Nick, one of our readers left the following comments. “I think the sheer lunacy of the housing situation, what you pay versus what you get, will insure that alternative means of construction will prevail in the end. Even if you don’t have the patience to build yourself, you can buy a steel warehouse building, say … Read more
This blog post provides additional information about the insulated earthbag vaults that I’ve been discussing the last few weeks. (Use the search engine in the upper right corner and enter “insulated earthbag vaults” to read prior posts.) As explained from the very beginning “We get quite a few enquires about vaults. So far we’ve always … Read more
This is a fourth installment on earthbag vaults. Previous posts have already covered most of the details. This blog post presents two more options – living roof and thatch roof. The thatched roof is the simplest and fastest. The living roof is much more difficult and not recommended as a first time project. The roof … Read more
This blog post is a continuation of Insulated Earthbag Vaults and Insulated Earthbag Vaults for Rainy Climates. The Mindfulness Project in Thailand envisions using this design as a part of each housing cluster in their sustainable community. The vaults will likely include photovoltaics, a mechanical room for batteries and electronics, a small shop area with … Read more
This is part 2 about building lightweight, insulated vaults with earthbags. Lower courses are gravel-filled bags to prevent water wicking up in the wall. Above that are standard earthbags filled with subsoil. These bags could be stabilized with lime or cement if there’s risk of flooding. Upper bags are filled with insulation and tied to … Read more
We get quite a few enquires about vaults. So far we’ve always cautioned against building earthbag vaults except for small entranceways, corridors between domes and the like, because they are inherently unstable if you just stack earthbags into a vault shape. The proposed design shown here resolves the stability issues. This vault building method is … Read more