It’s our one year anniversary and we’re happy to say we continue to receive and publish new projects, photos and articles weekly. Because we publish all the latest news, our growth here at EarthbagBuilding.com mirrors the growth of building with earthbags worldwide.
For example, right now we have 31 articles on everything from construction details, dome [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Earthbag Building in the Humid Tropics
Posted in Building Styles, Filling Bags, Foundations, Insulation, Introduction, tools on November 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Earthbag Building in the Humid Tropics: Simple Instructions by Patti Stouter is a 27-page, step-by-step PDF guide to building with earthbags in these demanding climates. It is well thought out, quite informative, and useful as a basic introduction to the concept of building with earthbags.
She begins with a general introduction, and then moves on to [...]
Sandbags for Flood Control
Posted in Introduction, tagged Add new tag, flood control, floods, sandbags on November 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Sandbags have a long history of use in flood control. United Bags, Inc., for example, has supplied sandbags to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the public for 117 years.
Sandbags play a critical role in building and fortifying dikes and levees to protect our communities. The bags are low cost and easily transported to [...]
Shaping Buildings for the Humid Tropics
Posted in Building Styles, Economics, Insulation, climate on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Shaping Buildings for the Humid Tropics: Cultures, Climate, and Materials by Patti Stouter, 2008, is a 28 page PDF document that describes how to use ventilation, shading, plantings and insulation to provide comfort in hot humid climates. It includes some discussion of the use of earthbags in achieving these goals.
This is one of the best [...]
A Little History About Burlap Bags
Posted in Introduction, history, tagged Add new tag, burlap, earthbags, sandbags on November 17, 2008 | 3 Comments »
In an effort to track down the history of earthbag building, I’ve been reading up on the history of burlap bags – the forerunner to polypropylene bags. This post is based on information at NYP Corporation, a wholesaler of burlap bags. (See “Jute to Burlap.”)
For centuries, the people of India used jute, the plant which [...]
Arizona Shop Structure
Posted in Building Styles, codes on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
John Annesley chose earthbags to build the walls for his large shop in the Arizona desert because they will never rot, burn, harbor mold or off-gass noxious chemicals. Additionally they provide good thermal mass for the fly-wheel effect that works so well in this climate. He plastered the walls with a combination of paper fiber, [...]
Testing Proves Earthbags to be Very Strong
Posted in Filling Bags, Testing on November 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In a thesis written by Bryce Daigle, titled “Earthbag Housing: Structural Behavior and Applicability in Developing Countries,” It was determined that the compressive strength of unplastered earthbag housing specimens meets or exceeds the vertical compressive strength of conventional stud-frame and alternative construction techniques such as straw bale housing technology, using a variety of fill materials, [...]
Sandbag War Structures
Posted in Introduction, tagged Add new tag, earthbags, historic sandbag photos, sandbags on November 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There is an ongoing debate over the origins of earthbag building — who ‘invented’ it and when. It is an important point that gets into sticky questions about patent rights of building with earthbags.
Some accounts of military sandbag structures go back over 100 years. I haven’t seen pictures of these, but a recent Google search [...]
Bullet Resistance of Sandbags
Posted in Introduction, tagged bullet penetration, bullet resistance, earthbags, sandbags on November 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We live in interesting and somewhat precarious times. No one can say for certain that they are immune from economic collapse, civil disturbance or even war. With the world’s escalating financial, environmental and political problems lately, anything is possible.
All the many benefits of earthbags are reported on our EarthbagBuilding.com website – low cost, simplicity of [...]
