WHAT ARE EARTHBAGS AND WHY AM I BUILDING WITH THEM?
Building with earthbags is essentially building with adobe bricks without going through the lengthy process of making them. You take polypropylene sandbags, fill them with a moist mix of sand and clay, tamp them down hard and connect the layers with 4 point barbed wire. Then, you cover them over with an earthen plaster.
In reality, I didn't use polypropylene bags. Some Brasilians started a type of construction they call hyperadobe which uses mesh bags, or continuous tubing, made from the same material as the onion or potato bags in the grocery store. They don't require barbed wire, though otherwise the process is just about the same.
As I talk about in the blog posts, my design has been guided by simplicity and efficiency. More than anything, what's been most important to me is to live in a house that I myself, with no building experience whatsoever, can design, build and maintain. A natural extension of that has been the desire to live in a peaceful space. For me that means a home that's in tune with nature, thus limiting the use of imported materials for construction, in addition to those that will be needed later on, such as for heating. Please enjoy reading, ask me any questions, get inspired, and come help and learn!
Rain! Rain!
There's been rain. My road turned into a pond in ten minutes flat. The main road had a a serious pond for two days and it's still wet. Saturday was the heaviest but it's been keeping up ever since. There were beautiful lightning storms right above me--luckily I got my steak and broccoli cooked and my butt in the car before it all started.
On the bright side, your walls are going to be as hard as stone by the time it all dries!
ReplyDeleteLooks a lot like my area after rain. The monsoon season can be quite tiresome. Makes getting around sticky and no place seems clean. Lots of fun having 3 inches of clay stuck to the bottom of your shoes.
ReplyDelete:-)
Mmmmm steak and broccoli
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