As a way to gather and share the best original earthbag building ideas for my upcoming earthbag book, I’m running a contest called Earthbag Building 2.0. The goal is to help take earthbag to the next level and hopefully mainstream its use. Winning entries will be credited with your name, and if your business is earthbag or green/natural building related, your company name and website. You will be credited for each idea that’s published. All winners will receive a free PDF copy of the book. The winner with the highest number of published ideas will win an additional free house plan of their choice from my Earthbag House Plans site.
More specifically, I’m looking for creative building ideas that simplify, save labor, speed construction, reduce costs, and improve the quality and durability of earthbag structures. I prefer low tech over high tech solutions in order to help spread these ideas as much as possible around the world, but all entries will be considered.
Examples:
– Use the same number of buckets in each bag to help keep walls level.
– Roundwood stakes for mounting electrical boxes
– Use ¼” steel rod to anchor nailers for shelving, cabinets, sinks, etc.
– Alternative bond beams
Anyone can enter. Please email me your original ideas (not already discussed on the blog or our other websites) to strawhouses [at] yahoo.com. Please include your name and, if appropriate, your company name and website.
In just two hours or so, we’ve already received an outstanding entry from Tanzania. There’s no clay in the area, so their solution is to use 40% volcanic dust, 40% volcanic aggregate and 20% lime. (Lime is 1/4 the cost of cement in Tanzania.) This mix is currently being tested, but it sounds good to me. Thanks for sharing.