“If you look into sustainable living there are so many people now realising how we can build homes & sheds out of recycled materials, from earthbags, tyres, sand bags and even pallets.
I have quite an interest in all this and there is a great website called The Natural Building Blog. Each day I get a newsletter from them with ideas of what is happening around the world with sustainable living.
I have been inspired so much and we have been collecting pallets up on the property for a few months and decided its time to give something ago.
This is what we call the prototype. I haven’t seen anything like what we did so it is fairly unique. We had the idea and just gave it ago. It only took 2 days to get it to the first stage where the building was standing, but took a while to finish off as each board had to cut to suit the water tank roof.
It was a lot of fun and we learnt a few things along the way. We are proud of the shed, we actually call it the soap shed, but really it’s the storage shed for the business. I am going to add a kitchen and a small solar system for lighting next. We have plans to build 2 more of these one for a storage and one for me to have for sewing. That I am looking forward to.”
Cynthia’s Naturals has a good video that shows the building process
This is pretty cool. What I like most is the use of materials that would have been thrown away. I’d still do something with the interior metal ceiling but, hey….it’s a keeper!
Great shed!
The smartest thing they did was start by taking a good long look at what free or inexpensive materials were available to them at their location. Instead of looking for a design that looked good on paper, and then trying to find materials to build it that may or may not be easy to find, or might be expensive where they lived.
By collecting materials they could get locally first, and then creating a design that maximizes the advantage that those materials offered, they created an outstanding space.
Well done.
I’m sure that shed will get hot in the summer without insulation under that metal roof. Since it’s a shed, not a living space, that may not be a big deal to them.
One concern I see is their chosen location for the shed. I’m concerned about water runoff from the hillside during a big storm eroding away more of that hillside and compromising the shed with water and with eroded earth.
I’d love to see some swales built up on that hill to slow down the water from big storms and slowing erosion of the hillside. I’d also love to see some kind of retaining wall to hold the hill in place. Earthbags or rammed tires might work well to build such a retaining wall. Retaining walls are hard work, and may not look sexy, but it’s important to prevent erosion and other damage from happening.
The swales are more important than the retaining wall.
A tamped gravel foundation pad to lift the shed up a few inches might have been nice too, but since it’s a shed, that is a smaller concern that it would be with a residential structure.
All in all… it’s a great shed. I love designs where people “invert” the process. When someone looks for materials first… then creates the design to fit whatever materials they can easily acquire almost always results in the most economical and the least amount of labor. Creative and often beautiful designs seem to happen naturally when using this process too.
In my humble opinion, this type of inverted process is so extremely valuable and useful that it deserves more attention and publicity.
Collect materials first, and figure out how you want your structure to look once you know what you’ll be building with. Save money. Save time. Get a better structure. It’s a win win win.
This project shows how average people with probably little or no professional building experience or training can come up with high quality designs. It’s simple and elegant. Great job.