Patti Stouter of Build Simple, Inc. has been testing earthbags and writing technical reports for the last several years in an effort to improve strength of earthbag buildings in seismic areas. She asked me to forward the following announcement.
earthbag testing
Revised Earthbag Testing Page
With the help of Patti Stouter, I have revised the index page for available test data and reports at www.earthbagbuilding.com. Instead of just links to half a dozen existing test reports that are specific to earthbags, there are now references and links to over three dozen such reports, many of which relate to other types … Read more
Earth Building Report from Greece
I came across a report titled Earth Building: Models, Technical Aspects, Tests and Environmental Evaluation by Sargentis, Kapsalis and Symeonidis. The report was presented at the 11th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology in September, 2009 in Greece. The report has a number of fascinating insights. The team designed and analyzed a model earthbag … Read more
Friction and Tensile Strength of EB Components
Patti Stouter has published another earthbag technical report. It is a summary of the state of testing to date, and also covers some of the codes related to earthbag. The following information is quoted from this report. According to the new international earthen building standards, if earthbag walls with some reinforcing have shear strength equal … Read more
Call for Greater Earthbag Sharing/Testing
We can all learn a lot from each other, and so I’m encouraging everyone to send us their earthbag building experiences (favorable or unfavorable) so we can share the information with other readers. Earthbag builders are regularly experimenting with new ideas and techniques. If you have learned something interesting and think it can benefit others, … Read more