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

Earth Sheltered Homes versus Earthbag Building

A new article by Arvid Linde in Green Home Design compares typical earth-sheltered homes with structures made of earthbags. Linde raises a number of interesting points. I agree with his assessment that most earth-sheltered designs contain a lot of high embodied energy materials, notably concrete and steel, and therefore are not as ‘green’ as they … Read more

A Review of Living in an Underground House

I came across this great article at Mother Earth News magazine and just had to share it. Merle Alix describes his family’s experiences of living in an underground house for the last decade. They love the energy savings, low maintenance, quietness and privacy. The biggest downside is the difficulty of obtaining financing for underground houses. … Read more