Dustin: I live in Florida where few domestic buildings last more than 50 years because of hurricanes. I explored the Monolithic Dome for quite some time. They have stood the test of direct hits by very powerful hurricanes that leveled the entire neighborhood; except the dome. The dome is the only sensible structure here. No … Read more
Have you ever puzzled over why so many people choose to buy homes at outrageous prices that require 20-30 year mortgages even though they are often poorly built, made with materials that offgas hazardous substances and readily burn in house fires? In addition, these conventional houses are usually energy inefficient, require expensive ongoing maintenance, cause … Read more
Make sure you get the basics right so your earthbag home is safe, sound and durable. As obvious as this seems, the most fundamental earthbag building principles sometimes get lost in the forest of information. That was one reason for writing the Earthbag Building Guide – to focus on the most important steps and demonstrate … Read more
Here are two useful maps for natural builders. The map from Natural Homes.org shows locations of natural homes. Actually there are thousands of homes not shown. As a rough guess I’d say for every house shown, there’s probably another 100 not on the map (and far more in some areas). Most people don’t publicize their … Read more
This post continues the discussion about Counties with Few or No Building Codes, which has become our number one most popular blog post. Obviously this is something a lot of people want to know more about. As mentioned before, one approach to building alternative housing is to buy rural property with an existing structure, septic, … Read more
Here’s Patti Stouter’s report on her earthbag shear test. The quick way to find out how to build strong enough for earthquakes? Hundreds of thousands of dollars for earthbag testing to university engineering departments. I’m helping one US university seeking grants just for earthbag, and I’m looking myself as well. Email me at simple_earth@yahoo.com to … Read more