There’s great, untapped potential for superinsulated earthbag buildings in cold climates. Here’s a way to combine the best features of earthbags and yurts. The basic idea is to combine earthbag walls filled with lightweight insulation such as scoria (lava rock), with a traditional yurt roof frame that’s insulated with perlite or vermiculite. Yurts (ghers) have … Read more
I found another great way to build gable and vaulted roofs — with pallets: Pallet Pavilions The site referenced above shows how pallets can be used for walls and roofs. This is exciting because free pallets are usually quite easy to get in most countries and they’re very strong. Many are made of hardwood such … Read more
Tim Merritt, earthbag enthusiast and reader of our blog, sent us this roof idea from GardenDome.com. Tim is considering using these domes on top of earthbag walls to create more interesting shapes and save labor on the roof. The GardenDome.com website showcases over 60 domes of all different sizes and shapes. You can order their … 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
Owen and I have collaborated on a new article posted at earthbagbuilding.com that describes how to use earthbags filled with various natural insulating materials to insulate ceilings or roofs. There seems to be a general lack of interesting ceiling options using sustainable building materials. For instance, when touring otherwise beautiful straw bale homes one often … Read more