Pallet Wood Ceilings

These drawings show two ways of making wood ceilings with pallet wood. (click to enlarge)

Shipping pallets are incredibly useful for building. They’re typically free, widely available and very strong. The wood is cured, and often hardwoods such as oak are used in pallets. There’re just good to waste.

The two ceiling discussed here use short or longer pieces of pallets (or any wood, actually) that are cut to fit your ceiling joists or rafters. Measure ‘center to center’ – the distance between the center of one board and the center of the next board. The most common spacing is 24”. This is the length you will want to cut your pallet boards. This distance will likely vary and you’ll have to adjust the sizes accordingly. If you have longer boards from large custom pallets, go ahead and use them because they will add a little strength and save some cutting.

Method 1: (top drawing) This method uses pallet wood nailed on the underside of joists or rafters. Here, the wood framing is covered for a more finished look. You can use trim to hide the joints. This method is best suited for insulated ceilings.

Method 2: (lower drawing) You can also nail pallet wood to the top of joists or rafters to create a ceiling with open or exposed framing. This method would look good on a loft floor where no insulation is necessary or other areas where you want to highlight the framing.

The recommended finishing method involves pre-sanding the wood with a belt sander and 80 grit sandpaper. The wood doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, but it will look better if you clean it up and remove most of the roughness. Sanding makes finishing easier and also aids cleaning the ceiling in the future. The easiest finish is a wipe on Danish oil finish. The most popular color is called Medium Walnut. One coat is all you really need.

The following videos show various ways of disassembling or breaking down pallets. Combining techniques from various videos will greatly speed the process and minimize damage to the wood.
Introduction to Reclaiming Pallet Wood
Pallet Stripping Bar by Cargo Cycles (it wouldn’t be hard to make one of these)
How to Dismantle a Wooden Pallet
How to Dismantle a Pallet Without Splitting It (tip: use a 2 or 3 lb. sledge instead of an awkward concrete object)
Taking Apart Pallets – Sarah’s Workshop 1
How to Dismantle Pallets to Obtain Free Usable Wood for Construction and Woodworking
Hammering Out Ring Shanked Nails from Reclaimed Wood with the Nail BOSS
Cleaning Wood Pallets

We’ve already discussed how pallets can be used for floors, trusses and pallet/straw bale walls. And, in case you missed it, how you can use pallets as a base under straw bale shelters.

Read Full Post »

Instructable: How to Build an Earthbag Dome

Instructable: How to Build an Earthbag Dome by Owen Geiger

Note: This is probably the closest we’ve come to going viral with our message about earthbag building. Skim to the bottom of this blog post and look at all the sites that are posting this story. And that’s just a few. The surge of interest came from my recent articles at Instructables.com, which combined have racked up some 88,000 hits in the last few days. I mention this because it’s another indicator of the popularity in earthbag building. Now, on to today’s post.

We built this earthbag dome at our home in Thailand for Mother Earth News Magazine in 2007. The article that describes the complete building process in detail was published August/September 2009. It is now free on the Internet: Low-Cost Multipurpose Minibuilding Made With Earthbags, by Owen Geiger.
[Ed: This 5,000 word article explains everything you need to know to build the dome, and is the most complete dome building guide now on the Internet.]

This earthbag dome Instructable simplifies the process and illustrates each step of construction with photos. The two critical drawings are also included here.

This multi-purpose dome can serve as a storage shed or cool pantry above ground, or as a rootcellar or storm shelter below ground. No building permit is typically needed, because it is below the minimum size required by building codes, is not inhabited and is not attached to a residence.

Earthbag structures provide a cool space in summer and an escape from the cold in winter (ideal for humans and animals), which means this earthbag dome is well suited for many purposes, like a quiet space for relaxing or playing music, as well as those listed previously. Depending on your needs, the most practical combination of uses might be a rootcellar/cool pantry for daily use and a disaster shelter for emergencies such as tornadoes or hurricanes.

The key concept that makes earthbag domes work is corbelling. This means each course (each row) of bags is inset slightly from the course below. Corbelled domes made of adobe and stone have been built for thousands of years. The concept has been applied to earthbags in the last few decades.

You can read the entire article for free: How to Build an Earthbag Dome

It’s also been selected by The Daily What as the DIY of the day on Monday, January 31, 2011. http://thedailywh.at/post/3037944318/diy-of-the-day-build-your-own-shire-like-earthbag The story has also been picked up by Neatorama. http://www.neatorama.com/2011/02/01/how-to-build-an-earthbag-dome/ and No Tech Magazine http://www.notechmagazine.com/2011/02/how-to-build-an-earthbag-dome.html, The World’s Strangest http://www.worldsstrangest.com/neatorama/how-to-build-an-earthbag-dome/, Regator http://regator.com/p/247263378/how_to_build_an_earthbag_dome/, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/instructables/posts/160415757344155, Offbookbeatbox http://offbook.tumblr.com/post/3055596261/how-to-build-an-earthbag-dome, Google Buzz http://www.google.com/buzz/116150648915115517660/APhEMu4Jhmg/How-to-Build-an-Earthbag-Dome-Neatorama, Friendfeed.com http://friendfeed.com/koiyuki/9212774f/how-to-build-earthbag-dome, Pop Culture Matters http://pop-culture.mattters.com/, Lovely Listing http://lovelylisting.icanhascheezburger.com/2011/02/02/funny-real-estate-earthbag-dome/, Twitter, StumbleUpon and many international sites.

Read Full Post »

Featured Instructable

Hi Owen Geiger!

Your Instructable “Step-by-Step Earthbag Building” was just featured by one of our editors!

Being featured means we think you are awesome. Keep up the great work!

Eric
Founder and CEO of Instructables

Step-by-Step Earthbag Building Instructable

Note: this Instructable has received over 2,400 hits in just two months, and is indicative of the growing popularity of earthbag building in general.

Update: It shot up another 1,000 in just the last few hours. Wow. I’m definitely going to do more Instructables. By the way, they have excellent web tools for uploading projects that make the whole process very easy. Everything works perfectly. And while you’re there, be sure to check out other projects. They have hundreds of excellent ideas for solar and other low tech DIY projects.

Update from Instructables.com:
“Congratulations Owen Geiger! “Step-by-Step Earthbag Building” has been featured to the Instructables.com homepage! Being featured by our editors means your Instructable stands out, and represents one of the best we have. Projects like yours make Instructables great, and we really appreciate your time and effort.”

Read Full Post »

Earthbag Instructable

Earthbag Instructable

I’ve created a page at Instructables.com: Step-by-Step Earthbag Building. They have lots of good information there on many different topics. My Instructable is based on my previous article at EarthbagBuilding.com called Step-by-Step Earthbag Construction. But I changed things around a bit. See what you think. I’m always looking for ways to simplify and clarify the process. This is especially important because these two sites explain the essential steps for building with bags. Which one do you like best?

Read Full Post »

Updated Step-by-Step Earthbag Building

Earthbag building tools and supplies

My Step-by-Step Earthbag Building article at EarthbagBuilding.com has been updated. I built a demonstration wall and photographed each step. YouTube videos have been embedded to further demonstrate the process. All the latest tools and techniques are shown, including use of stronger sheetmetal sliders, 2-gallon cement buckets, bucket chutes, bags turned inside out, and filling bags to capacity with the same number of pre-measured buckets. Note how I demonstrate pre-tamping earthbags. This is a relatively new technique I developed to lengthen the bags so they have additional overlap. This step strengthens the wall, which is particularly important in earthquake regions.

The goal of this project was to simplify the explanation of how to build with earthbags, making it clear as possible. All too often people read the books and dozens or hundreds of web pages and still don’t fully grasp the basics. So my advice is to read (and watch) this Step-by-Step Earthbag Building article several times and then practice each step. Get the basics right and the other details will more easily fall in place.

Read Full Post »