some ideas on Types of earth friendly construction

This is a thread to put some ideas out there - many of you have thought about alternative building techniques and many have done their own studying on specific types and may have some wondeful feedback and advice.
Links could also be helpful - the one I found to be very useful is http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/index.htm .

Let's see -... you have above ground, earth bermed, partially
underground, and wholy underground...in the trees, above the ground (thinking of a derigible living space - something I dream about), in the sea, on the sea, and above the sea.

Several methods which can of course be combined are:

stick built that which is most often used, utilising lumber, usually of 2X dimensions for framework and some sort of composite for sheathing though wood can be also used

timber frame - utilising large pieces of lumber from 8x tp 12x to put together a framework

masonry:
stone, cordwood, strawbale, adobe, earth bag
cob

(the link I gave goes into more detail, on each method and has more types of techniques)

In the environment I find myself in I think of cordwood (more easily built in the round [towers]), partially underground, and underground (mostly for food storage - though living space is also feasable), and stone - mostly in combination.


Any chance we could start sharing our interests and maybe even experiences with different methods ?

 

Mother Earth News has alot of good reading. Type earth home in the archive search

 

Instead of cordwood, there is also the option of cobwood.
Instead of using cement as your mortar between your logs, you can use cob (mixture of sand, clay, straw and water)
Its much more fun to work with than yucky cement...plus its much more environmentally friendly! yeehah

 

Thanks for posting that link oldwolf, and starting this thread.

I found greenhomebuilding dot com about five weeks ago when searching the net for information about building with COB. That is a great link with many great links on it at the bottom of their page.

 

I'm a Mother Earth new subscriber. I love it. It sure is a wonderful magazine. Actually, that is where I first learned about green home building, in an article about straw bale homes. I then saw a list of books for sale and became curious about COB. Back Home magazine (or Backhome ) is another magazine that I subscribe to with information about green home building and sustainable living.

 

Acres USA is a great magazine about organic farming , CSA's .....community supported agriculture, and major invironmental interests.

 

Rural Heritage a magazine with a website also, and Small Farmer's Journal , cover farming with draft animals and using hand tools on the homestead. There are articles about the simple life in them also.

I was suprised to learn that farming with draft animals is a viable alternative to using modern machinery. Having a background in the horse industry, I've formed quite an interest in farming with horses, oxen, or donkeys.

I should also point out that I believe that no-till, or no-dig farming and gardening is a good green choice. Animals may not need to do as much labor then, and niether humans.

I'm all for human power also, that is the greenest choice.

OK, I don't mean to be hijacking this thread. I just wanted to mention some great magazines like Mother Earth News out there that promote evironmentally concious living, and the benefits of living a quiet peacable life.

Back to Greenbuilding.

 

How about a small dome home made of COB? Is it possible. Dome shapes seem to look more organic and blend in with the shapes of nature, in my opinion. Also, I may not have to use as much wood in a structure if I could build a cob dome roof. I've heard of a vaulted cob roof, but some experts say that a cob roof could be very dangerous due to the weight. Dome shapes are quite strong. I'm intereted in hearing more opinions about cob roofs. I do know that adobe roofs exist.

 

Other than that, thatched roofs are quite natural. I'm concerned about fires though.

Living roofs are nice also, but may require industrial materials to build. I'd rather not use any industrial materials if I can help it.

 

What is a "derigible" living space as you have mentioned oldwolf?

As for my current location, COB would work best here in Texas. Adobe would work well in west Texas. Stone is possible also.

I am from southern Louisiana. I don't know if cob would work there, but I'd look into it.

I'm interested in smaller floor plans also. That is important when it comes to being resourceful.

I'm even interested in idiginous type shelters such as huts and lean-to's, but I'm concerned about pests and insects intering my shelter and scarring me or biting me.

 

Raw & natural -

heya - little mod blurb here - multiple posts are tedious and can be put under 1 - you have an edit button at the bottom of your post - you can add to it there - if someone answers in between another post makes sense but 7 posts in a row ?Please & thank you


derigible living space - with the new age plastic one could have a flexible able to expand skin covered with solar cells using hydrogen or Iwould prefer Brown's gas (HO as opposed to H2O2 which is explosive while HoO is not - but I do not think it is stable enough to maintain that state ( http://www.watertorch.com/whatis/whatis1.html ) I look to peddle power but making electric - which in turn with electrolisis can make hydrogen & oxygen and power a motoer - just like the isea of moving relatively slowly floating over the earth - for long trips would engage the motor ...
Drean on - aye ?

edit by way of update - emailed George Weisman (author of site mentioned) and he disillusioned me in 2 regards - browns gas is very explosive it is not much more boyant than air - it is stable when not under pressure and low temperature .... boy he got right back to me and I know he's very busy.

 

I'm sorry about the multiple posts. Things just kept comming to mind after posting. I didn't know about the edit option, but I'll use it in the future. Please forgive my mistake.

I'm looking forward to learning more about natural roofs for Cob homes. Thatching still seems to be the only way.

 

i prefer cob, with glass and whatnot recycled out of dumpsters. any type of wood from some broke pallets, unless its important and your gonna live there for a long time, then wait it out for some good wood.

 

I've always preferred cob over earthbag, becuase I felt that cob was more natural, but I'm beginning to like that fact that a dome eartbag structure needs no roofing.

 

I'm really considering building a sod house as a temporary shelter and then turning it into a root celar after the permanent buildings are in.

I spent a little time in one last weekend and it was really hot outside but nice and cool inside, enough light came in throught the canvas windows to see by and not at all hard to build. cheap, and once you have the sod, the place you took it from becomes your garden... not a bad plan.

just thought I'd mention it since I didn't see anyone mention it.