I published my preferred earthbag foundation method in my new book Earthbag Building Guide. It still seems to be the strongest method because it locks 1-1/2 courses of earthbags below grade. With this method, the site is raised prior to building the foundation with stable fill material such as road base, and compacted by driving … Read more
I got the following email a few minutes ago. Luke just won himself a free copy of my upcoming Earthbag Building Video. Thanks, Luke! “With great pleasure, I just wanted to let you know a Facebook page has been created for fans of your blog. The name of the page is, “Earthbag Building Blog Fan … Read more
From Sierra: here are the latest photos of our earthbag structure currently being built in B.C, Canada…it is going really well. Frank is the designer and owner. The fill we are using is on site. We dug down below organic and came up with a great mix of clay, sand and gravel. We added 20% … Read more
This is part 2 about building lightweight, insulated vaults with earthbags. Lower courses are gravel-filled bags to prevent water wicking up in the wall. Above that are standard earthbags filled with subsoil. These bags could be stabilized with lime or cement if there’s risk of flooding. Upper bags are filled with insulation and tied to … Read more
One possibility for raising soil and other types of fill material higher on walls is with an auger. The photo above shows a grain auger, which may or may not be sufficiently robust for augering moist, heavy soil, but you can see the general concept. This idea may only be worthwhile on large projects and/or … Read more
Mandeep Singh, a graduate student from India, conducted research on lunar earthbag structures for his master’s thesis at Auburn University, Alabama. This is a very interesting and exciting find that has obvious applications here on earth, particularly for the construction of lightweight, insulated vaults. Custom shaped, top connected bags were filled with vermiculite with a … Read more