Kelly Hart and I have been following the The Year of Mud cob house blog for about 2-3 years. Ziggy, the builder and author of the blog, learned the hard way that cob (actually, earth building in general) is not a good choice in cold climates. Kelly has been warning people for years at GreenHomeBuilding.com … Read more
Today’s post is from a group in Pakistan who’s building flood resistant houses. “Sir, the size of the structure is 20 feet by 12 feet. We have given a buttress on the back wall. We dug an 18 inch trench and put gravel till 6 inches. After doing so we tampered the gravel so that … Read more
I just found this new blog by Aly B. Following her adventure will likely give you lots of ideas for your own home. Text below is from their site. “How did I ever come up with the idea to build myself a dirt house? Last February I was on my way back from Egypt, long … Read more
“Three long months… 2,000 sandbags, 4,000 nails for closing the bags, 90 cubic yards of lava rock, 4 miles of barbed wire, -40 lbs. of combined weight-loss & 37 cans of Cattle Drive Chili… we have completed construction of our dome home.” Halcyon Times blog Note: They used scoria (lava rock) as fill material.
Patti Stouter has been running a series of very interesting, even surprising, experiments with various materials that might be used to insulate earthbag walls. She has focused her attention on light-weight natural or recycled materials that can be bound together with a clay slip. She devised a test apparatus to measure how well the materials … Read more
Our forests are under increasing pressure to supply materials for a growing population. What would you rather have – healthy forests or poorly built, oversized, inefficient, wasteful housing? Time is running out for our remaining forests and so we need to look more closely at options that use less wood, and then, as a society … Read more