So, you’ve bought a piece of land in a remote, rural area with few or no building codes and more jackrabbits than people. Where do you live while you’re building your sustainable home? Pay rent? Nah, that’s so twentieth century. You want free accommodation so you can put your money toward your new home, and … Read more
Adobe bricks with top coat of poured adobe Set dry adobes on a bed of sand or sand and gravel, sweep sand in the joints and then trowel on a top coat of adobe mud. Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) Set CEBs on a bed of sand, sweep sand in the joints, coat with sealer. Tamped … Read more
“Hello, We want to add two rooms to an existing small older home, my question is: We want to build a straw bale home with pallets on both sides, the thought is to put up the straw bales, then put on earth/clay/mud on the bales. As we put the mud on we will put a … Read more
“Hi Owen. We certainly learned a lot from this building process. The most important lesson was this: someone on site must be familiar with construction techniques and be good at providing quality control and project and crew management. Our experience was that if you are not using volunteers who are independently enthusiastic about earthbag building, … Read more
From time to time we answer reader’s questions. Zafra: We’re researching the possibility of acquiring cheap recycled concrete rather than having to pay for gravel for our foundation, but we’re concerned because we’ve read that concrete can wick water upwards to the earth walls. Owen: Good question. Recycled concrete will work fine if you break … Read more
“The nautilus was designed by Flo Kroll, architect Helene .v.d.Merwe, and Helena Wagener during the preparation of the Sustainable Built Environment conference 2005. The Nautilus integrates various earthbuilding methods, including sandbag, cob, adobe, and straw bale. Biomimicry – the application of evolutionary design intelligence to human needs, suggests that natural patterns can be usefully applied … Read more