Feed: Earthbag Construction - AggScore: 77.6

Earthbag Building

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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. Since the walls are so substantial, they resist all kinds of severe weather (or even bullets) and also stand up to natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods. They can be erected simply and quickly with readily available components, for very little money.

This Earthbag Building website is the most extensive site of its kind, featuring a large collection of articles, a slideshow of images, project profiles, step-by-step building guides and more. Two search engines make it easy to find information.

Earthbag House Plans

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Small, affordable, sustainable earthbag house plans. Owen Geiger has outdone himself with about 90 low-cost, small house plans.

This site is about unique, small home plans, building green eco-friendly homes, and sustainable building -- all built with earthbags. All styles are included: country, cottage, bungalow, traditional, modern (contemporary), mountain, beach, cabins and other popular styles. There are domes, arches, roundhouses, vaults, rectangular, square, organic and polygonal-shaped houses. Owen offers custom and semi-custom plans: he will adapt the preliminary plans on his site to meet your needs.

You can browse through the plans, or search the site by shape, size, clicking on links in the Tag Cloud, or by using the built-in search engine.

The Earthbag Page on GreenHomeBuilding.com

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This page on earthbag building could be half a dozen pages. It starts with an explanation of what earthbag building is, then describes the DVD on earthbag building that Kelly Hart produced about his own house , along with descriptions of several pertinent books.

Next there is a sample earthbag house plan from designer Owen Geiger, with discussion. This is followed by a photoessay on the building of the Hart's earthbag house in Colorado, which includes costs and aspects of sustainable building in the house.

Three other projects are described, and there is a list of links for more reading.

How to Optimize Earthbag Building

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Much has been written on building with earthbags, but what is the most efficient building process? What are the most efficient shapes and design features? How can I optimize my time and resources to obtain the best possible home at the lowest cost? Although building details will vary from one project to the next, this article examines the most important factors in optimizing the construction process.

Earthbag Building: A Three-Minute Video

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This short lively video features many earthbag projects.

Insulated Earthbag Houses

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Energy performance on most buildings can be improved with insulation, including those made of earth such as adobe and earthbag structures. Although most earth structures are located in hot, dry climates, there is increasing demand for low-cost, eco-friendly earth building techniques in cold climates. This article explores three innovative methods for insulating earthbag buildings, which extends their building range to cold regions.

Do-It-Yourself Earthbag Building - Yes You Can!

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The two largest obstacles to home ownership are expensive building materials and overly complex construction methods that require specialized skills and equipment. The problem is so acute that over 70 percent of Americans are unable to afford contractor-built homes. With the current downturn in the economy and the loss of millions of jobs, the housing situation in the U.S. is definitely taking a turn for the worse. Everyone needs a place to live - shelter is a basic need. But since the current system is bypassing the vast majority of the population, it's time to investigate simpler, more affordable building methods... such as earthbag building.

Earthbag Building FAQ

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Kelly Hart has amassed an enormous amount of information over the years - mostly from people emailing him for advice -- and offers it all here for free. If there's anything you want to know about building with earthbags, it's likely here.

New Earthbag Building Articles by Owen Geiger

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The GRISB Sustainable Building Blog lists Geiger's 25 most recent articles that cover all aspects of earthbag construction.

Dream Green Home Earthbag Plans

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If you're thinking of ordering earthbag house plans, this is the place to go. Numerous plans are available on this site. The menu along the top of the site makes it easy to search by materials, style or function.

If you go to the page about the designers and scroll down a bit to Dr. Owen Geiger, you will see a long list of earthbag house plans available on the website.

Earthbag Building Blog

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This blog is about sharing information and promoting earthbag building, and has all the news and latest building methods. You can browse the posts, or search by category, month or by using the built-in search engine.

Book, Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques

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by Kaki Hunter, Donald Kiffmeyer, 2004.

"Earthbag Building" is a comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth. If you're serious about building with earthbags, this is by far the best book on the subject. The link takes you to Amazon.

Building with Bags: How We Made Our Experimental Earthbag/Papercrete House

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1-1/2 hr. DVD produced by Kelly Hart.

We wanted to build an environmentally sensitive and aesthetically pleasing home at a moderate price. We chose to create earthbag domes covered with papercrete (recycled paper combined with cement and sand). This honest DVD documents details of the construction, insights gained, and the ups and downs (literally!) of the building process. Several other earthbag homes are also shown.

Do-It-Yourself Earthbag Building

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By now you've probably heard of earthbag building and are looking for more detailed information. This article summarizes how you can build safe, beautiful and durable homes, offices and shops out of earthbags (sandbags) for very little money.

How to Build an Eco-friendly Earthbag Roundhouse

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Of all the various shapes of houses, roundhouses have always been one of my favorites. Like domes, they create maximum floor space with minimal wall material, but roundhouses are simpler and easier to build since the walls are vertical. And because roundhouses are protected by a roof, they are suited to a wider range of climates than domes. Combining the efficiencies of roundhouses with the benefits of earthbag building enables virtually everyone to afford their own home.