Here’s a real nice earthbag/ferrocement rootcellar plan from Karl in the Missouri Ozarks. It is 8’ across, has 2’ of soil on top and beautiful stonework in front. Great job Karl! Karl describes his rootcellar in more detail: The U-shape on the top of the bags is a row of cement beam block that will … Read more
Since water is vital to life, and there is increasing scarcity of clean drinking water in much of the world, it makes sense to store this precious resource and use it wisely. Earthbags in combination with ferrocement offer a number of interesting alternatives for storing water. Three different methods are shown below. www.flickr.com/photos/10349013@N02/2798383930 www.flickr.com/photos/11222150@N02/1082496465 http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/earthbag-cistern/
Earthbag building (sometimes called sandbag building) started about one hundred years ago providing safe, bulletproof and bomb resistant shelters for the military. They proved to be fast, simple to construct and durable. The same qualities that make earthbags useful for military and flood control purposes apply to building houses. Now people all over the world … Read more
What is the best way to build a low-cost home that doesn’t harm the planet? Most materials such as concrete and steel are highly processed and transported long distances, making them unaffordable to millions who are in need of housing. These high-tech materials also cause a great deal of harm to the environment. The answer … Read more
Here’s another dirt cheap earthbag house – this one is in Mexico. I just found a new video about the house, and the owner’s daughter who helped build the house said it cost about $2,000! We need more stories like this. At some point people will stop paying ridiculously high prices and switch over to … Read more
Embedding bottles in a wall creates a really stunning effect, especially when sunlight shines through bottles of different colors. However, many bottle walls are thin walls. Here are some suggestions for using bottles in wide earthbag walls: – Buy a bottle cutter or rent a wet tile cutter to remove the ends. Join bottles of … Read more