Sandbags have a long history of use in flood control. United Bags, Inc., for example, has supplied sandbags to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the public for 117 years. Sandbags play a critical role in building and fortifying dikes and levees to protect our communities. The bags are low cost and easily transported … Read more
Shaping Buildings for the Humid Tropics: Cultures, Climate, and Materials by Patti Stouter, 2008, is a 28 page PDF document that describes how to use ventilation, shading, plantings and insulation to provide comfort in hot humid climates. It includes some discussion of the use of earthbags in achieving these goals. This is one of the … Read more
In an effort to track down the history of earthbag building, I’ve been reading up on the history of burlap bags – the forerunner to polypropylene bags. This post is based on information at NYP Corporation, a wholesaler of burlap bags. (See “Jute to Burlap.”) For centuries, the people of India used jute, the plant … Read more
John Annesley chose earthbags to build the walls for his large shop in the Arizona desert because they will never rot, burn, harbor mold or off-gass noxious chemicals. Additionally they provide good thermal mass for the fly-wheel effect that works so well in this climate. He plastered the walls with a combination of paper fiber, … Read more
In a thesis written by Bryce Daigle, titled “Earthbag Housing: Structural Behavior and Applicability in Developing Countries,” It was determined that the compressive strength of unplastered earthbag housing specimens meets or exceeds the vertical compressive strength of conventional stud-frame and alternative construction techniques such as straw bale housing technology, using a variety of fill materials, … Read more
There is an ongoing debate over the origins of earthbag building — who ‘invented’ it and when. It is an important point that gets into sticky questions about patent rights of building with earthbags. Some accounts of military sandbag structures go back over 100 years. I haven’t seen pictures of these, but a recent Google … Read more