Woodchip/light clay is a traditional building material in Germany and other European countries. It’s typically used as infill between timbers in post and beam construction. I’ve been told that bags of pre-mixed materials are standard items in building supply centers, and blocks can be made to order. The drying time, shrinkage and labor are less … Read more
The group at Konbit Shelter has made phenomenal progress on their triple dome in Haiti. Be sure to check out their blog for full details and, if at all possible, it would be great if you could find a way to support their project.
Glass block adds a nice decorative touch to earthbag walls. The building process for adding glass block is fairly simple: Make wood frames much like window bucks, only smaller. Earthbag walls are quite thick, so you will probably want double glass blocks – one near the interior, one near the exterior. This creates a wide, … Read more
From time to time we answer reader’s questions. Q: Why aren’t people making roofs from earth using domes or Nubian vaults? In impoverished areas the cost of a tin roof is sometimes a year’s salary. A: Domes and vaults evolved in extremely dry areas of the Middle East, where wood was scarce and lack of … Read more
I just found these new videos on YouTube and know very little about them. I’m eager to learn how they propose to build the large vaults, because these are very difficult to build with earthbags. The first one is an animated video showing how to build a dome. The second video is a fly-through of … Read more
In a previous YouTube video available at my Earthbag YouTube site, I explained how you can pin the corners of bags so the corners don’t stick out. Here’s another option — you can just turn the bags inside out. The last image in the video shows what the final result looks like.