Rural Studio Bathhouse

These Welds Were Made for Walkin’!

July 10, 2025

Hello and welcome back to the Rural Studio Bathhouse blog. Check out what we’ve been up to the past few months!

students pose with thumbs up nect to walkway — Thumbs-up for walkway going up!

At the time of the last update, we were just wrapping up stacking the modules for the outdoor shower’s walls and preparing to install the metal roof structure.

We got our good friend Shane back on site to help us out with the installation. First up was the compression frame on the top of the walls. After welding the rods to the frame, we tightened the bolts to the recommended pressure, compressing the wood walls into place.

Student poses inside outdoor shower — Checking out our progress

Next, we lifted the continuous tubes into place. Once they were leveled, we bolted them to the compression frame at the recommended force.

Student levels continuous tube — Leveling the continuous tubes

Students bolt continuous tube to compression frame — Leveling the continuous tubes

With the tubes in place, we marked the locations for the trusses and lifted them onto the tubes. Shane then welded the three trusses into place. He also welded the diagonal support bracing between the trusses.

Student holds truss in place — Holding the trusses

Student and instructor level truss — Holding the trusses

Next, we marked out the locations for the purlins, and once again, Shane welded them to the trusses. With the trusses and purlins in place, we welded the tubes to the edges of the trusses and purlins, capping all the open ends. This step makes the trusses and purlins appear as planar surfaces instead of singular objects. With all the welding complete, we cleaned and painted the welds and touched up any other ugly spots on the structure.

Students clamp end caps to truss ends — Capping the ends of the trusses

Students clamp purlins to trusses — Capping the ends of the trusses

Finally, we were ready to put up the sheet metal roof. We started with the north side of the outdoor shower, making sure to measure to set points on the trusses to ensure the spacing of the sheets was even.

View of sheet metal going up — Roof going up!

Student screws metal sheet down — Roof going up!

We were able to do this very quickly, and it completely transformed the experience of the space. Although it looks like our early renderings, it’s even better than we imagined in reality!

Rendering of Outdoor Shower Interior — One of our very early renderings of the Outdoor Shower

View of finished Outdoor Shower interior — One of our very early renderings of the Outdoor Shower

View of Outdoor Shower from outside — Finished roof from outside

On site, we poured the small concrete pad on the top of the boot washing station at the front of the building. Steve helped us with the finishing work and taught us how to do the edging and broom finish. This little slab will support a water hydrant that comes up through it as well as several boot scrubbers and/or a water hose reel.

Students spread concrete for pour — Concrete pour

Instructor shows student how to finsh concrete — Concrete pour

After we finished installing of the roof structure and completing other site tasks, we made our way back to Columbiana to continue with the rest of the metal fabrication. We began working on the walkway ladders, continuous tubes, plates for the ceilings, and the other miscellaneous roof pieces.

View of finished walkway piece — Walkway ladder #1

Before we knew it, Pig Roast was almost here! The team made a big push to be able to show off what we could of the metal work on site. We were excited to have the first piece of the walkway done, and Shane came out to the site again to help us put it in place. We also finished a mock-up of the guardrail with the help of Flo and Luis in the shop. The mock-up was clamped in place on site to give visitors an idea of the fully finished walkway. We also set up the outdoor shower so that visitors could climb up and experience the space and views for themselves.

Students guide walkway piece into place — Guiding it into place

Students bolt walkway into place — Guiding it into place

With another year down, it came time to celebrate everyone’s hard work and incredible projects at Pig Roast! Although it was rainy and muggy, nothing could rain on our parade. We had a great time showing off our project and the progress made to all our friends and families. We also enjoyed participating in all the evening festivities as well.

Team poses for picture on walkway — Team with plywood cutout Logan

Man poses with cardboard cutout — Team with plywood cutout Logan

The excitement didn’t last long because we had to get back to work in Columbiana. We started back up on the walkway ladder pieces. This work consisted of us cutting the channels to size, coping the ends of the channels to fit together, drilling any holes, leveling all the pieces, welding the outer frame, adding the bracing tees within the frames, and welding those to the channels. We also cleaned and painted each ladder piece when we finished. We have finished fabricating four of the five walkway ladders.

Student cuts walkway channel — Coping channels

Student drills into walkway channel — Coping channels

After we had the four walkway pieces on site, we called on Shane once again to help us out. The installation wasn’t the easiest, but Shane and our two helpers were great, and we lifted all the ladders into place and secured them to the structure.

View of tools used for installation — Tools for Installation

View of tools after used — Tools for Installation

The day wouldn’t have been complete without a little more excitement, this time with Shane’s truck getting stuck on our muddy site.

View of truck pulling out stuck tow truck — Whoops!

After working so hard on the design of the structure and fabricating the ladder pieces in the shop, it is very rewarding to see the walkway coming together on site. It looks just like our model!

View of finished walkway — Walkway model

Student balances on walkway structure — Testing our balance and the structure!

While working on the walkway, we also continued making progress on the roof structure. We cut out all the pieces for the trusses with their angles. We then used those pieces to help lay out a jig to build the trusses with, just like how we did with the outdoor shower. This process ensures all the trusses are the same. Then it was time to get to the welding. We laid out the pieces, clamped them to the jig, welded the top side, and then flipped them over to every other side and welded them as we went. Once all 31 trusses were welded, we cleaned up the welds and then painted them. Recently, we were able to transport all of them back to site.

Student cuts pieces for trusses — Cutting pieces to correct angles

View of truss jig — Cutting pieces to correct angles

The team is delited with the progress being made in the metal shop, as well as site. We have a few more metal things to fabricate but will be wrapping up the work in Columbiana shortly. We will refocus our efforts on finishing making the modules for the shower pod.

Thank you so much for reading along, and we already look forward to speaking again soon! Stay tuned for more fun updates.

Students pose above Outdoor Shower roof — Goodbye, Down There!

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Tags: fabrication, modules, rs5thyears, rsleftovers, trusses, welding, wood

Respect your Welders!

April 16, 2025

Hello, and welcome back to the latest edition of the Rural Studio Bathhouse blog. As the semester has progressed, so has the Bathhouse, and we are thrilled to share an update!

Right after the last update, we worked on wood modules for the ceiling of the toilet pod. These modules are built the same way as the wall modules, but they will be stacked horizontally to form the ceiling plane. Now all the modules for the toilet pod are completely finished.

Picture of wood module — Look at that module.

Around the same time, we also finalized the material counts for the rest of the steel pieces of the project and sent those over to Jim Turnipseed. Jim ordered them and got them to his shop in Columbiana, Alabama, for us. Again, we are so thankful to Jim for his abundant generosity and support for our project! Not only has Jim been kind enough to provide materials, but he has also provided us with a large working space inside his shop!

During the week of Spring Break, we packed up and headed to Columbiana for a few days to check everything out.

During the first day in the shop, we looked through our drawings with Flo and Luis, the head fabricators in the shop; getting used to the shop and different machinery; and labeling all of our materials for our later convenience.

Students sort through pieces of metal — Our home in Columbiana

The rest of the week we started learning how to weld! We began with welding straight lines on plates and then welding two plates together. After getting the hang of things, we found some square tubing in the shop with dimensions similar to the materials we are using for the roof structure. We then practiced welding these pieces together. With a smaller thickness, these pieces were a little harder to weld together, and we had to speed up the welds a little to avoid burning through this material. We got the feel of it and even practiced filling in large gaps or holes that we burned into the material. Flo and Luis also taught us how to grind to clean up welds and materials.

Once we felt comfortable with welding, we worked on the trusses for the outdoor shower. We made our angled cuts on all the pieces for the three trusses. We created a surface to build the trusses on out of two of our walkway channels, and once we laid out one of the trusses, we used small pieces of angles to create a jig so that the other two trusses would match the first.

Student cuts metal tubes — Cutting angles of pieces

Students lay out pieces of truss — Cutting angles of pieces

By the end of the week, we had completely welded one truss! What a fun Spring Break!

Students pose with finished truss — Look Mom, we did it!

Our goal was to finish the outdoor shower as soon as possible but also to stay on schedule on site. With that in mind, Logan and Ashley worked in the shop, while Carla and Ambar kept going on site with modules. They fabricated the two remaining trusses, the frame for the top of the walls, the continuous tubes which the trusses sit on, and several other pieces.

Picture of frame layed out — Metal frame pieces laid out

Workers flip the frame — Metal frame pieces laid out

Next, we cleaned and painted everything, then we loaded up all the pieces and brought them back to site.

Student paints metal pieces — Painting the metal pieces

Picture of painted trusses — Painting the metal pieces

Student poses with trailer load of painted metal pieces. — Back to Newbern we go!

Once everything was on site, we unstacked the outdoor shower in the Supershed, labeled each module with its orientation and order, and moved the alignment-bracing interior jig (or Abigail as we call her) into place on the slab with the help of some of our peers.

Picture of stacked modules on site — Deconstructed outdoor shower

Students leveling bracing jig — Deconstructed outdoor shower

Following that, we got to stacking! With scaffolding around the slab, we added modules layer by layer. After placing each layer, we checked to make sure the addition was level and that the threaded rods aligned with the holes of the modules. It got a little harder to lift the modules onto the stack as we moved up, but the overall process went smoothly.

Students level layers of modules — Leveling layers

Picture of layers being stacked — Leveling layers

We were able to fully stack the outdoor shower in one day!

Picture of finished outdoor shower stack — The screen side of the shower

Picture of finished Outdoor Stack — The screen side of the shower

Now that the walls are in place, the frame and roof structure can be craned into place. We will bolt the frame to the threaded rods, compressing and strengthening the walls. And we will bolt the continuous tubes to the frame and weld the trusses to the tubes.

Picture of metal frame — Metal frame on site

Picture of metal trusses — Metal frame on site

The team also spent a few more days back in the shop learning how to stick weld, so we could do so on site. Although it was fun to learn a new technique, stick welding was much more difficult for us to pick up, and we’ve decided to leave the on-site welding to professionals for now.

Student poses with stick welder — Stick welding

We hope our next steps will all follow shortly, and we are very excited to know that the outdoor shower is nearing completion! Once this roof installation is done, we will take everything we’ve learned from the process back with us to the shop to begin fabricating the rest of the roof structure. We will also begin building the walkway frames and start on the shower pod wall modules.

picture of overall building with finished Outdoor Shower stack

This is such an exciting time in the project, and it is super rewarding to see walls going up and metal coming together. Thank you so much for following along with us and we look forward to providing another exciting update very soon!

Students pose on scaffolding — Hip Hip Hooray!

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Tags: designbuild, fabrication, rs5thyears, turnipseed, welding

Out of the Ground and Onto the Walkway

February 24, 2025

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the Rural Studio Bathhouse Blog. We hope that you enjoyed a great holiday season and are settling into the new year well!

When we spoke last, we were busy preparing the first phase of the walkway structure for site installation. We finished the process of painting multiple coats on the supports and before a relaxing winter break, were able to install the main walkway supports on the building!

View into forest with walkway supports — Future walkway!

sample of grating on top of walkway support next to concrete — Future walkway!

View of full project from edge of supershed — All walkway support channels in place!

The first couple of walkway supports that are on the north sides of the existing pods were easy to lift in place onto the existing angles of the floor planes. Once they were roughly in place, we were able to line up the smaller support channels on the faces of the foundation walls. With everything lining up, we drilled into the concrete foundation walls and bolted these support channels in place. We then were able to bolt the large walkway channels to the smaller supports with angles that were pre-welded to the walkway supports. This set the first two walkway support channels in their proper place.

3 students pose with channel — Placing and leveling main walkway support channel 1

Walkway channel with small support channel — Placing and leveling main walkway support channel 1

The process for the installation of the walkway support channels on the north sides of the toilet and shower pods went a little differently. These channels were designed to be bolted directly into the toilet and shower pod slabs. They were a bit longer and heavier, making them more unwieldy and nearly impossible to hold in place while being bolted to the slabs. To lift them up, we enlisted the help of our neighbor and friend, Shane. His crane made light work of moving the channels into place and holding them up as the team drilled the holes and then bolted them in place onto the pods.

Crane lifting channel off ground — Crane!

Man using crane to move channel into place — Crane!

More recently, we’ve had a lot more happening on site. With the beginning of the new year, one of our favorite weeks of the semester, “Neckdown,” came back around! Our big goal for Neckdown was to finish the earthwork on site. This included leveling the ground of the crawlspaces, installing the main water line, filling in several trenches, moving ground to install a vapor barrier on the outside of the CMU (concrete block) foundations, and recovering the foundations.

2 students pose while diggig — Helpers digging

We had an excellent group of helpers each day and were able to get everything that we set out to do and more accomplished!

Group of students pose with shovels and wheelbarrows — A group of our amazing helpers

While a lot of the earthwork was going on, the team finished installing the main water line in the ground. This went so well that we decided to go ahead and run the rest of the pex in the crawlspaces to each stub-up location in the slab. With the waterlines in place, we were able to pressure test everything to make sure the connections were secure, and we passed all three tests the first time!

2 students fit pex connecters together — Fitting pex together

View of pex coming up through slab — Fitting pex together

Next, we dug down to find the main Morrisette water line, which passes underneath the Toilet Pod. Once it was uncovered, we worked with Mason to tie into the line and tee up to the main shutoff valve for the bathhouse. Finally, we connected the main shutoff to the bathhouse distribution line with a backflow preventer between, which will prevent water from moving back into the main system when we have outages or other situations. The rough-in stage of plumbing is pretty much complete!

Student reaching into trench — Digging to the center of earth

Student in trench making PVC connection — Digging to the center of earth

The team has recently finished the leveling of ground in the crawlspaces, specifically where we tied into the main water line and in the outdoor shower. We have also installed a vapor barrier in each crawlspace to protect from ground moisture and create a solid and clean ground surface in each space. All the pex is also being insulated and strapped in place onto the bottom of the floor slabs, and the termite shields have been put in place on top of all the curbs.

view of vapor barrier being started in crawlspace — Start of vapor barrier

student taping vapor barrier — Start of vapor barrier

Moving forward, the team looks to continue the process of building modules and going to Birmingham to begin the metal fabrication for the walkway structure and the roof. In studio, we are having very detailed conversations about the interior of the building and making some decisions regarding materials and fixtures, as well as finalizing the structural design of the skylights above the showers and toilets.

Student presents to reviewer — Meeting with Dan Wheeler

Students have discussions with instructor over drawings — Meeting with Dan Wheeler

We are super excited to be getting to this phase of the project and cannot wait to provide another update very soon!

Thank you so much for reading and following along through this journey with us.

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Happy Hale-idays from Bathhouse!

December 15, 2024

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Rural Studio Bathhouse blog! We hope that everyone had a good and restful Thanksgiving. We would like to share a quick update on what’s going on before we get out of Hale for a few weeks and take a much-needed winter break!

students pose on back of truck with wood modules

First up, we are very excited to share the progress we’ve made with the walls! The new and improved process of creating the modules has been going very well. With this process, we choose six boards, cut their ends off, drill the holes for the threaded rods one by one using a template, stack them, clamp them, and screw them together, board-by-board, using the jig table. The sixth board can be planed down to the thickness needed to get to the overall module height. The module is then removed from the table and cut to length.

students drill holes into boards — Drilling holes using hole template

student uses saw to cut module to length — Drilling holes using hole template

Although this is a very time-consuming process, we are very happy to share that we are nearly finished with the modules for the toilet pod which means that we are about 50% done with all the modules for the project!

Student loads module onto truck — Loading the modules

Students carry module — Loading the modules

On site, we have made progress with finishing all the groundwork. The water supply line has been put in place, and all the electrical breaker boxes have been installed and wired to the main supply.

image of electrical boxes on back of building — Breaker boxes at the toilet and shower pod

We have also had all the CMU block finished for the boot-washing station foundation at the beginning of the bathhouse and the greywater filter at the outdoor shower.

student buries water line — Water line going in!

view of finished CMU — Water line going in!

The team has filled the greywater filter with layers of sand and gravel, placing landscape fabric in between. This filter will clean any soap and shampoo from the runoff water of the outdoor shower before the water enters the infiltration trench.

Student poses with CMU block — Greywater filter CMU in progress

view of finished CMU block — Greywater filter CMU in progress

Drawing of Outdoor shower and greywater filter — The greywater filter is an extension of the outdoor shower foundation and will filter the run-off from the outdoor shower

We also have a very exciting update regarding the steel components of the project. After presenting our project to Jim Turnipseed of Turnipseed International, he has graciously offered to help support the Bathhouse by donating the materials needed for the walkway and roof structures. He has also agreed to lend space and assistance to teach the team how to weld and fabricate the walkway frames and roof trusses. We are so grateful to Jim for his incredible generosity and willingness to support the Bathhouse project and Rural Studio.

image of walkway structure model — Walkway structure model with color-coded, removable pieces

students present using model — Walkway structure model with color-coded, removable pieces

The team has decided to move forward with the construction of the walkway as the first steel components of the project. The walkway will provide a floor surface that is crucial when the team is ready to start stacking the modules in place on site. Recently, we received the first part of the walkway structure, a series of channels that will be attached to the sides of the pods and hold up the walkway frames.

Students pose with metal pieces — We got metal!

Our good friend Brad from Superior Metal Works helped us by drilling holes, cutting slots, and welding some small plates and channels to these pieces.

students load trailer with metal — Load her up!

students talk through fabrication — Load her up!

Once he was done, the team started the process of cleaning and sanding the metal. We quickly realized it would be much better to have them sandblasted if possible.

Back to Brad’s we went and got the beams professionally sandblasted and ready to be painted!

image of sandblasted metal pieces — Sand!

students pose with metal on trailer — Load her up, again!

We have spent the past couple of days painting the beams with two coats of paint. The team will install them all on site early next week (fingers crossed)! Having the walkway supports in place will allow us to double-check our measurements and update any walkway drawings, if necessary, over the break.

student paints metal — Finished painted walkway supports!

students paint metal — Finished painted walkway supports!

After winter break, we will pick back up hard on the modules for the shower pod with the goal to finish them by February. We will also be going to Turnipseed in Birmingham to start the fabrication of the walkway frames and roof structure. We are happy with the progress being made and can’t wait to send another update out in the new year!

Thank you so much for reading along and Happy Holidays from your friends in Hale!

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Tags: bathhouse, designbuild, modules, rs5thyears, wood

Ditching the Groundwork and Going Modular!

September 25, 2024

Hello and welcome back to the latest edition of the Rural Studio Bathhouse blog! It has been a very productive couple of months, and we are thrilled to share an update of what is going on down at the Bathhouse.

Students pose with thumbs up on stacks of wood

As of our last post, we had just finished up with the concrete for the slabs and curbs and were preparing to pour the foundations for the water filling station and the gray water filtration system at the outdoor shower.

student drills into concrete foundation — Dowelling into concrete slab of outdoor shower

2 students pose with finished rebar in foundation trench — Dowelling into concrete slab of outdoor shower

We finished up the rebar and got to pour both foundations, and we are now awaiting the final CMU blocks for both to be laid!

student scoops fresh concrete — The water filling station

fresh poured concrete foundation — The water filling station

Off site, we continued making the rest of the outdoor shower wood modules for the walls. To drill holes through the modules for the threaded rods to go through, we built a jig with metal drill sleeves.

students clamp wood pieces to table — Clamp!

student measures module of wood — Clamp!

Once we got all the modules done, we designed and built “Abigail,” our alignment bracing interior jig, to align and justify all the interior faces of the walls. As we were finishing up with the outdoor shower, we were thrilled to receive the rest of the wood for the toilet and shower pods! We moved Abigail and the outdoor shower modules underneath the Supershed to make some space for the new wood.

students screw wood frame — Assembling frames for “Abigail”

students lie on wood frame — Assembling frames for “Abigail”

Before we knew it, summer flew right on by, and we were preparing for the new semester. While very scary, it also meant that another week of “Neckdown” Week was upon us! This year, we were lucky to be working on site all week with an excellent group of helpers each day. Our goal for the week was to be finished with most of the remaining groundwork and the site rainwater infiltration trench. We had teams digging trenches for electrical and plumbing lines, chiseling concrete from the slabs and CMU blocks, taking apart our formwork from the slab concrete pour, and organizing and restacking bundles of our new wood.

student poses while chiseling concrete slab — Chiseling!

student chisels concrete off CMU blocks — Chiseling!

Our good friend Tyler from C & T Excavating came back out during the week and spent a day digging the water infiltration trench and then filling it with gravel. This infiltration system is basically a large French drain that will collect the water runoff from the roof and most of our adjacent site. This water will move through the trench and filter into the ground slowly, preventing erosion and buildup of water around our foundations.

The next day, Tyler came back to dig a trench for the main sewer line to the septic tank, placed the PVC pipe, and then refilled the trench. He also spent a good deal of time mounding dirt around the foundations of the building to help direct site water away from the structures.

picture of pipe in trench — Main Sewer Line

While all of this was happening, the team restacked the outdoor shower precisely by using Abigail under the Supershed. This allowed us to level each layer and move modules around as needed to ensure the best fit.

students put last module of stack in place — Putting the last module in place

students pose in front of stacked modules — Putting the last module in place

Very soon we will begin the process of manufacturing the roof and all metal pieces. Once we have the roof structure ready to go on site, we will begin the process of restacking the outdoor shower on site!

finished stack of modules for outdoor shower

To prepare for the final stacking on site, we have also added the metal termite shield to the curbs of the outdoor shower.

student drills holes into termite shield — Adding termite shield and drilling holes for threaded rods

More recently, the team has been very excited to begin creating the modules for the toilet and shower pods! After stacking the outdoor shower, the team decided to have the wood for these pods planed on two sides, making the process of stacking the boards much easier. It has also made the modules much more level and even to each other.

We have also made the process of drilling the holes into the modules much easier by drilling the holes into one board at a time instead of through the whole module. This has led to many less broken drill bits so far. We are also very happy with how the new modules are turning out so far!

student drills through board — Improved drilling process

As we speak, we are continuing to make modules, finishing the rest of the groundwork (water lines and connecting to electrical service), and finalizing our drawing set in preparation for the building of our roof and walkway structure. The team is also diving headfirst into the details of the design of the interior finishes and fixtures.

plan perspective sketch of laundry pod — Laundry pod

plan perspective sketch of getting ready pod — Laundry pod

We are so excited with how everything is turning out and can’t wait to see these spaces come to life!

student poses with cutout cardboard heart

While we are happy with the progress being made, we are super excited for the next phases of the project and cannot wait to begin the process of learning how to weld and work with metal in the shop.

Thank you so much for reading along and keeping up to date with all things Bathhouse. We look forward to the next time we can provide a super exciting update!

– Rural Studio Bathhouse Team

Carla, Ambar, Ashley, and Logan

Tags: designbuild, masstimber, research project, rs5thyears, wood