Akio Inoue from Japan has been a long time advocate and pioneer of earthbag building (see http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/akio-inoue-dome-photos/ for more about him). He created one of the first concise manuals for how to actually go about building, but it has not generally been accessible to the public. Akio wrote to me and asked if I would … Read more
Here’s the latest from Patti. “People building with trash have relied on bottles filled with sand or adobe or film plastics to provide strength in infill walls. They have needed either cement mortar or chicken wire to hold the walls together. Some good info on previous projects is at: http://inspirationgreen.com/plastic-bottle-schools.html#jfafa3e6aa Because of the strength of … Read more
Prices for bags keep going up. What isn’t? Here’s one more possibility for readers who can’t find affordable or recycled bags in their area. Paula, one of our readers, sent us word of what they’re doing to cut costs in Brazil. “People are getting together to buy a big quantity of rolls for hyperadobe and … Read more
I think it would be a great idea to start a list of suppliers who sell misprinted bags. Suppliers sometimes sell otherwise perfectly good bags at a discount when the printing quality is not acceptable. Most people use 18”x30” bags, so that would be the best size to locate. Please leave a comment below with … Read more
There’s a wide range of earthbag building systems and some are obviously better than others. Let’s summarize the leading V.G.E.W. contenders. Links are included to make it easier to research the details. – Eternally Solar’s earthbag walls filled with sand. Engineering tests show they exceed building code requirements – Eternally Solar’s earthbags can be filled … Read more
Patti Stouter sent me this news about raschel mesh from a supplier in Canada that works perfectly for the narrow rubble walls in her Totally Tubular design. She builds hyper-wattle — tubes of lightweight insulation — on top of the narrow rubble walls. “The 18″ wide raschel got here last night and I tried it … Read more