EARTH BAG HOMES

Some of them simple with Google

earth bag homies

I suggest you go from there clicking the links within/on those pictures

Is that really so difficult ?

T L.

WELL I HAVE DONE JUST THAT, BUT WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE HERE ON THIS FORUM HAS HAD ANY HANDS ON, WITH THESE AND HAS ANY IDEAS OR OPINIONS?

do you always have to shout ? <CAPSLOCK ON>

All caps is considered rude.

No experience with bagged houses, but plenty with plastics.

You'll need to be sure that the bags don't decompose and spill all your dirt or your house may collapse.

Maybe profitable asking a Hobit

Looks like a Smurf house! LOL

I'd be very wary of the structural stability of this type of construction during even a mid-sized magnitude earthquake....and you're located in the Rockies, eh, which is seismically active??? In my opinion it'd topple over or collapse within milliseconds.

Do you have a death wish or something along those lines???

Similar to the stone houses that kill so many in Iran or the Latur earthquake in Indıa. Older villages here in Turkey have the same problem.

Anytime the earth shakes you can only hope you are out of doors.

You've got that right Russ......any masonry building which is not reinforced (and located anywhere in an active seismic zone) coupled with lax building codes & standards/inspections will eventually come crashing down. Unfortunately, I've seen it all over the world.

One has to just take a look at what happened in Haiti earlier this year.....

No death wish , just wanting to know how some of these engineers are saying that they are seismic? and barbed wire in between the bags are what holds it together along with papercrete on the inside and out. just trying to get a better understanding of their thought process.

What purpose is the barbed wire supposed to serve - as reinforcing steel replacement?

Right!

Better to save it for the cows - would do some good there.

"What purpose is the barbed wire supposed to serve "

"To prevent the earthbags from sliding relative to each other in different course, barbed wire is always used between earthbag courses."
Also from a similar rough guide to attaining seismic quality:
"However, to pass the test that is needed for seismic design categories D, E and F, bags must be packed with different mixes of fluent, particulate material. These include earthen, cementations, manufactured and recycled materials that form into a permanent block. A good mix is approximately 70% sand and 30% clay."

I haven't gone to the links as I have no real interest in the things and zero interest in building such a thing. As far a living in such a structure - you couldn't pay me to.

Love to see someone get the design by the drawing approval stage here. My home has more reinforcing steel in it than some industrial installations I have seen - all due to seismic conditions and a strict code.

Well in some western states they are getting passed through building departments and engineers are putting out stamped plans. This is one of the reason's I am trying to understand how they are doing this it totally goes against everything I have been taught. Granted I'm not trying to be closed minded about new products or a new way to do thing's, but when it comes to things of this nature and having a couple of tons of sand over ones head while sleeping held together with barded wire, I mean this is defiantly an accident waiting to happen! So I thought I would pose the question here in hopes that someone could shed a little more light on this type of building, having gone to several links and am still not convinced. well it seems like a few engineers out their have had the cheese slipped off their cracker!! and Bilbo Baggins is in charge!

Some civil servant that does not know what they are doing? How could we ever suggest such a thing.

I know it would never get by here - the designs are very stringent as earthquakes are fairly common.

No Building Codes will help anyone narrow down the ideal location in the United States to build a home without dealing with building code inspectors!

http://nobuildingcodes.com/

That book is very important - to know where the loonies are headed!

So you can go the opposite!

I appreciate codes though they can be a bit of a nuisance at times.

I've been aquainted with several old timers whom lived in a Soddy as the dwellings were termed in the American midwest. One elderly woman recounted life in a Soddy over the first fourteen years of her life, her statement was; people today have no point of reference to uderstand it. Though she maintained it was warmer/cooler than the stick built home they replaced it with.

Lots of thermal mass - it would hold heat or cold better. Also takes more time to heat up or cool down.

The smurf dwelling in the photo would look like an arch of potentially unstable mass overhead - not so good.

Straw bale homes are different critters and OK for some locations and some people.

Rammed earth or sod homes can be useful for some as well.

The things do need to be built in a manner that meets code requirements. The building codes are there for a reason - not just to be ignored as suits one's convenience.

Russ

Not the answer you're looking for for, but, my brother lives in a hay bail house in New Mexico. Stucco on the outside, clay plaster on inside walls, wood framed roof.

I wouldn't have believed it, but it's awesome! Power and water are run right through the walls. Might be worth a google search.

NASA has been looking into it for potential colonization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_May%27s_Toy_Stories#Lego_.28Episode_5.29

Use of Caps Lock is considered akin to SHOUTING, and rather impolite.