Thousands of families who have built affordable homes, cash up front, made of earthbags, straw bales, cordwood, cob and rammed tires are not in danger of losing their homes in the current mortgage crisis. And if you include affordable adobe, bamboo and thatch homes built worldwide, over a third of the world’s houses have avoided … Read more
This fine project is by Jesse Loving in Bullet Tree Falls, Belize. The content below is from his Picasa photo album. He has lots of great photos. Take a look. Or see the project page we created about it. In planning to build an earthbag house in Belize, Central America, I decided to first … Read more
Certain types of soil for earthbag fill material may be available for free or dirt cheap. Excavation companies typically want to empty their trucks as quickly as possible to reduce labor and trucking costs. Ask them for ‘clean fill dirt,’ which is low cost soil free of debris. It’s best to avoid problem soils such … Read more
I’m obviously a huge fan of blogs as you can tell. Today I’d like to encourage you to take a look at what others in the earthbag community are up to. Please let us know if we’ve missed any blogs. (Note: Haiti earthbag blogs are listed under Earthbag Projects in Haiti.) Canadian Dirtbags All you … Read more
In July, 2009 Guiding Star Creations co-created this 9 day workshop with hosts Eric and Nancy. This dome was built as a WWOOFer’s (farm stay) cottage for Eric and Nancy’s 14 acre organic farm. The dome has a 3m(10ft) interior diameter and the walls are 30cm(1ft) thick. This dome was fitted with features to adapt … Read more
There’s growing interest in lightweight bag fill materials as alternatives to more labor intensive soil-filled earthbags. While lightweight materials such as scoria, perlite, etc. are not as stable as tamped earth, their higher insulation value and labor saving advantages offer tantalizing possibilities for certain designs, locales and site conditions. We’re currently investigating vetiver grass as … Read more