Our Little Thing in Patagonia

This house in Patagonia was built by Paul Coleman and his wife, Konomi. It features a double wall system that includes pumice from a dormant volcano. Five hundred tons of earth have been moved by hand and everything else that has been used to build the house has come up a very steep 150 meter … Read more

All the Best Earthbag Content

For several years, Kelly and I have been filtering all the best earthbag content from the Web, writing extensively on all aspects of earthbag building and organizing the information for readers. There’s now an enormous amount of information available – so much that it’s difficult to keep up with everything. That’s one reason why our … Read more

My Top 10 Most Popular YouTube Videos

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video is worth… Maybe that’s why my NaturalHouse YouTube channel is so popular. 2. Finished Earthbag Roundhouse 3. Cement Plastering 4. Building an Earthbag Dome 5. Hardness Test 6. Enviro Dome Fly-through 7. $300 Earthbag House 8. How to Make Square Corners 9. Bag Size 10. … Read more

Top 10 Most Popular Earthbag Blog Posts

Every year we publish the most popular blog posts for the last 12 months. We’ll do that again in November on our 4th anniversary. Our goal here is to look at the most popular blog posts since we’ve started – the Best of the Bestest. Think of them as hidden gems unless you’ve read all … Read more

Earthbags Provide Excellent Base Isolation

Our ever alert researcher into all things earthen, Patti Stouter, has found that testing has confirmed that earthbags can provide excellent base isolation to lessen the impact of earthquakes and severe winds on buildings. The Advanced Materials Research group has published a paper titled Cyclic Simple Shear Tests on Base Isolation Using Soilbags. “Soilbags have … Read more

Extra Courses Versus Raising the Site

One good method to raise a structure high enough to prevent moisture damage is to build on high ground and/or raise the building site (building pad). This is what I’ve done on our earthbag structures so far. We spread out truckloads of road base where the building would go, drove a truck back and forth … Read more