I have a new 2-bedroom version of my spiral house design. This version includes a large grow bed, exposed timber ceiling and living roof. Ample light is provided by the window wall next to the grow bed, window and door glazing, and suntubes. Distinguishing features include two bedrooms, masonry two-way fireplace, covered porch and cool … Read more
The specifications for reinforced earthbag walls in seismic regions from Structure1.com describe how to attach shear walls to earthbag walls. Properly built shear walls add a great deal of strength to earthbag structures, but are seldom discussed. I thought a detailed drawing of this feature would be helpful. The drawing below illustrates the key concepts. … Read more
A few BIG issues in everyone’s lives today are rising fuel costs (which is connected to peak oil and gas production), wars to secure limited resources, and global warming – all a consequence of our overconsumption and dependence on non-renewable energy. These problems are not going away any time soon. The seriousness and scope of … Read more
This is my second post about hempcrete in just a few days. Obviously I’m pretty excited about it. The last post listed quite a few advantages of hempcrete. This post with even more exciting advantages is based on an article in the most recent issue of The Owner Builder magazine called Growing Your Own House, … Read more
I am extremely happy to announce another major first for earthbag building. Precision Engineering has generously provided drawings and specifications for building earthbag structures in seismic areas to meet code. The documents have been combined into one 6-page PDF and are now available online. Reinforced Earthbag Specifications is a 6-page PDF describing in drawings and … Read more
We just got a notice from the Earthbag Network Forum that “the downtime with our website has been fixed and we hope you’ll stop back. I’d like to thank the programmers who donated their time to fix the problem as our budget for the site is fitting for a website about low cost building methods! … Read more