Here’s an overview of how we plastered the interior of our roundhouse with earthen plaster. After reviewing the various recipes and techniques, we decided to keep things as simple as possible. No doubt some of the extra plaster additives like manure and wheat paste can be helpful, but we wanted to see the results of … Read more
Here’s a brief summary of the cement plastering process we used on the exterior of our earthbag roundhouse: Step 1: Put cement between the bags in the gaps. Step 2: Add thin coat of cement over bags. Step 3: Add more cement. Step 4: Add more cement. Step 5: Trowel the plaster smooth and use … Read more
As promised, I’m posting more pics of our roundhouse as I get time. I’ve started to upload some of these pics to my new Picasa web album. Floor: We opted for a concrete floor colored with natural iron oxide pigment. The pigment is sprinkled by hand and troweled into the top ¼” as the concrete … Read more
Daniel Jones has a special feeling for the Australian Aborigines and conceived of a project to help them protect their heritage. He built an earthbag dome close to the beach at a swampy inlet that is an Aboriginal heritage protection site where an ongoing blockade against unsustainable greedy mansion development continues. The History Pod ‘Murrong … Read more
The current newsletter from CalEarth describes how they have been designing an earthbag shelter/home prototype for use in Haiti. This structure, consisting of a 10 ft. main dome surrounded by 3 apses (a 7 ft. sleeping apse, a 5 ft. fire cooking apse with storage below, and a 5 ft. apse that can be used … Read more
Wrapping walls in mesh – starting under the first course of bags and going over the top of the bond beam – is a simple way to add a great deal of extra strength to your earthbag structure. Fishing net and plastic lath are ideal for wet climates. Galvanized wire lath or chicken wire is … Read more