Due to the enormous popularity of my first earthbag instructable, I’ve added a new one about building roundhouses. This is the most comprehensive earthbag roundhouse information published anywhere on the Internet, with step-by-step directions and lots of photos. “We built this earthbag roundhouse in 2010 as part of an earthbag workshop in Thailand, and finished … Read more
A reader asked if perlite is a good choice for building earthbag roundhouses. Perlite should work if you make some adaptations. It has excellent R-value and so, in my opinion, is well worth a little extra effort. In fact, it’s a top choice because of its R-value of 2.7 per inch. So 15″ would give … Read more
Here’s an overview of how we plastered the interior of our roundhouse with earthen plaster. After reviewing the various recipes and techniques, we decided to keep things as simple as possible. No doubt some of the extra plaster additives like manure and wheat paste can be helpful, but we wanted to see the results of … Read more
Most of the AutoCAD drawings for my 30 most popular plans are nearly complete, and so now I’ve started adding SketchUp perspective drawings to show what the completed houses will look like. My goal is to add one perspective drawing every 10 days to 2 weeks and finish in about one year. I have several … Read more
We just finished installing light fixtures in our earthbag roundhouse. This step has taken a lot longer than anticipated. The porch light by the front door was easy to find since it is conventional looking. But we wanted something special inside for our three wall sconces because they’re more prominent. Two sconces, one on each … Read more
Finishing details turn a house into a home. It’s what people really notice. If you want a really nice home, be sure to plan accordingly and give this some extra thought. Finishing work does require extra time and effort, but the results are definitely worthwhile. For our roundhouse, we wanted things to look nice, of … Read more