What if You Don’t Have Any Clay?

We received the following tip from Birgit in Tanzania, where no clay is available. Thanks for sharing. As you probably know, clay is typically used in earthbags as a binder. Clay is available in most areas, but not where Birgit lives. Birgit’s solution is to “use what’s locally available and affordable: 40% volcanic dust (which … Read more

Sustainable Building

Sometimes we’re in a hurry and don’t always take time to think carefully about what we’re reading. This post links key sustainable building concepts to Wikipedia to facilitate further research. There have been lots of articles lately on sustainable building, also called green building and natural building, but what is it really? Sustainable building is … Read more

Hempcrete — Growing Your Own House

This is my second post about hempcrete in just a few days. Obviously I’m pretty excited about it. The last post listed quite a few advantages of hempcrete. This post with even more exciting advantages is based on an article in the most recent issue of The Owner Builder magazine called Growing Your Own House, … Read more

Hempcrete as Earthbag Fill

Today’s post is from The House Made of Hemp article at Ecogizmo. You can read the full article for free on their site. I’m posting this because I see no reason why hempcrete couldn’t be used in earthbags. This would eliminate the form work and require less tamping than building with soil-filled bags. This would … Read more

Earthbag Building Blog 3rd Anniversary

This week is the 3rd anniversary of Earthbag Building Blog. A lot has happened this past year, and our blog continues to grow in content and readership. There are now 335 posts and well over 1,000 comments. Thanks for your support. We love hearing about your earthbag projects and hope you will continue sharing information … Read more