Here is an interesting use of earthbags to create a self-supporting arched entrance to a park. This was reported in Buffalo Rising of Buffalo, NY. It is part of the Street Synergy Community Garden (which was once a dumping ground), and was created by volunteers. They say that “It’s a solid, inexpensive, creative and earth-friendly … Read more
Embedding bottles in a wall creates a really stunning effect, especially when sunlight shines through bottles of different colors. However, many bottle walls are thin walls. Here are some suggestions for using bottles in wide earthbag walls: – Buy a bottle cutter or rent a wet tile cutter to remove the ends. Join bottles of … Read more
We routinely ask readers to document their projects and allow us to publish them on our Projects page at EarthbagBuilding.com. This enables other readers to learn much more rapidly. It’s the old “two heads are better than one” except here we’re dealing with thousands who are working together and sharing ideas. Very powerful. A perfect … Read more
How would you build earthbag walls up to 12 feet above ground on pier footings? A reader asked me this recently. Hmm. Moving tons of earth up that high would be difficult, and that got me thinking of alternatives. One solution I came up with uses an insulation blowing machine and hand-held bag sewing machine … Read more
Ferrocement is an excellent, well tested building system used throughout the world. This post explores two earthbag structures on our Projects pages that have ferrocement roofs. For small projects, simple curved shapes of ferrocement make a good roof. See EarthDome House. In this project they used rebar and mesh for the roof and recycled polystyrene … Read more
The folks at Recycledrice.org have devised a simple, but effective way of creating an arch form for making arches with earthbags. They have tested the concept with both bags of rice hulls and bags of heavier soil, and it seems to work well with either. They have published a step-by-step guide to making and assembling … Read more