Posts
This little house is charming, energy efficient and cost only £3000 (and lots of asking buddies for help) to make according to the owners.
Houses surrounded and covered by earth are pretty energy efficient.
With a good design and smart choice of materials it could be a pretty safe place as well.
Check it out.
7 comments:
Well, except for the Black Riders turning up looking for someone named "Bagginssss"...
Very nicely executed! I've been kicking around this idea since we saw those movies, which are my wife's favorites! Toward that end I have purchased books about building with rammed earth, also other do-it-yourself alternative building method books. Around here we have to be careful about Radon gas, but venting should take care of that. Thanx so much for sharing this!
Eric in MI
Check our earthbagbuilding.com. To build the shell of a 900 square foot home takes a crew of four about two weeks.
My only objection is about rodents. As much as I see the house is built of materials they easily burrow into. They always find something eatable around people living in the house, whit such easy entrance they could be a serious trouble.
What do you think about this?
Abacs, I agree with you about rodents and also bugs. Unless covered with something very strong like shotcrete, if bugs or rodents get in it will be hell.
Still, this type of building is also very possible with good old stone walls and brick laying.
FerFAL
I don't really post, I just like to read the articles, but I like earth houses.
With respect to bugs and vermin, when you build with earth, you compact it, and let it dry, and it will harden like a brick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG02E17IVYM&feature=player_embedded#
Then you usually cover it with some sort of plaster. Also, all foundations are built with stones in the bags, which would take the place of a traditional masonry, or concrete footing... although I'm sure you could use one.
With earth, you generally are going to worry more about moisture, and keeping it away.
I like this idea, if you are a do it yourselfer, you could build yourself a decent house debt free. The thing is getting the local governments to approve this thing.
Better check with your code officials. The United States has no one standard building code for homes that everyone follows. It can be very hard to get approval on non-standard homes without sympathetic officials.
Just the fact that a lot of areas are mandating sprinklers for all new home construction could make for an interesting situation: better have a way to get the water out.
But if you go and ask them about it before you get started they are much more likely to be helpful then if you present it to them as a fait accompli.
Post a Comment