“We are H.O.M.E.Farm.org, a farm, homestead, permaculture demonstration site, and self-sufficiency classroom. H.O.M.E. is an acronym for Holistically Organized Multidisciplinary Endeavors. Quite a name, huh? We hope you can learn from us and share with us what you know, as we pursue our Homesteading Adventure. Earthbags are an alternative and sustainable home building technique. This is our first earthbag home.
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Earthbag Water Tank Instructable
Check out my new how-to article at Instructables.com on building earthbag water tanks. I pulled together content from previous blog posts, added a drawing and edited everything into one concise article. Let me know what you think. Instructables.com is a major site that’s been very effective in promoting my natural building projects.
Earthbag House in Kampung Buayan, Malaysia
The workshop is over. I’m posting this because the house turned out nicely and maybe they’ll have future workshops.
Earthbag Water Tank, Mele Village, Vanuatu
We were pleasantly surprised to see this earthbag water tank just down the road from a house we (Liz’s group) were building. The church group saw our project and on their own figured out how to use the same earthbag techniques to make their water tank. No plans, no technical assistance, nothing.
Earthbag Water Tanks
We’ve nearly finished an earthbag water tank with narrow tubes that cost $200 in materials. Plastic tanks this size retail for around $1,350 in Vanuatu, so this design costs far less than the main competing product. It won’t blow away in a hurricane, break down from UV rays or taint the water with plastic chemicals. Our water tank includes a domed ferrocement top that’s exceptionally strong. It can be built in 2-3 days by four workers with minimal skill, although plastering skill is very helpful. There’s a huge water shortage on the islands here in Vanuatu, as well as many other places. Those who learn this method could make a lot of money selling water tanks since demand is high and cost of labor is cheap.
AUWA Earthbag Rural Retreat
Here’s another wonderful project by AUWA Earth. We’ve profiled them before, but this little house caught my eye when browsing their website again. And by the way, check out their slideshow that shows a very fast earthbag building system using raschel mesh tubes.