“Dirt is the original DIY material. In cultures all over the world, people have used earth to fashion everything from bowls to buildings. We know this because so many earthen homes are still around, including buildings hundreds and even thousands of years old. In recent decades, interest in earth construction has risen. What follows are some of the pros and cons of the different types of earthen building, including adobe, cob, compressed earth blocks and clay-slip straw, and some practical tips on things you may want to try as well as those you’ll want to avoid.
earth building
Puddled Adobe
We reported on their adobe retreat center yesterday. Now New Life Foundation is building puddled adobe housing at their center in Chiang Rai, Thailand. This type of construction receives very little attention even though it’s one of the simplest, lowest cost building methods and has been around thousands of years. It’s believed the oldest house in the US — pre-Spanish — was built with puddled adobe. Among other things, puddled adobe would make good interior walls with adequate framing at doors.
New Life Foundation
“It is our mission to cultivate a lifestyle that fosters inner growth and helps people to find meaning and purpose in life again. We believe that all of us have everything it takes to create a peaceful, equitable and sustainable existence. All we have to do is renew our relationship with ourselves and our environment.
Earthbag homes–easiest and cheapest green build
“Earthbag construction is a type of rammed earth construction where durable bags, usually polypropylene or burlap, are filled with local earth or other materials, laid in courses and tamped down into place to form walls. The greatest advantage is that it is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to construct a green home which with some hard work can be done by the homeowner.
Spanish Earthbag Building Guide Now Available
Thanks to the hard work of Zafra Miriam, Cato Arce and Gonzalo De la Isla Arias the Spanish version of my Earthbag Building Guide is now available for $10.
Earthbag Tornado Shelter
We always enjoy hearing about reader’s projects. A reader just sent me photos of their earthbag tornado shelter in Ohio. We’ve been encouraging earthbag storm shelters since the beginning of this blog, because they’re low cost, efficient, simple to build and can save lives. The links below explain in detail how they’re built.
“I wanted to show you a picture of the work in progress. It took us two summers to build by the way, we had lots of interruptions. We just made sure it was well covered when we weren’t working on it, and well secured for the winter that it didn’t have stucco on it and we didn’t have any problems doing it this way. We live in Southern Ohio so we will have to be very attentive at repairing any cracks due to the weather. We have one already that needs fixed. With the air flow inside the shelter and stucco on the outside hopefully it will dry out quickly if any moisture gets between the stucco and the bags. We will see how it goes.