Building your own low-cost natural house out of earthbags, locally harvested wood and clay, etc. for cash means you won’t be strapped for 20-30 years paying a mortgage. So, you’ll have thousands of extra hours to spend as you wish. Now that’s a nice thought, isn’t it? Hmm. Save money. Less stress. Simpler living. More … Read more
Do earthbags really become hard as rock or is this exaggeration? I did a little experiment on the roundhouse we’re currently building to find out. The answer depends primarily on the choice of fill material and the degree of compaction. The moisture content and curing process also play a role. We used road base – … Read more
This is just a short summary of my experience teaching an earthbag workshop in Koh Phangan this weekend. We’ll be posting more later because Julien and Hubert, the hosts of the workshop and the driving force behind the project, are doing such outstanding work. They have a number of interesting, photogenic structures on their yoga … Read more
Almost every part of a new home can be obtained at lower cost through using recycled goods and bartering. The concept is very simple. Someone, somewhere likely has an excess of what you’re looking for and will gladly trade or sell those goods at below market cost. For instance, plumbers replace sinks and bathtubs routinely. … Read more
Earthbag building requires very few tools. You mostly need sturdy, basic tools such as shovels, buckets and tampers. Buy the best quality you can afford. This may mean buying from yard sales or Craigslist to get older, higher quality tools. A lot of new stuff is junk that will fall apart in a few days … Read more
One of the most frequent questions people ask is how much do earthbag houses cost? It’s a little difficult to answer because there are many factors that affect the total cost. A lot depends on what features you want to add, whether or not you have building codes, how much work is done by the … Read more