It’s easy to hang or attach things on earthbag walls. Simply embed wood poles or blocks between courses of earthbags as you’re building. Some call these nailers, some call them gringo blocks. I also use rebar a lot to attach things to walls as I’ve explained previously. [Off-topic but interesting point: The website below has … Read more
Akio Inoue from Japan has been a long time advocate and pioneer of earthbag building (see http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/akio-inoue-dome-photos/ for more about him). He created one of the first concise manuals for how to actually go about building, but it has not generally been accessible to the public. Akio wrote to me and asked if I would … Read more
The idea of DIY cast stone houses has proven to be so popular that I’ve started a new blog to facilitate the development of geopolymer housing. It is an open source project to develop geopolymer cast stone construction. The goal is to create an archive of relevant information through an interactive process of sharing ideas … Read more
This new insulated earthbag idea is from Chris, one of our readers. “Feel free to post away with the idea–after all, ideas are to be shared not owned. It seems like a good way to efficiently build thermal mass inside insulation, while being another (simpler? faster?) alternative to compartmentalized-sewn bags or laying inner and outer … Read more
This photo shows the near impossible to make perfect fit between stones that indicates they may have been cast in place with geopolymer. One source said iron tools were not available at that time, only copper. Ever tried chiseling and cutting hard stone? I have and I can tell you it’s ridiculously slow even with … Read more
You’ve probably noticed our blog covers a range of various building materials and methods. That’s because hybrid houses – designs that include more than one building method or material – often create the best solutions, and so many people want to incorporate these different ideas into their earthbag homes. Let’s look at a few examples … Read more