This is probably the most common question of all: How much do earthbag houses cost? It’s sort of like asking how much does a car cost? Well, it depends on the size, features, construction details and how much work you are willing to do. The short answer is it can cost as much or as … Read more
When Erik moved into his new house in Portland, Oregon he was faced by a sterile-looking commercial swimming pool that didn’t fit his aesthetics. He would rather have had a nice organic pond there instead. So Erik decided to convert the pool into a pond by re-contouring it with earthbags, and his results are quite … Read more
Superior Sandbag System, an erosion control firm in Orange County, CA, have a new tube filling machine that fills continuous polypropylene tubing. So far it’s been used for erosion control, but it could be utilized to mass produce affordable housing. Steve Villa and Steve Williams, the owners of Superior Sandbag Systems, invented the process and … Read more
Ferrocement is an excellent, well tested building system used throughout the world. This post explores two earthbag structures on our Projects pages that have ferrocement roofs. For small projects, simple curved shapes of ferrocement make a good roof. See EarthDome House. In this project they used rebar and mesh for the roof and recycled polystyrene … Read more
The two largest obstacles to home ownership are expensive building materials and overly complex construction methods that require specialized skills and equipment. The problem is so acute that over 70 percent of Americans are unable to afford contractor-built homes. With the current downturn in the economy and the loss of millions of jobs, the housing … Read more
The folks at Recycledrice.org have devised a simple, but effective way of creating an arch form for making arches with earthbags. They have tested the concept with both bags of rice hulls and bags of heavier soil, and it seems to work well with either. They have published a step-by-step guide to making and assembling … Read more