process. This area ads up to 281 sq m with an average 380 mm of annual perception (rainfall) the water that will be collected is around 100.000 L (100m3). This amount of water can provide all needs of the Ecolodge trough out the 4 dry Summer months.

In August the excavation started(pic.1) and we extracted about 30% of the stones we used for our buildings. After leveling the ground the wood shuttering for the concrete was put up(pic.2). Concrete was poured in September and the Greek magicians managed to make floor and walling in one run(pic.3-4). Iron reinforcement was put in place for the roof that also is making up the veranda of the one house(pic.4-6). Cleaning out all the mud, irons and water in the dark was a hell of a job. Finalizing the veranda (roof) surface with the power trowel and color worked out fine(pic.7-9). Finalizing the inner part of the cistern took us quite some time because all loose parts like wood, mud and nails had to be removed before the water impregnation could start. We used a cement based sealing slurry for drinking water quality, in 3 passes(pic.10-11).

At the moment water level is continuously raising with 50cm in 22.Feb.20

TIP: Power trowel

Tinos Eco Lodge — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:50:14 +0000

The power trowel works on medium wet concrete surfaces. After finishing you get a very durable hard surface in what ever color you want. For us it was great to find out about the little machine, we saved a lot of material, time and money.