The Project Somos Children’s Village in Guatemala has posted some photos of a large earthbag project they have going. Both Owen and I are impressed with the quality of the design and execution, as can be seen in the picture above. The bag work is very even and plumb, the buttresses are well integrated with the wall, the arches are neat and well-formed, and there is already a poured concrete bond beam at the top of the wall. You can read more about their activities and see more photos at their Facebook page: www.facebook.com.
150 linear meters are place per day. Normally we had one or two persons mixing mix, three carrying the soil, three filling the bag and one or two tamping behind filling. we tamped with a concrete tamper first and a wood tamper too keep the level.
Thank you!
Hi Owen, Im really glad you like our project. Answering to your question, we are going to put chicken wire and plaster the walls. We just receive the Bamboo that will be use to build the roof structure so as soon as it is install we will continue with the plastering. It took us around 2-3 weeks to fill the bags of each house.
Thank you for a great blog and your appreciation.
cheers,
Cecilia Rodriguez, Project Somos Architect
That is very fast for such excellent work!! Maybe you could discuss your technique in more detail and maybe include 1-2 photos that best show your technique. I think a lot of people will be interested.
yeah, the guys make around 3-4 rows of earthbag daily, they work really good, and always checking the leveling of the rows, the filling, etc. the three weeks is just for the filling of the bags. it took us around the same for the leveling, the layout and the concrete top, it has been a little bit more of two months since we start the construction, it has been a really excited process, and the locals are impressed with this great method of construction. I’ll look for some pictures to post.
How many linear meters of tubes do you place per 8 hour day? How many workers filling and tamping? And it would help to know exactly how you fill and place the tubes. Example: how do you move the soil to the wall? Details like this will be a big help.
how long can I leave my bags out with out plaster Im hopeing to have roof on in the next four weeks and Im only on 2 rows of bags so far ???
UV resistance varies from brand to brand. Usually it’s a good idea to add some protection after a few weeks. This topic is discussed in at least one other previous blog post about protecting bags with recycled paint, etc. Be careful because I’ve seen bags fail quite suddenly. They may look okay one week and shortly afterwards they’re disintegrating. One test is to push your finger against the bags occasionally. If you can push your finger through the bag then you’ve already lost most of the strength.
This is really an amazing, large project. I wonder how they are protecting the bags? Something this large must have taken quite a while and yet I can’t see any coating on the bags.