Cool tubes

[Dustin]

It's my understanding that rammed earth can be used pretty much anywhere, as long as you have a good roof overhang (a wise design concept for all houses, in my opinion) and a good concrete foundation. It's strength usually comes from concrete or plaster of paris admixture.

I absolutely love rammed earth and cast earth walls in a house, and would love to do one. The cost is just astronomical though. I looked into it and the only folks that do it want to build houses in the $600,000 and up category. I even considered hiring someone to just do the walls and leave me to do the rest, but they still wanted so much money it wasn't even worth considering. Maybe one day when I hit the lotto.

The Michal house does have some rammed earth sections (not complete walls), but uses a lot of exposed concrete block that looks pretty fugly. I'll have to find some of my pictures when I took the tour and scan them- I forgot my digital that day.  I think he could fix the stark home with a little warm earth plaster (like from American Clay). Some color and depth is all that is required.

[glenn kangiser]

Dustin - you're doing it wrong -- dirt is free.  Don't ask a contractor.  Get the rammed earth house book by David Easton.

Drier than mud - a few percent cement if necessary - check your soil per book instructions -make friends with it --get to know and love it.  When you and your soil are intimate you are ready to start building with it.  Play with it --test it -- make mud with it -- add sand, straw or clay as necessary.  It's not rocket science - its mud -- Eastons book will tell you  how to make bond beams and pillars - cement columns or wood can be used between them.  It will be expensive if you let others do it but Afghans and people all over the earth have used it for centuries because it is free.

I got a used pneaumatic rammer for $250 from a rental place - for slow - a 30 lb rock on a stick will do.

[Amanda_931]

Your choices are huge when working with dirt.

Cob (sand/straw/clay) so time-consuming that people have done really creative work with design.  Michael Smith, Ianto Evans, Becky Bee are the standard authors.  I've recently gotten one by a British pair who studied with them and does just gorgeous work--more info later.

Earthbags (now there's a good use for plastic).  I really like what I've seen of earthbags--especially the Hunter/Diffmeyer book.

Cinva Ram (addresses for machines and plans available at www.dirtcheapbuilder.com).  It and has been used for generations now in Latin America.  Similar machines in India.

Other rammed earth blocks--the hydraulic machine made usually don't have to be cured.

Adobe (called "mud" in Australia, what Cecelia and Jonny used)

the Easton rammed into forms style

Underground.

Living roofs

Probably more as well.  In fact I know there are more, I've been reading a not-very-new book by Gernot Minke.

The other earth-bag guy, Nadir Khalili of Cal-Earth, invented/re-invented or something, a fired-in-place ceramic  style (The fired brick kilns he found in Iran were made of unfired brick, and had fired, probably neither evenly nor well, after years of making fired bricks).

His book on the subject has a lot about domes and vaults in it, by the way, so even if you've no desire to build a mud-brick house then put a huge fire in it for days to turn it into fired ceramic, it may be valuable.

I know someone on-line who took a course at Cal-Earth, built part of his house as an earthbag dome.

But a friend of mine cautioned that sometimes "free" wall building materials end up expensive because all the other systems (and sometimes just the fasteners) end up costing more because they are not well integrated into the design--sometimes cannot be integrated into the design--running conduit into a fired ceramic house?? Choice of ugly or forget everything above baseboard level?)

[Dustin]

Glenn-
You're right of course. I do have the Rammed Earth book and several others. I can certainly try to do it myself. But I'm not quite confident enough in my abilities to attempt to build a full scale primary residence of rammed earth walls in town (and get it to pass code) with all the room and systems for a growing family of 5, which is what I need to do for my family. This is why I looked at contractors to build the walls and consult with me on how to get the various required systems for a modern home in an unconventional building system and pass code.  It was just too costly even for bare bones walls and some consulting help.

When I decided I was going to build a home for us, I did a lot of research. We looked at earthships (even went to Taos and took the tour), strawbale, and some other design methods.  I ended up going with First Day because I knew I could get some help and hire people to do it where I couldn't and I could get a mortgage on it. It's not my perfect dream home, but it's a step up, and it gets me some experience homebuilding of which I have none yet.  

I think what I am going to end up doing is building my wooden house first, get experience with the homebuilding process there where I know I can bring in knowledgeable help when I need it. I don't have an expert like you I can bring over to help me. Maybe if we were neighbors!

Once I'm done with my new house, I will be free to experiment beyond prying eyes and inspectors, and use my homebuilding experience on my 20 acre ranch in the mountains. The ranch is 2 hours from where my new house is going to be built (right now I'm about 7-8 hours away in suburbia land in a another state). I think that I will use Mike Oehler's methods to build a small underground house like yours, Glenn.  It looks like something I can do. I might want to pick up some earthmoving toys on the way though.

[glenn kangiser]

I was talking to the local engineer the other night at the Slow Food dinner.  He mentioned that even he had thought of building a minimum house to get past code ----300 sq feet? then doing a few things as he pleases.

You are right about getting things to pass code - rammed earth can be made to pass code with bond beams -etc. but the process changes from free to lots of money as you mention.

You could start honing your skills by building a dog house- barbecue, or out building. of some sort.  It does make a fun project.

I'm not really a pro on alot of this stuff -- I just like to read and do and am not afraid of failure - as long as I'm not under it. :-/

That is the key to learning a lot of this stuff - learn what you can then just do it to the best of your ability - usually modifications in future experiments will fix problems you have had in the past.  The only ones who never fail are the ones who never do anything.

[Dustin]

You heard of "Cast Earth"? I thought this would be something I could have done with a minimal amount of labor costs. Basically they pump a slurry of water, a retarder, plaster of paris, an metal oxides for color with earth into a concrete truck and mix it all up then pour it into forms just like concrete walls. You'd think it was cheaper to do than concrete walls...not!
There's not a lot of labor, just setting up the forms, but considerable equipment costs, like a concrete mixer/pump truck and the forms. A house can be poured in a day or two. It looks a lot like rammed earth but more like manufactured sandstone. Very pretty.
The few folks that have worked with it charge a premium, unfortunately.

[Amanda_931]

If that's what I've seen links to before, it's a patented, expensive training course type of system, so of course it's expensive.

But it's lovely.

[Dustin]

Very. I've seen it up close, and man, gorgeous stuff.

[Amanda_931]

Well, not cool tubes.

But here's a description of a dessicant AC unit that is apparently in use in an off-grid house, using a different take on an air-to-air heat exchanger.  It requires a very hot attic.

site is associated with a yahoo group.

http://www.fossilfreedom.com/attic.html