Earth Homes

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General

The Natural Home ~ website has: NO Cookies unless you want to use the shopping cart and NO Scripts - nothing intrusive unless you want a custom shade panel quote; NO ads, NO frames, NO pop-ups NO annoying blinking pictures NO mailing list, ever ... Just your total privacy and lots of free information ... with minimal bull. Be sure to check out their online e-book covering: Passive Solar | Septic System | Greywater Recycling | Composting Toilet | Sun and Wind Screen | Stainless Steel | Gas Refrigeration | Gas Refrigeration | Passive Solar Products

Earthlog Equity Group As most of my viewers know, I generally avoid sales sites, but this one is the rare exception. They provide INFORMATION. Eventually, their "News" may contain more than company Q&A, but you can skip it for now, Check out Earth Sheltered Home Plans page which, as of 9/14/08, has some 50+ floor plans for homes - free to copy/save to your computer.

Natural Building Resources If you're just starting out with all this alternative building stuff, be sure to check this site. Home of the online Natural Building Colloquium: SB, earthbags, leaned brick, straw/clay--you name it. Plus a great primer on natural building techniques and lots of photos.

Environmental Building News Whether you're ready to build or just in the planning stage, this site has info on green products for you to use, including reviews. It's taken from their newsletter, and they also sponsor the Greenbuilding List, a great place to learn about the latest techniques and products.

Green Building Source Has a whole slew of articles and info on all building aspects, with a bent for "green" technology - be sure to check out their "LIBRARY"

Earthen Plaster & Aliz A clay slip, known to some as an aliz can be applied to an earth-plastered wall almost like paint is used on other surfaces. The purpose is to seal and beautify the surface, and after it has become soiled or damaged, another coat may easily be applied to renew its fresh look.

Interesting news submitted by viewer:
Garbage Warrior
Green Screens
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 6:30 pm CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
Walter Reade Theater
West 65th Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam Aves on the upper level

“If you create your own electricity, heating and water systems, you create your own politics. Maybe that’s what they’re afraid of.” –– Michael Reynolds

Garbage Warrior tells the story of Michael Reynolds, a renegade environmental architect striving to build sustainable off-the-grid housing communities. Using beer cans, abandoned auto tires and disposable water bottles, among other materials, Reynolds creates environmental “earthships,” but not without conflict with the mainstream architectural bureaucracy. But after the catastrophic tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the need for self-sufficient housing is all the more pressing. Reynolds and director Oliver Hodge will join us for a Q&A.

The film is screening with The Story of Stuff, an exploration of the global materials economy and its impact on government, environment and health. –– Sharon Bahus and Isa Cucinotta

Garbage Warrior [View the full length trailer]
Oliver Hodge, UK, 2006; 85m
screening with
The Story of Stuff
Louis Fox, US, 2007; 21m

This presentation is supported by Sundance Channel's weekly destination “Robert Redford presents THE GREEN.”

The Film Society's Green Screens program addresses through film the vital environmental concerns of global warming, the safety of our food supply, sustainable living, and more. Each screening includes a discussion and reception with artists and expert commentators, where we invite non-profit organizations and others to provide materials and raise awareness of the many positive actions we can all take.

In addition to this series, the Film Society screens PSAs showcasing climate change, sustainability and other matters concerning the health of our planet and its inhabitants. We are one of the first movie theaters in the country to regularly screen such PSAs and we encourage other theaters to join us.

Adobe

Natural Building Techniques: Adobe Adobe is one of the oldest building materials in use. It is basically just dirt that has been moistened with water, sometimes with chopped straw or other fibers added for strength, and then allowed to dry in the desired shape. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

German Clay Building Clay, pure or mixed with sand, is a universally existing material. Because of different geographic, climatic and cultural conditions, regional building techniques were developed throughout the world, which can be traced back for thousands of years. Now, after a period of decline, building with clay is making a comeback.

Mission Materials Construction of an adobe building is actually fairly straightforward; although very labor intensive. Raw materials have to be gathered; bricks, tiles and lumber have to be made or worked; and then all the processed raw materials had to be put together into the building. Of course, all of this work required labor and also had to be coordinated with all the other daily tasks (e.g., tending to the agriculture and livestock plus prayers and education). Let's look at the basic ingredients.

Troubled Times: Adobe Bricks Home brickmakers may need to experiment to find the right balance of ingredients. ... "The consistency of the brick mixture should be halfway between pancake batter and stiff cookie dough," advises Robert Pedritti, site director at San Jose's Peralta Adobe and Fallon House. Pedretti shares the following adobe brick recipe...

ABCs of Making Adobe Bricks New Mexico State University. March 2003. (PDF file link) Download this EXCELLENT manual now, before it disappears!

Cob

Cob Cob is a very old method of building with earth and straw or other fibers. It is quite similar to adobe in that the basic mix of clay and sand is the same, but it usually has a higher percentage of long straw fibers mixed in. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

History of Cob Because of its versatility and widespread availability, earth has been used as a construction material on every continent and in every age. It is one of the oldest building materials on the planet; the first freestanding human dwellings may have been built of sod or wattle-and-daub. See also: Cob Q & A

Building with Cob Working with cob is a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. It is easy to learn and inexpensive to build with. Because there are no forms, ramming, cement or rectilinear bricks, cob lends itself to organic shapes - curved walls, arches and vaults. Earthen houses are cool in summer, warm in winter. Unconsolidated, hand-formed earth is probably the world's commonest building material. Cob has been used even in the harsh climates of coastal Britain, as far north as the latitude of the Aleutians. Thousands of comfortable and picturesque cob homes in England have been continuously occupied for many centuries and now command very high market values.

Cob Builders Handbook The purpose of this handbook is to show you how you can build your own magical, practical, long-lasting home for very little money and have a wonderful time doing it! Cob is in the early stages of being rediscovered in the modern world. Ideas and innovations are popping up all the time. I wish I could say I learned cob from the folks of the past generation, but I can't. I am sharing my "modern" cob experience and current thoughts.

Earth Block

Soil Preparation Equipment Traditional earth construction techniques are generally associated with manual operations and simple, locally made tools. Today, a variety of equipment is available for the preparation of soil for building construction, reducing the necessary manual operations to a minimum, greatly increasing the output rates and considerably improving the quality of the material and final product. Some of the main types of equipment are described.

Compressed Earth Blocks At the inception in 1976 of Habitat for Humanity International, a major provider of housing for the world's poor, one of the first decisions made by the board of directors was to use locally-available materials as much as possible. This choice is the basis of a more sustainable building system, which is empowering to the people of the community, and better for the environment. In my experience teaching in Africa and elsewhere we have often used Compressed Earth Block.

How To Build an Earth Block Home Hallock's Colorado-based company, Earth Block Inc, has developed an especially efficient and affordable process for earth block production. Hallock estimates that his plant in Loreto Bay has the capacity to produce 9,000 CEBs a day. 5,000 blocks are enough to build the exterior walls for a 1,500 square-foot home.

BUILDING WITH EARTH IN AUROVILLE [PDF]

Building With Earth Homes made from earthen materials are affordable, comfortable, sustainable and enduring. Here are the pros and cons of adobe, cob, rammed-earth and soil-filled tire techniques. See also: Pressed Earth Blocks: Make 'Em Yourself

Compressed Earth Block Building Code New Mexico Compressed Earth Block Building Code

Compressed Earth Blocks 1 & Compressed Earth 2: This book is the fruit of the work of a team whose objectives are totally consistent with this approach. It is intended to be a means towards this end, a tool to arouse, stimulate, and consolidate confidence in current and future applications. It should be read as the state of the art of current, technical know-how, acquired thanks to the efforts of many, often pioneering, practitioners working towards this goal. The work attempts mainly to illustrate both general means of production and actual physical techniques, as well as their economic implications. It aims more to be an aid to decision-making than to provide an answer to problems; problems which will necessarily have more than one possible solution and which require an understanding of the interaction between a building material and its use in construction. See Also: Compressed Earth Presses & Cinva Ram Block Making Machine & Mortars & Compressed Earth Blocks Stds & Stabilized Earth Blocks & Stabilized Earth II & Stabilized Earth

Rammed Earth

Rammed Earth Ramming earth to create walls is at least as old as the Great Wall of China. It is really quite similar to adobe and cob techniques, in that the soil is mostly clay and sand. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

Rammed Earth Techniques & a FAQ & House Area Photos. Kind of an annoying layout, but interesting enough info.

How To Build a Rammed Earth House is a 1973 article published in Mother Earth, written by John O McMeekin about the home he had build 25 years earlier of rammed earth, and continued to live in at that time. It appears he still lives there now but we are attempting to verify that at this time. His utility bills would be very interesting to compare with his neighbors in similar sized homes.

Sand/Earth Bags

Earthbag Building with earthbags (sometimes called sandbags) is both old and new. Sandbags have long been used, particularly by the military for creating strong, protective barriers, or for flood control. The same reasons that make them useful for these applications carry over to creating housing: the walls are massive and substantial, they resist all kinds of severe weather (or even bullets and bombs), and they can be erected simply and quickly with readily available components. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

Earthbags Using soil-filled sacks (earthbags) for construction has been recently revived as an important natural building technique for several reasons. It is inexpensive, using locally available site soil and polypropylene or burlap sacks, which often can be obtained free or at low cost. The technique demands few skills, and is easy to learn. See also: Honey House

Strawbale

Strawbale Building with bales of straw has become almost mainstream in some parts of the country, especially in the Southwestern United States. Many localities have specific codes for strawbale construction, and some banks are willing to lend on this technique. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

Strawbale Diary Diary of progress on the construction of a strawbale home. Nice pics, too.

"Thermal Resistivity of Straw Bales for Construction" A Masters thesis by Joseph C. McCabe. Includes the figures and a history of straw bale use in construction. Good information.

Straw-bale Dome Construction of the experimental straw-bale dome at the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, New Mexico, began during The Natural Building Colloquium held there in October, 1995. This project was initiated and spearheaded by straw-bale pioneer Matts Myhrman. The dome sits upon a coarse pumice foundation. Wood wedges were temporarily placed at each course of straw bales to tilt the bales inward and begin to form the dome shape. Cob was shaped between the bales at these horizontal joints, with the wood wedges then removed. Upper layers used a straw/clay mixture to replace the cob.

DOE Building Technologies Program: Straw Bale Americans want comfortable, attractive, functional, and durable housing. Yet, many increasingly find high quality housing beyond their means. Conventional building methods rely on plentiful resources. With some of these resources dwindling, housing costs are sky rocketing. The cost of a home includes materials, construction, financing, taxes, energy consumption, and insurance. This booklet explores recent attempts to reduce those costs. Construction techniques discussed in this booklet focus on building resource-efficient and energy-conserving homes, without sacrificing affordability or quality.

Tires

Earthship The Earthship concept is the brainchild of Michael Reynolds, who has written several books on the topic. Near Taos New Mexico, where he has his Earthship Biotecture business, are whole communities of earthships. The basic earthship design incorporates substantially bermed, passive solar architecture. The primary retaining walls are constructed with used tires, filled with earth and stacked up like bricks.

Underground

Earth House Your central information source on Earth Sheltered Homes and materials. Underground lifestyles, news, original publications, disaster preparation, and world changes. The largest site of its kind on the internet preparing you for the world that's coming.

Down to Earth Homes Tuck your home into a hillside to cut your heating and cooling bills, create weather and noise proof shelter, and blend the house harmoniously with the surrounding landscape.

Construction Materials and Considerations for Earth-Sheltered Homes Before designing an earth-sheltered house, you should consider what's involved in its construction, including your construction material options.

Other

Poured Earth Poured earth is similar to ordinary concrete, in that it is mixed and formed like concrete and uses Portland cement as a binder. The main difference is that instead of the sand/gravel used as an aggregate in concrete, poured earth uses ordinary soil (although this soil needs to meet certain specifications) and generally uses less Portland cement. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

Cordwood Cordwood construction utilizes short, round pieces of wood, similar to what would normally be considered firewood. For this reason this method of building can be very resource efficient, since it makes use of wood that might not have much other value. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles.

Papercrete Papercrete is a fairly new ingredient in the natural building world. It is basically re-pulped paper fiber with portland cement or clay and/or other dirt added. When cement is added, this material is not as "green" as would be ideal, but the relatively small amount of cement is perhaps a reasonable tradeoff for what papercrete can offer. Follow the links on the right for a more comprehensive series of short articles. See also: Lightweight Concrete and Building with Papercrete and this Papercrete information page for basic instruction and this page on Fibercrete-Cobwood & Alternative recipes

Natural Composites Over the past five years the International Resource Institute (IRI) has been working to find ways to replace all of the lumber, concrete, steel, and petroleum products used in new home construction with materials that have a decidedly lower environmental impact. Our most recent sustainable architecture concept house uses a composite bentonite clay/cellulose fiber/straw-bale wall and roof system that eliminates the need for all structural lumber or steel.

In article Rich Pierson writes:br/>
I had an interest in earth sheltered housing since the 70's. I still have my copies of the defunct magazine "Earth Sheltered Living" somewhere in a box.

The main problem with this construction methods were zoning and cost of construction. A lot of zoning laws were written against GI's after WW2, who would build a basement and cover it with the first floor flooring and tar paper, then live in it until they could afford to build the house. The best zoning laws were in Indiana. In Indiana an earth sheltered house qualified as a "bomb shelter" and was tax exempt. Indiana updated their housing codes real fast.

The cost of building was the major factor. First you excavated for the footers and piled the dirt. Then put up forms and pour the floor. More forms for the walls strong enough to resist the side loads. Then more forms and pour the roof. Waterproof the structure then bury it. Do not bury it in the winter or it took massive amounts of heat to warm the soil around the house.

One guy saved a bunch of money by building the walls then filling the house with sand. The sand was rounded on top and became the forms for pouring the roof. Then he removed the sand. One guy came up with an alternative construction method. He used a trencher to make a square slot in the ground. where he wanted doors he did not go as deep. He built a reinforcing rod armature and placed it in the hole. He extended the roof past the walls several feet to act as footers and poured his house. There were no forms and the dirt only had to be moved once. As the dirt was dug out it could be placed immediately on the already poured roof.

I came up with an even simpler method:

On top of a hill dig two parallel footers 30 to 50 feet apart and as long as you want. Place drainage tile in the bottom of the footers. Using a trenching machine between the footers dig trenches 3 or 4 feet apart 6 or more feet deep. Place plywood or firewood over the trenches and pile the dirt on top. The dirt piled between the footers becomes the forms for pouring the roof. Add your rebar and pour the roof and footers. The roof is an arch which adds to the strength. You will need to run steel rod supports from footer to footer. An engineering concrete CAD program can calculate the loads and rebar positioning. Once the calculations are known for a given width you can make the structure as long as necessary.

Earth is stable at about 60 degree angle. Look at the embankments along the interstate and you can see examples. Excavate the dirt until you have 7-8 foot of head room and pour the floor. You now have a tunnel as long as you want open at both ends. There are no massive side walls because there are no side loads. Since the roof is built first you are working indoors. The dirt only needs to be moved once and can be put on the roof as soon as it is removed. The inside walls are simple partitions and can be changed later, they are not load bearing. The plumbing can be run in the open space between the walls and the side embankments and remain accessible for repairs. A few vents along the side and you will not have a moisture problem. A front and back wall finish the main structure.

Most fire codes are met if you can exit a room in two possible directions so excavate both ends.. A few other advantages to my method. To a casual observer it looks about like pouring a slab foundation for a house that was never built if it needs to be left for a while. A big piece of concrete laying there is not subject to theft or vandalism until needed. The cost should be significantly less than a standard house. Since you start on top of the current ground and then build it higher you are aiding water run off and helping to prevent leaks.

If you can find a hill that allows both ends to be exposed, that would be best. Otherwise you have an open end, preferably south and a "courtyard" on the other end. Be sure to provide drainage from the courtyard under the floor before you pour the floor.

In a TEOTWAWKI situation you do not add an obvious building front but create an unexposed artificial cave. The excavation could be done with done with smaller equipment. It is not one massive excavation but a number of sections 3 or 4 foot thick between the original trenches. Dig out one then knock the next one over and shovel it into a wheel barrow or trailer on a garden tractor.

Hope this helps at least a little.

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