There’s growing interest in living roofs or green roofs. The difficulty is deciding on the waterproof membrane. Rubber pond liner (EPDM) is the most waterproof and durable material, and the most common choice due to proven performance, but it’s also very expensive and made from nasty petro chemicals. I think a number of less toxic, … Read more
It seems many readers are hesitant to plunge in and start building an earthbag house. That’s understandable. Building any home is a major undertaking and it makes sense to plan accordingly. The best advice for those just getting started (after doing the prerequisite background research) is to build something small like a storage shed or … Read more
Our roundhouse is nearly finished and so I wanted to share some results. The main impression is one of incredible fortresslike strength — massive walls with no sway. Our roundhouse and dome are probably the two strongest buildings I’ve ever worked on. Our earthbag dome, for instance, never budged as about 15 truckloads of soil … Read more
Finishing details turn a house into a home. It’s what people really notice. If you want a really nice home, be sure to plan accordingly and give this some extra thought. Finishing work does require extra time and effort, but the results are definitely worthwhile. For our roundhouse, we wanted things to look nice, of … Read more
As promised, I’m posting more pics of our roundhouse as I get time. I’ve started to upload some of these pics to my new Picasa web album. Floor: We opted for a concrete floor colored with natural iron oxide pigment. The pigment is sprinkled by hand and troweled into the top ¼” as the concrete … Read more
People keep asking for an update on our roundhouse, so here are some recent pics. Things are coming along nicely, although there are still numerous loose ends to finish: light fixtures, interior plaster touch up, cleaning tile (ugh) and landscaping. We’re very happy with the outcome and, of course, highly recommend this building method to … Read more