It’s difficult to know for sure how long earthbags will hold up in sunlight. Some brands fall apart pretty fast, as soon as a few weeks. Equatorial and high elevation areas may experience slightly more rapid deterioration due to increased UV levels. From my experience and what I have heard and read most bags hold … Read more
In many cases, buttresses are not the optimum solution for bracing earthbag walls. Post and beam designs are often preferable and have many advantages. Besides being less obtrusive, post and beam designs are suitable for wider range of styles, require less plastering, take up less space, and are faster and easier to build in many … Read more
Almost every part of a new home can be obtained at lower cost through using recycled goods and bartering. The concept is very simple. Someone, somewhere likely has an excess of what you’re looking for and will gladly trade or sell those goods at below market cost. For instance, plumbers replace sinks and bathtubs routinely. … Read more
Restrictive building codes are forcing people to look for alternative housing. Building a portable trailer is one of the best tricks for bypassing building codes legally. No permanent foundation and no utility hookups typically mean very few codes. There’s a wealth of free information on trailer houses and tiny houses on the Internet. But it … Read more
There’s a plethora of building options not covered in the current earthbag literature, one of which is using wood siding on earthbag houses. Plaster is by far the most common wall finish, but it’s always good to know about other options. For instance, you may have access to a portable sawmill and low cost timber … Read more
A couple in Alberta, Canada have built what appears to be a very nice little dome sauna with earthbags. They say that they have only spent about $125 (mostly on bag material), with the rest of the materials either dug from their property or gleaned from dumps, etc. The bags were first covered with a … Read more