@BeachesIsland Yes, each citizen has that right … but getting to see your government representatives who will *LISTEN* VERSUS a well paid lobbyist who offers money *under the table* is A VERY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE.
So did apples, and a forest in South America, and the sound birds make (Before it becoming a letter of the alphabet), and a 1 with 100 zeros, and... Discord
I’d say make me one but Actually just teach me please. Might take me longer than 4-6 weeks to build a simple one. Older. Disabled. But will work and not afraid to what it takes but will need some help and willing to help others in return. Too bad jimmy carter didn’t get these types of homes into Habitat for Humanity instead of stick built homes. corporate greed
@bonnieklapel1825 While Adobe construction is awesome BUT access to modern infrastructure like roads, hospitals, grocery stores, schools and universities are not local. Carter had no choice but to build according to access.
These homes are not banned in the USA. You can get a permit for one of these homes through a group of lawyers that specilize in obtaining the permits. There are a lot of these types of houses in the USA, You can even watch people teaching you how to build on right here on RUclips.
Already homeless. 1 1/2 years. I need to figure out what Oregon allows and what material I can build with and find someplace I can afford to get some land. I can’t afford to buy a home at today’s prices. Nor would I buy one at these outrageous prices. Not worth it.
Adobe is actually extremely unlikely to collapse!!!😂 Profiteers of building codes and their structures are more likely to kill you! The "gassing off" of formaldehyde from chipboard and the health issues like cancer it causes are!!😮
Nothing. Everything good for the Oregonian population or us individually is all illegal. We’re not the most expensive place to live in the country but when you factor in what we get from our government, we are amongst the worst place to live. 43rd in return on investment 47th in education and we have the highest state income tax in the country
My grandfather built his house out of adobe more than 60 years ago. He sourced all the materials himself and its probably the best built house I've ever seen.
So if adobe is so good, why aren't they building with it in Taos today?? Cause it falls apart of it's not routinely entirely replastered on the outside annually . The historical buildings that are not on the plaza are all caving in after 100 years - like the St. Anthony's church in Questa, where the whole west wall just collapsed out after 150 years.
@philippolacek3475sure but it's literally dirt cheap and sustainable, I'm sure that it can theoretically be adapted to our modern world somehow to provide affordable housing. Also, 100 years is a long time. And in that timeframe, virtually any building will be in need of serious maintenance.
We have so many critics here that are self experts and think are smart but they aren’t; they are wrong. Many here think they’re experts but really have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about. Im 45 yrs and my grandpa’s house in Central America made of adobe has passed the tests of everything. Extremely high humidity with zero mold, hundreds of earthquakes and it’s still standing strong. 6 continuos months of rain every year and still strong. Granted it has been “repellada” which means stucco inside and outside but it was done only once and then painted over. So i do know the truth and what im talking about. These guys just love sounding like they’re smart but all they do is ridiculing others on things they know nothing about.
أنا من الصحراء الكبرى وتمّ دفع مجتمعنا قبل فقط ثلاثون سنة إلى هذه البوت الخرسانية القبيحة والملوّثة للبيئة .... وذات التكلفة الجنونية والخسارة الطاقوية ... وزمن البناء الطويل ...بعد أن كنّا لمئات السنين نبني بيوت نظيفة واسعة واجميلة ومتينة وذات تكلفة رخيصة جدا ويبنى في أسبوعين على الأكثر ...ويمكنك أن تمضي فيه الصيف في أشدّ المناطق حرّا على وجه الأرض بدون أي تكييف ...حيث أن غرفه باردة في الصيف دافئة في الشتاء ...أنا كشاب ... لا يمكن إلا أنّ أغتاظ من ذلك وأحتار ماالذي دفعنا لهذا ...وما الذي يرغمني على خسارة وقتي وجهدي ومالي لشيء قبيح كذلك وخاسر كذلك.
@االزواريى من فضلك اخي الكريم انا كذلك اعيش في منطقه حاره جدا و رطوبه مرتفعه جدا هل من الممكن أن تعطيني كم درجه الحراره الداخليه لديك فأنا لا استطيع تحمل ارتفاع الحراره في المنزل و شكرا لك
@OYME13 traditional adobe would not survive well east of the Mississippi in general. If you are interested look into hyperadobe, cordwood homes, earthbag homes, and earthships. You'll find a broad variety of building materials and styles that can be used in your area with proper construction and exterior materials.
If you ever find yourself asking the question about society "Why is X the way it is?", 99% of the time, the answer is "someone is making money from it".
Also, it is wealth consolidation at the cost of the working people. I think personally the wealthy would not care if most of us were sick or dead. Look at all the toxins in the food supply, the building industry, big pharma, especially in the US.
@sophiapaulekas4767the realy rich ones are evil and totalitarian. They think they are superior to anyone and want to prove that by any means. And on top of that there is some of them that are realy satanists who wants to drop the humanity numbers because they think like Thanos 😅
@gahpetenuci The way the population curve is, I think it's more the opposite. Just fund countries and promote cultures with no contraception products and wait...
@KatjaZabloudoskyexactly. What do you need insurance for the structure when it only cost a few hundred dollars upwards of a thousand to build. You need only insure your private property inside. The building gets destroyed build another. You can insure expensive electronics and valuables directly. Basically anything worth more than around 200 bucks. Anything less valuable than that can be replaced really cheaply and affordably if it's destroyed in a cave in or something. I honestly would build one like this and then stuff it full of cheap used furniture I got either from the side of the road or off Craigslist or Facebook marketplace.
@KatjaZabloudosky yup I can confirm, my house is made out of brick, adobe and cement, its really comfortable, a bit cold on winter but its easier to heat a house than to cool it without having massive electricity bills haha
I learned the worst way, It just requires a little more work but it's doable. A rock foundation to not let it touch the ground plus a roof that extends a bit so the rain doesn't touch the walls.
@hii@hiiiimkat1 drywall is susceptible to turning moldy in humid climates, less so than adobe, though. Solid brick is probably the best material for humid climates, imo
You are assuming they look like the buildings presented in this clip. They do not. A mud house is a mud house. It looks like a mud house. If you want it to look like a "normal" house, you have to pay more than 300$ for it.
“You don’t need home insurance if your home is made of stone brick alloys…” USA homes are literally constructed from materials which indentify closer to combustible accelerants than “BUILDING MATERIALS” WTF
Sorry, cool is the absence of heat. It doesn't "charge" anything. The wall gives off heat at night until the sun rises and starts heating the wall again.
Also, you do NOT need home insurance if your mortgage is completely paid off. USA's homes are constructed for business purposes, e.g., all wood frame for termites, and the termite extermination business is a multi-billion dollar industry!
@googolpi Home insurance is still needed for repairs, replacement, and liability. You don't need mortgage insurance. Yes, US homes continue to be made mostly out of fire wood and termite food, and can be susceptible to tornado and wind damage. Few are made from concrete, masonry, and steel.
@jayejaycurry5485It costs 25% more in total to be built out of Masonry. Try getting a quote for one, its very expensive and timelines are outrageous. You basically have to build through owner exemptions in like Tennessee. Outside the south, no other place allows owner builder exemptions or at least its very rare.
@jayejaycurry5485You can literally get a quote for masonry home but it not cheap at all. Your Foundations have to be deeper, more steel and a very high labor rates. Its basically expensive to do so no one except rich bureaucrats do so. And also concrete building takes longer so you pay more in interest to the bank.
I'm from El Salvador and there growing up I always wondered why my abuelita's house was always cool and felt great and our house was always a fucking oven... Her's was made from adobe and when my bare feet touched the floor in that house it felt amazing, like an oasis in an unbearable heat, shit this video made me so nostalgic from those times.
@eulyer3722 that's simply not true. As stated in the video, there is seismic activity in New Mexico and those modern earthen buildings are still standing with no problem. As are the multitude of abandon ones left behind by the tribes who inhabited them eons ago.
I have absolutely no doubt that greed plays a huge role in the suppression of reasonable legislation and property valuation for adobe buildings. That said, I think this video goes a bit far in presenting adobe as a miracle building material, superior in all respects and in all places to all alternatives. Adobe buildings are great for dry, equatorial climates with relatively low seasonal temperature swings. The video does a great job of explaining that adobe can regulate temperature because of something called **thermal mass**, which is the ability of earthen (and stone) structures to slowly absorb heat and slowly release it over a period of time. Adobe buildings have high thermal mass, but relatively poor insulation. This means that if you're in a climate where it gets very warm during the day, and very cold at night, you can mostly rely on the thermal mass to absorb heat during the day, keeping the interior cool, and release that heat at night, keeping the interior warm. If, however, you live in a climate where temperature swings are seasonal, you're going to need proper insulation. Anywhere near or above the Canadian border, you're looking at winter seasons of anywhere between 3-6 months of the year, where daytime temperatures do not rise enough for the thermal mass to absorb enough heat to avoid the need for active heating. Active heating an adobe building that has no additional insulation is basically like slowly heating the outdoors. The process works almost in reverse of what you get in climates with warm days and cool nights: instead, you run your fireplace or your furnace 24/7, and the thermal mass slowly expels it out into the world. Additionally, adobe has fantastic compressive strength, but poor lateral stability. The use of proper construction techniques can mitigate these problems in buildings built in ideal climates for adobe, but the problem is made worse in more humid climates, where - without proper weather treatments, like stucco, lime plaster, or added cement - moisture and freeze/thaw cycles can significantly degrade adobe's lateral stability. The last thing is that these buildings take a lot of muscle to build. Which is great, where time and labour are cheap, and materials are expensive, but not ideal when these conditions are reversed. All these reasons are why you actually **do not** see adobe buildings throughout all times and places, even in antiquity, and instead see people using all kinds of different materials and construction methods throughout history. Log cabins with stone fireplaces in northern regions like Scandinavia, wood and stone in much of China, and stone, wood, adobe and concrete in ancient Rome. Modern construction methods, I will happily agree, do not always take full advantage of ancient knowledge of how to do climate control without central heating/cooling systems. The advantages of thermal mass are too frequently ignored, and too little consideration is given to how to build for energy efficiency. All that said, you can't blame modern North American building codes for ancient Chinese, Roman, or Nordic peoples opting for wood, stone, or concrete rather than adobe, and I think this video would be a lot stronger and come across less as a conspiratorial diatribe if it did include some of the cost/benefit or drawbacks of adobe, especially when making the choice of how to build in different climactic regions.
The south is mostly clay. Should be cause to relocate. If you arent building to sell. Youre building to live for generations. Just hide it. We have homesteading exemptions in certain states. In alabama the only permit required is the septic. Get the permit and install septic first. Then build what you want. Selling it may be impossible though. But again. Is this a house or an investment. Actually i think in 2021 alabama made adobe builds completely legal. Without requiring expensive engineering. Just do it.
@TomBaker-l4e yeap. Adobe bricks aren't known for surviving the tropics and rain. You'll need modern cement and waterproofing for that. Its a DESERT building material for a reason. If you build an Adobe house in Hawaii you'd end up with a mole hill by the end of the monsoon.
@TomBaker-l4ewhile adobe might not work in wet/humid climates. There are alternatives that are just as cheap and good. Who can withstand those climates. Look up: earthbag, superadobe, compressed earth blocks(CEB homes)
@PriscillaKaye the whole clippy pfp thing is protesting big tech corporations, including Microsoft. Clippy was hated back in the day, but compared to what the companies are like today, he’s a saint.
What are you talking about? You can "legally build" this way anywhere in USA. It's no different than building a treehouse or a fort. There are only 2 steps to the process. Step 1. Purchase a few acres of land. Step 2. Build whatever structure you want.
adobe buildings are definitely not cheap to build. I helped to build one once. The materials are kinda cheap if you get hand on straw bales from some nearby farmer but it needs at least 2x times more work to finish it. We spend 2 1/2 months in 3 people to erect 2 rooms cottage.
(1) It called artificial scarcity (2) Its corruption from the top (3) They complain about people living off a countries safety net. (4) The question is who are the scammers
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
@FromPovertyToProgress I'll wager there's cost effective ways to produce adobe with machinery now (concrete mixer and a loader and a conveyer place molds on and take off with a fork lift...) we mass produce everything why not no bake easy make brickery. Clay is one of the most abundant resources on earth and any suitable organic material is easy to get. I personally have seen three story Adobe buildings in the Middle East that use cheap concrete and wire cage pillars for load bearing and the rest is mud brick and they survive earthquakes.
@RickyBobby-z9v I think @FromPovertyToProgress has a point. I've been telling everyone who'd listen (and quite a few who wouldn't) that building underground or partially underground (earth-sheltered) creates a maintenance-free home that costs almost nothing to heat or cool. It doesn't matter. When the nephews needed homes for their young families, they each just poured a slab and plonked a manufactured home on top that they'll need to keep heated all winter and air-conditioned all summer. They even have all the earth-moving equipment (either owned by them or that they can borrow from their circle of friends). It just didn't appeal to them. They wanted the wife and kids to have a house ASAP and they wanted it cheap. That's the thing about building for yourself or to sell to families. Everybody wants it NOW. Meanwhile, I've been dreaming about building homes this way my whole life, but just never quite had the opportunity. I, too, needed to get into a home and get my life going. Closest I got was making sure my places came with full basements. Saved a lot of money heating and cooling by fixing up the downstairs and hanging out down there. Small victories. The desert Southwest... All the single-family dwellings should adobe or earth-sheltered, or both. It's a perfect climate for passive heating and cooling. Hide from the Sun in summer. Glory in the Sun in winter. But everybody's got an aboveground cracker box that they spend hundreds of dollars every month to heat and cool. Everybody's dependent on the same central grid. It's actually kind of terrifying, especially for the people stuck in the cities, which most people are. Out on the fringes of civilization, we have our own problems, but we have lots of alternatives. Me, personally, I just keep adding features to the place I bought. It'll never be perfect, but it grabs more sun in winter (strategic window installs). In a couple years, I'll bury some air pipes to get the passive geothermal thing going. Last year, I converted an open pole building into an enclosed workshop/greenhouse. Taking what's there and throwing some money and labor at it. I think it's really all about putting your labor into it. That's where you get something for nothing, because the time spent puttering on the place is recreational. Some say it's spiritual. I won't be here, forever, but somebody will think "That guy was really cool! He put a lot of thought into this beautiful thing/place, for us to enjoy after he was gone."
@FromPovertyToProgress ya, also using modern electricity and plumbing in an adobe house is an issue too. It can be done, but the house needs to be built around some of these things, and plumbing leaks can be disastrous as moisture is the enemy of adobe. There's a reason why it works fine in third world countries with smaller dwellings, but not when trying to build middle class+ neighborhoods with modern amenities.
Great video, very informative. I live in NM. We have thousands of adobe structures throughout the state. It is cheap and efficient. With the current housing shortage and materials costs astronomical, Americans should start demanding their local governments allow inexpensive , natural building methods.
I fought for this country. I watched my brothers die for this country. I’ve been permanently damaged for this country. Myself and so many of the people I love have sacrificed so much, sometimes their lives, for this country. We did this because we believed in “freedom”. We believed we were sacrificing so that our countrymen, our families, and ourselves could be “free”. Now, with every passing day, I realize more and more that the “freedom” we fought for was all a lie. We don’t have the freedom in this country that we’ve always been told we have. We may have some freedom, but most of the freedom in this country must be purchased. The rest of us are prisoners of the economy. The American dream is only afforded to those who find a way to become rich and stay rich without working. That means an extremely small number of people in this country actually enjoy the freedoms that all the rest of us provide them. Most of us are worker bees, slaving away so that an extremely small number of people can enjoy the “freedoms” the rest of us ensure them. All the “freedoms” we claim to have are pretty much illusory. They only exist when it’s convenient, and will be essentially taken when necessary. Freedom of speech? Sure, kinda. Your entire livelihood, income, safety, and pursuit of happiness can be stripped away overnight because of your speech, so I’m not sure it actually exists the way we like to think. Sure, the government can’t prosecute you, but why would they need to? That’s just one example. When it comes to this subject, freedom is very limited. Even on your own land, you can’t just build your own home. You have to play the game and the game is expensive. Depending on the state, you can’t even live in an RV on your own property. That’s absolutely insane, and there’s no valid reason for it. We don’t have much at all in the way of freedom in the US. The only way to have freedom is to get out of cities and make it for yourself. Even then, you still have to play the game carefully.
Now if you want a home in a city where you can have a career, a moldy shack, where you can literally see daylight through cracks in the walls or ceiling, will cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. I hate this world.
I live in Mexico and have a 3 story bovada-brick dome-in my living room. Not only is it stunning to look at, it keeps house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I need to wear a sweater while my friends that live in contemporary houses need to run the AC. Bovadas are also known as “Spanish Arches” and have been around thousands of years.
investigating building a home of this kind in Mexico. Did you build it yourself or did you have it built. How does it hold up with earthquakes, insects and rain? What area of Mexico are you living? I am in rural Mexico in Oaxaca.
You have absolutely no idea how labor intensive it is to build one of these things. Does bricks are HEAVY and those walls are more than a foot thick. It takes a lot of brick to make a house like this and labor is not free. It's either going to take a single person many many months of working all day everyday (time is money) just to assemble the construction materials or it's going to cost them a lot more money than it would for a bit of wood.
Give credit where credit is due , they had no intentions to SWEAT / WORK , so they learned from the devil the art of en-slaveing , thereby force others to work for them .
"Self-sufficient" is what Carl Sagan was responding to with "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch." Pretending that the parts of state and society you want to take for granted don't count is as misleading as assuming that the corporate-capitalist state ultimately has any loyalty to anyone but the landlords and profiteers.
In Poland, we build houses out of brick but adobe is becoming used as internal plaster. It controls humidity inside, it sinks in when it's too high and give back when it's low. I've heard it creates very pleasant climate to live in. Also building out of clay isn't prohibited and it's very rare but there are houses out of clay. Unfortunately in my area there is no adobe in the ground.
@lol-ih4wy Bruh, first of all it's almost the same tech. Second of all, it's 2026. Nah, Poland belongs to IMF debt system just the same as you, perhaps in different modalities but nevertheless same swamp that previous, oh sorry current president of US promised to clear. Yeah, west is fudged, global south is fudged by what the west did to the south and then to the west... you see we are all FUGDED Welcome on the same boat
I just started working at the adobe brick making business you featured in this video, Tucson Adobe - they’re great people. I will say that costs for labor should be factored in as brick making, building and ongoing maintenance are major time consuming activities. Also, an argument can be made for cement stabilized adobes as they provide more strength and resist water damage which is something that traditional adobes can’t do. This means the exterior can remain unplastered, a major time and cost saver.
Yeah, I love this method and all, but there is no way a 1500sqft Adobe house is being built in 2-6 weeks by owner/builders. There is a fantastic amount of work that is involved just digging the clay up, not to mention kneading it into bricks and then aligning and stacking. It would take much more than a few people to meet that timeline and some powered equipment. I think folks are underestimating how much labor this really is.
My country has a lot of rain. Someone started building a mud brick straw house 20 years ago, finished it a few years ago. By putting a layer of cement over the outside, it withstands rain. It's a nice house. Warm in winter, cool in summer. Took a long time for one person to make though.
The man you quote at the end, Nader Khalili, was the inventor of Superadobe (Earthbag Construction). I met him ~1999 at Cal-Earth (the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture). He was wonderful! FYI: If you go there, don't ever call the material "dirt" - you will be corrected to call it "earth" 😊
The biotect (biological architect) Michael Reynolds has been building and advocating EARTHSHIPS much sooner than 1999. Used tires and other recyclable materials. Taos, New Mexico Taos FINALLY allowed an Earthship community once Reynolds agreed (thru forced coercion) to put into place the "appropriate development infrastructure - roads, hydrants, et al", all of which utterly unnecessary. There was a long ago completed Earthship down the dirt road my father bought land on in Placitas, NM... in 1985. We moved to Albuquerque in '72. It's all "the same" - use what's around you - including trees when applicable. Just examples of why capitalism and continuous consumption isn't always in humanity's best interests.
@jaredouradaThere is a family on here that has built a whole compound of sandbag structures. They have many children and each one gets their own bedroom separate when they reach a certain age. I believe they are in arizona. 💜💜💜 J4P J4C
@62Movement Yeah, I went down there (near Taos) a couple of times and met Mike Reynolds back in the 90s (before he lost his license). I was just pointing out Nader Khalili's name since he was quoted but not named (and I'm realizing now that I had typos in his name, so I'll edit to fix that). [Edit: I was mistaken ... he WAS named in this video.] There are tons of good methods for building that are extremely sustainable. Most of them ARE quite labor intensive, but well worth it. Edit: P.S,: Khalili invented superadobe around 1984, and founded Cal-Earth in 1991 ... but **I** didn't go there until 1999. And yes, Earthship biotecture came before superadobe.
@jaredourada That would be "hyperadobe" (if they were the red bags instead of the white ones) which came after "superadobe" ... similar methods, but different material used for the "bags" --- I don't think I saw that in this particular video. Edit: I watched this again to find it. I didn't see any superadobe, but I found hyperadobe at 19:34 for just a second (red bag material method, which is a different material than the white ones).
I’m in San Miguel CA. The local Catholic mission was constructed using Adobe and repairs are ongoing and construction is still Adobe. It’s over 300 years old but it’s been around much longer than the stick built houses here . I’m 2 blocks away from this place.
Imagine not having to pay the added expense of heating/cooling your house. You would only pay for the light you use and maybe only at night considering you could strategically place skylights. It's definitely something to think about.
I live in the Northeast so this wouldn’t work for me but my brick home has MUCH smaller hvac bills than my family in wood frame houses. Just food for thought
I live in this kind of house, in my country in rural areas most houses are made like this, it's awesome because the walls are thick and it doesn't take long to heat up during the Winter and it stays cool during Summers, in bigger houses it's even cold during Summers lol.
It would be quite the opposite actually! It would make it much more difficult for the heat to seep out of the house. Similar to how its great at keeping heat out, interior wise that means its great at storing heat inside!
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
@FromPovertyToProgressyou’re brainwashed keep telling yourself these stories. I agree it’s not full on illegal to use cobb but they definitely try to make it super difficult.
or just stop using the increasingly useless currency/money and find yourself a better economy. the govt has mismanaged the usd for the longest time. its circulating supply and the policy around it is pretty much compromised at this point. the more people linger to govt products, the more brazen it gets. this is due to there being neither feedback, natural selection nor significant usurpers to their system. the country runs on fumes and sunk-cost fallacy should've bottomed out a decade ago.
And there's no greater example of that than gov't - they steal through tax, through counterfeiting currency, through fees, through licensing - then they get their corp cronies to do the dirty work so they can claim their hands are clean. It's WWF writ large to live off the back of the people who never needed them in the first place.
Today we built houses with the cheapest and quickest material ever only to then having to install heater and air conditioner which both expensive to operate and maintain. It's almost they are creating problems and sell us the solutions
didnt you watch the video? you dont build by the cheapest and quickest materials... you build by what the industry and your corrupt politicians WANT you to use for building.
@JhennyMo you didnt say "crap" :D you said "cheapest and quickest" - very unlucky if the video itself demonstrates what actually is the cheapest and quickest and why its superb XD
@seraphimsixty613I beg to differ. Adobo is indeed cheap but it's not quick. You're too focused on the video. In Asia or middle east, houses are made with bricks and concrete whereas in America they're made from woods and dry wall. That's what i meant by cheap and quick which translate to "crap".
We keep paying they keep bombing other countries. Only few are benefiting in this earth. You’re gone be a slave to work and pay or you’re gone be killed as a part of your country with resources. And we still allow this people to lead us.
Hmmmm, make the house for less than $1,000, pay $25k+ in fees. I built an everlasting house for my bloodline for generations to come for only $30k-$50k , worth it.
@ASJyirod Zero chance the "adobe" buildings in the video cost any where close to $1000. The construction numbers are grossly misrepresented! Plumbing, electrical, doors, windows each add thousands to the cost and we didn't even start to discuss labor costs. Those bricks don't dig and form themselves much less stack and install.
@bhough410bro, we simply just talking about the actually cost it is to dig up good mud and mix it with sand and straw and water…that’s literally nothing financially. Utilities are utilities yes, but the actual materials to make foundations, walls and roofs/ceilings aren’t expensive in traditional/classic adobe home construction.
I live in an 5 story house bulid in 1898. Wood, clay, bricks and wood. Fassade with clinker. The roof after this long time is first time made new with the same roof tiles. Inside the climat is very comfortable, it stays longer cold in hot summer as well longer warm on cold days in the winter, never moldy, windows from 1980tis still good, not too sealed. So that the house can breath. An large beautiful tiled stove for wood is still there for cosy days. Maybe some days I need new windows. They from the 1980tis. But a recent check was positiv. All is good for the next decade or more. No new house in my neighborhood can compete with theses 128 year old buildings. Sad that those architectures will not constructed anymore. Where? In Germany.
I have an imperfect memory of living in an adobe brick house when my family lived in Tucson. Also, that all of the residential homes were made of adobe brick. I have zero memory of running air conditioner or of my mother ever yelling "Shut the damn door! You're letting the cool air out!"
Monolithic adobe is in the ICC 2021 and has been adobted by many manicipalities across the united states. Currently building a full sized cob house in southern midwest. Its gaining acceptance. Although in order to build an actually long term sustainable house given a variable climate, theres a lot more to be done than just stacking "free" adobe bricks. Its aboslutely cheaper but its no where near as cheap as this video makes it out to be. But yea currently budgeting $50k for a ~1400 sqaure foot house including all modern amenities. There are plenty of self regulating temperature advtanges to cob but its not magic. Insulation is still needed if you live in a moderate climate(straw bale or light straw clay).
That's what bothered me about the video. "$0.03 a brick" I guess if you don't value in your own time and labor. And you don't want plumbing or electric.
@sleepysentretthe location is a lot of that price tag too. I know a guy who has basically a mansion out in the sticks that's worth 400k, bought my house in the suburbs for 200k in 2019, and I have family who spent over 800k on a glorified shack next to a lake
@circlingoverland4364definitely. I live in the midwest in an area that use to be well below the average cost of living but has shot up to above average in the past 5 years. And the average house price is $260k. Clay is cheap and heavy machinery/concrete is cheap.
lol that's like asking why an igloo is "banned" from being built and used as house in LA. Go ahead and do that pile of mud in the middle of NYC and tell me how much "free heat" you get.
Cold weather insulation, earthquake zones, ground water erosion, and relatively high maintenance are the only weaknesses of 2 foot thick adobe walls I am aware of. They can be dealt with.
Remember when the govt (federal/state/local) and corporate America use "safety" to make ridiculous laws, it means that they want more taxes and wealth transfer!
Back in the day they sold a spot in the good place in the after life, now it’s security/future because people don’t fall for d superstitions and myths. Same story different version
Adobe literally is just mud.... You can do exactly the same, and build your own home and everything with actual wood you grow, stone, etc. build it yourself with those videos... But adobe bricks were literally only used because they couldn't use stone or wood. It's the off brand **off brand** version of clay... And our ancestors used a material similar to mud clay mixture for the interior heating, but added wheat, wood, and stone to hold formation and keep structure and walls.... When "they" aka a safety inspector, says you can not because it's literally not safe. It's because your "adobe house" can, and will, break down onto itself within a years time.
@c@cerealguy6359 Theres a reason why build codes exist and thats because people died or lived in terrible living conditions. Its one thing to say that developers or corporations skimped out on the housing budget and tried to cram as many people into a singular apartment room as possible, but its another situation entirely when someone builds their house out of a material that is literally mud in a place known for getting heavy winds and rain such as San Antonio which is Sub Tropical. Depending on the climate certain materials are just not good at all, and are genuinely not safe to use. You guys are just getting mad because your being forced to spend money to make sure your house is actually good or at the least being forced to pay someone to check your house won’t burn down from improper wiring or wash away in the next rain storm.
You realize most local governments are actually interested in making sure their housing is actually good and can last. Thats because they often times have family and friends who will eventually move into those houses? Theres a reason why aluminum isn’t allowed to be used in wiring for houses and thats because houses kept burning down due to Aluminums lower conductivity. It genuinely is a situation of concern for safety.
@superturkeylegs Moisture moves through the walls as vapor, but then again humidity would, to some degree, prevent the vapor from escaping, and may wet the clay, at which point it will either collapse after a while, or somehow be able to hold it all in until the humidity stops, at which point it will have held so much vapor that I bet it will become humid again for at least an hour, eventually leaving the surrounding areas with only a bit of humidity if by the humidity stopping we mean it fully going away. Summer after summer, year after year, the structural integrity slowly strips away the natural ac advantage, until one bad storm strips away the structural integrity of the place, to collapse some time soon. Either way, the Adobe style was made in the desert for a reason.
@superturkeylegs There a lot of techniques/recipes from high humidity places with traditional adobe building. Most of the time is just adding baba de nopal (cactus sap) mixed with lime as a ending plaster, some places even use beeswax.
@SolarisJustitia Adobe houses exist in tropical environments, just the construction styles are different and the recipes for the adobe add some ingredients like nopal or cattle manure.
These designs work well for the climate and time they were constructed - with changing climates and typically wetter, they will not perform the same. They are absolutely not a complete solution to every situation, and building codes look to address this. The costs and red tape associated with this not only stifle competition for materials but increase costs tenfold, but overall the idea is the stock of buildings are improved and fit for purpose in many environments. This obviously didn't eventuate due to the top to bottom corruption present in the US, but the idea of standards shouldn't be rejected outright. It is interesting that the footage you show in this video is pretty much just modern construction, some of it not even mud brick. I think anyone interested in this that lives in a lower rainfall climate should absolutely give it a go, but there are 100% drawbacks that you will experience
Yeah, this is a good caveat to attach to the video's premise. It's absolutely not a universal solution, and it's disingenuous to not mention the drawbacks. That being said, I still think it should be a more widely considered solution. I live in the southwest, the benefits of an adobe construction home are obvious to me.
Kind of. The real reason why this is impressive is due to proximity. Obviously they would not survive a direct impact, but it’s impressive that they survived in close enough proximity where the blast and shrapnel would have considerable impact on the building. The shockwave can reach levels of intense earthquakes depending on the size of ordinance. It’s still impressive, nonetheless
What evidence do we have to suggest the adobe buildings shown were in proximity of the fighting? As far as I know these buildings are from different countries. I looked for news articles covering this and didn't find anything. One would think something like this would be very news worthy. Given how little research the creator put into the rest of the video, I'm not very likely to believe his claim on this. 😊
@foundingfarther It would not be news worthy in the slightest. GWOT was a war that spanned 2 decades, multiple countries, and many regions within said countries. Government buildings were subject to U.S. strikes more times than 10 people can count on both hands. You are not likely to find these reported anywhere except for Al Jazeera, and even then you’d need to know the exact date. Large scale reporting mostly stopped after around 2008. Updates on GWOT were few and far between. It is not likely that the buildings shown in the video have any relation, but the information still holds up. These buildings are very prominent in the region, and have been subject to fighting for many decades. Government buildings are typically in extremely close proximity to residential and commercial buildings. You can find countless bits of footage of what was described in the video. These buildings withstand huge shockwaves and shrapnel from massive air strikes. I can speak for my personal experience as someone formerly a noncombatant in the Middle East who has witnessed several bouts of warfare from around 2006-2017.
The main reason that I have little faith in any of our institutions: making common-sense solutions illegal is considered standard practice, as long as the alternative is lucrative enough.
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
The people who built that house knew what they were doing, and had to live with the burden of consequences of any errors they made. The average American home owner is completely clueless about how to maintain anything.
I have mold illness and am finding it impossible to find a place to live that doesn't make me sick and you're right. People do not properly take care of their homes. If it's not water damage, bad roof, it's the HVAC system not cleaned properly or a bunch of other issues. I've gone to look at places to rent and they're literally missing caulking around the tub and around a bunch of the shower wall tiles and still using the shower like nothing is wrong! 😮 When I mentioned it as the reason I wouldn't be renting they tried gaslighting me into saying that they just worked on the shower and there wasn't a problem. Smfh. I was in a hospital that was missing an entire tile of the shower wall and were also using it like it was no problem! People are brain dead.
Maybe if there was mandated learning about housing maintenance people would actually know the quality of their houses. People are unaware and the building industry takes advantage of it.
@KierstenJ-m4pwell to be fair the reason most dont complain about that is because they dont have such a specialized illness. Your right, it shouldn't matter but because your probably the only one to ever call some of these people out, they go all Pikachu face
That 3-5% cement added into the adobe bricks can also be added straight to cob, for those in wetter climates. it turns it into like, a stone composite. Though I still recommend a solid water-proof foundation of stone or another water-proof material. This information was lost to both the natural building community and the standard builders. It can be used to harden any mud building mix. It can replace straight concrete too, like if you want a garden wall, it can be made of cob with that3-5% cement added and it will be a strong garden wall. A little goes a long way in clay building. For those who didn't know. Cement is basically just fired clay with a bit of lime added in.
You can also mix a slight percent of limestone into the mix so it self heals when cracks eventually form This is what kept the Roman buidlinga standing for thousands of years
No, you can't, it destroys the thermal capacity and its process for water to move from inside to outside. Don't add cement to Adobe, you're just destroying its properties.
@The_Accolade_1901 Yes, I can. And so can you! I said for wet areas, places that can't use cob. But want a cheap way to build a house. One can add a small amount of cement to the cob, so the weather doesn't turn it back into mud. Don't pretend to be ignorant like that
most of it built on a lie and suppressing better more effective ways. Look at how they tried to RAM electric cars down our throats. This same thing was done with Gas cars but it actually worked, there are other ways to power vehicles like steam and water
My colleague in Sudan just pondered on how her father was an official adobe builder, how the one room in their home stood strong while all other buildings in the street fell done in a flood, how adobe houses needed no cooling or heating, were sound proof, and during wars bullet proof.
@3:49 That is rammed earth, which is how I built my home 40 years ago, before my County had a building department. Rammed earth is now only for the wealthy to have Trophy Mansions. I recently self-retired from architectural design because of the bleeping building departments, which is why there is no affordable housing.
A few of the other pictures in the video look like rammed earth too but it can be hard to tell. (For those who don't know, rammed earth is essentially the same as adobe except it's monolithic, made in situ as a single structure rather than from individual bricks.)
@tessjuel There is much less clay percentage for rammed earth, too much and it sticks to the ram head and does not compact well. A Chino Valley AZ architect developed a system using gypsum for an additive, blown into forms like gypcrete.
I’ve lived in New Mexico for almost four years and didn’t know about this. I stayed a night in The Phoenix at Earthship and it was amazing, 38° overnight while remaining 70° indoors without a mechanical heating system rattling away… Subscribed
6:50 I think the only addition that I would make for my own self, is some kind of solid roof to protect the bricks from water. And honestly, I think you could probably get away with building one of these houses if you know the right people and just put siding on the outside so nobody knows.... I'm not suggesting that you do anything illegal, I'm just suggesting that you can know the right people and do this at the right place at the right time if you're particularly lucky...
In the UK Building Regulations cover Cob(Adobe) construction, and it doesn't require the addition of the 24a 'reinforcements, that is mainly because the designs here are hybrid designs that has Cob External/internal Walls with floors suspended from those walls.
@donperegrine922 Just had to flee Texas due to the violence and constant government interference. Folks like this learn the laws will affect them when, 17 years later, some Texan suit shows up with a fine. They're only actually good at marketing... More expensive than NYC when you account for wage averages vs cost of living.
Major earthquakes with significant casualties in adobe-heavy regions include: Guatemala (1976): A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck, with adobe structures destroying nearly all rural homes, resulting in over 23,000 deaths. Many victims were killed as their homes collapsed on them while sleeping. Peru (2007): The 7.9 magnitude Pisco earthquake destroyed nearly 100,000 homes, most of which were adobe, leading to 593 deaths. Morocco (1960): The 5.75 magnitude Agadir earthquake destroyed the city's old adobe quarters, killing roughly 20,000 people (one-third of the population) in just 12 seconds. El Salvador (2001): Earthquakes in 2001 caused "disproportionate damage" and high mortality rates, with almost all collapsed buildings in affected areas being unreinforced adobe. Turkey (2010): A 6.0 magnitude quake in Kovancılar resulted in 42 deaths, with the highest devastation found in stone and adobe villages. Key Reason for High Fatalities Low Strength: Unreinforced adobe walls are weak in tension and shear.
@sparksmcgee6641 Adobe brick is very different than cob structures. I did not lie, cob is monolithic. Brick is one of the most dangerous earthquake materials and that is why people have moved to steel frame construction. And yet we understand brick is a perfectly fine building material in the west.
@jackeilhigh worse part yet, is giving your money to people who don't care about your comfort but rather giving it all to a zio entity in the middle east...
Checking facts: 1) In other parts of the world like Europe, clay bricks are still common, but not "adobe" but as burned clay brick. Don't worry, they make building even more expensive in other ways. 2) Unburned clay structures doesn't work in more cold and wet clima as well. Afaik USA has different clima zones as well. Banning something in general is very often a bad idea. Making it much harder to buy firearms in contrary might be a better idea, but same story here: Big industrie...
Many States have building codes for earthen construction. I am currently building with compressed earthen blocks (CEB). Think compressed adobe. Soil from my property, a bit of lime, a bit of cement and a bit of water. Mix well and then compressed under 2k lbs of pressure.
@latinlover769 No rebar required. I am required to use wire ladder every five layers of block. I used rebar in my footer foundation, stem wall and will use rebar when I pour the concrete bond beam at the top of the wall.
@ShoNuffSoulBro1 Just search for ‘Compressed Earth Blocks’. There are a couple machine manufacturers out there. Mine is a relatively small one that produces about two per minute. It is a matter of keeping the mixer filled with the ingredients; sifted soil, cement, lime, and water in the correct proportions.
This misses the point. Lawyers and judges are nothing more than grifters. The only law that has any true meaning and value is the kind humans can observe and participate in, but have ZERO say in.
Adobe does not handle seismic events well. There is a method called SCIP that leverages the strengths of adobe and structural integrity of reinforced concrete.
Thank you so very much for this valuable information. I’m so grateful. It might just help me to build my own home in my old age. I’ve always wanted a small affordable home of my own. May be the Powers that be Bless you a thousand fold for this information.
Agreed! Yet in my older age, i consider being in a distant remote area where Adobe *might* be allowed, contrary to medical care and infrastructure needs...
After WWll my uncle and his brother built several home in Orovile Ca a couple were of adobe construction, The earth material was taken from a nearby rivert bank west of town
A) walls don’t need to breath (unless the criminal industry admits their SOP is clearly flawed yet mandated) b) 10 foot minimum overhangs eliminates need for rain gutters and keeps water away from foundation
Yes. Large overhang makes lime plaster redundant and unneeded. Lime plaster can be reserved for small exterior walls used for gardens/privacy. Interior floors can be made of clay and "wax sealed" as well for a nice warm and clean moppable floor
Keep in mind that this method becomes one of the most expensive there is when you don't have access to free labor and your local soil isn't suitable so clay has to be sourced from far away and driven there in trucks. I investigated it 2 decades ago when Earthships were popular and for Florida it's simply not financially viable even at the individual scale and functionally impossible to scale up to a housing system for half a million new residents a year.
Adobe needs to be engineered property to be resistant to earthquakes. Really only involves incorporating hog wire in walls and roof counter leverage so the walls are not pushed in or outward. Still not expensive.
This video raised my spirits, and made me feel like vomiting, screaming in fury, and crying, all at once. It makes total sense, all around. It makes me wish Malcolm Wells, grandfather of underground houses, were still alive. (Although I wouldn't wish that on him for other reasons.) I built a 5000 square foot esrth sheltered/underground house in the Fingerlakes region of New York state. It was a functional work of art looking out over beautiful Cayuga Lake. I started designing it in 1968, and got my certificate of occupancy for it in 2008. It was constructed of poured, reinforced concrete, with about 5' of earth on the Styrofoam insulated roof. It has 19 Solatubes, huge windows [dictated by zoning codes, based on square footage]. It cost me $1.5 million to build, which did not include the land. I could have built a village like it, in New Mexico. Without the lake view, of course. But it would have provided so much more for so many good souls! I know, I know. "Of all sad words of thought or pen, the saddest of these are, 'It might have been.'" Maybe what I did will plant a seed for the future. After all, look how long it has taken the astonishing decades of brilliance and dedication for the vision of one giant of Egyptian architecture to be manifest in the American Southwest, thanks to one student whose biography I hope you will someday create for us! And WHAT A COMPELLING VIDEO you have produced! I will forward it to everyone I know who might be moved by it! And I will watch it and weep again, and again. THANK YOU!🙏🙏🙏
@grovermartin6874likely because they are a part of the corruption, the machine that scams people all over the world! I've personally verified dozens of this videos statements. Anyone with a modicum of integrity and intelligence knows posts like this are a desperate attempt to sway the weak minded to dismiss it. Fortunately 90+ percent will realize this is absolutely TRUE from beginning to end. I've slept in Rammed Earth and Adobe with smooth Earth floors ~ it's an incredible feeling. We are in Arizona and will be building tiny homes with the abundance of clay here! He doesn't mention that thick Adobe/clay walls shield from the constant bombardment of EMF's Satellite and 5g, 6g, microwave radiation. Buy land Build with Earth! Dig a basement and use that clay for your walls. Build into a hill and have an Earthen roof (I'd personally use extra insulation of some kind) and you'll have a home that will last generations! There are huge desert ranches for sale sitting on aquifers with an abundance of pure water Hopefully we can find like-minded people and build a small community here and there with orchards and vegetable gardens... work together, trade, barter, distance ourselves from the corrupt food system, medical system, political system, etc. etc. Money, profit, greed, is indeed the root of all evil Break free! Get Back To The Land Regain health and vitality Live, Learn, Love ♡
The last time I heard someone try to make fun of Africans for living in "mud houses," I told them, "If only you knew how much better those "mud houses" were better than our wood & brick ones, you'd eat your words"
You don’t have to dig in electrical for the most part, just a tiny bit to connect to powerlines which you can simply make thicker and don’t run it through in a straight line so you still got isolation (like in a zick zack pattern for example. Plumbing can be done inside (just don’t drill into the outer walls) with no problem and then you just let the pipes go though the ground. Could also just make the same with electrical when you plan right
Very solid work, research and presentation. Well done!! Thank you. Living off the Earth is possible. Housing, growing food. No banks, no heavy machinery needed.
Nope, you need to seal it, linseed oil is the best, and lets it breed. Covering adobe in concrete will DESTROY the wall over time, as it prevents if from breathing.
Yes. Adobe is traditional for hot, dry climates. For New England, look at techniques traditionally used in more temperate climates. In Ireland, where the climate is more similar to New England, they used things like stone or wattle and daub. Thatched roofs.
@tanyajones5821 Yes, it does. Linseed oil based paints as well. I've used it on houses built antirely out of gypsum and natural rocks, after restoring damage due to owners havin used plastisol paints. Gypsum HAS to be able to breathe to keep dry, and not to dissolve, since it's hydrophilic. This is true about oiling wood vs. painting it with most types of paint as well.
@Trysalis12thank you. people keep saying, this won’t work in my climate. adobe is very specific, but the idea of natural brick making definitely varies in ingredients from climate to climate because of course it does. and who says it needs to be all or nothing
This would have been so much more helpful if a formula for Adobe was included in the video! It's just like all of the other videos who give you information and tells you what you don't have, but fails to tell you how to acquire it!
There’s a few errors in this video editing-wise, such as at 17:50 you say 2024 but the video shows the year 1991. Otherwise, this is very interesting and I am taking notes, and might pick up that book by Hassan Fathy if I get the chance.
It's not just about the material, Adobe is breathable but architecture and thickness of walls is as important when building a structure. If the walls are thick enough it can withstand earthquake easily.
If you didn’t want an small internal frame like most renovated old stone buildings you could just have conduit. If it’s done well I don’t think it would look bad aesthetically.
not sure if you're aware but people can live without lights, and cooking does not need electricity otherwise humanity would not have survived the hunter-gatherer phase
It may be useful to increase the thickness of your north walls to 4 - 5 feet (1.2 - 1.5m) if possible. At those thicknesses the same principle that governs the day/night heat cycle also works for the winter/summer heat cycle. For example, buildings covered with 1.5m of earth maintain an almost constant temperature year round.
But what if you feel cold all the time and you actually want it hot in the summer? As in hot inside the house? And 72 F inside is cold to me. Plus our winters here often are -20 F wind chills outside, sometimes for weeks. Will it stay warm inside under those circumstances??
@sarahb.6475 Well nothing will stay warm without a heat source. In the desert it's the natural temperature/sun that provides heat. But in colder climates, you need much less internal heating than you do with modern US construction. If you had an adobe home, your heating bills would be significantly lower, and the temperature more consistent. Throw a handful of solar panels on the roof, get some old iron radiators(can get them cheap from idiots ripping them out for HVAC systems), fill them with oil(stand alone - no need to connect them with a boiler system), put heating elements in them(similar to what's in an electric water heater), and hook them up to the solar panels for power. Easy peasy, pays for itself very quickly in the grand scheme of things, and you'd never be cold or worry about an electric bill or the local electric grid going down. Dream home as far as I'm concerned.
So... there is a few issues with this video. Like some truths but issues. 1. Adobe is essentially free if you have the right soil on your land. The raw materials (clay-heavy soil, sand, and straw) are dirt cheap. If you make the bricks yourself, the structural material cost is indeed negligible. The $300 figure is highly misleading for a modern dwelling. It excludes the costs of a foundation (which code almost always requires to be concrete), a roof, windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical systems. Even the "Adobe Alliance" projects mentioned later in the video are cited as costing $800-$1,500, and those are extremely minimalist structures. 2. Adobe has high thermal mass, which creates "thermal lag." In a desert, the walls absorb heat during the day and release it at night, keeping the interior stable. Adobe is a great "thermal battery" but a poor insulator. In climates with sustained cold (like the Northern U.S.), adobe walls will eventually lose all their heat and become "cold sinks," making the house nearly impossible to keep warm without significant energy. In humid climates, adobe is susceptible to mold and structural "melting" if not perfectly maintained. 3. Adobe is not explicitly "banned," but it is unregulated in most state building codes. Because the International Residential Code (IRC) doesn't have a "prescriptive" chapter for adobe (unlike wood or concrete), most local officials won't approve it without an expensive, custom-stamped engineer’s report. The video frames this as a targeted conspiracy. In reality, building codes prioritize standardization. Since "dirt" varies from one backyard to the next, it is hard for the government to create a "one-size-fits-all" safety standard for it, whereas a 2x4 piece of lumber has a guaranteed strength. 4. Simone Swan (who passed away in early 2025) was a real and highly respected advocate who founded the Adobe Alliance. She did build "Nubian vault" homes on the Texas/Mexico border to help low-income families. The claim that she built 600 homes is a major exaggeration. Most architectural records and the Adobe Alliance’s own history describe her work as a series of demonstration projects, workshops, and a relatively small number of residences. The "600" figure likely refers to something else (perhaps students taught or a specific number of bricks produced) but is not supported by housing records in Presidio County. 5. Trade groups like the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) do lobby heavily to ensure building codes favor their materials. Codes do mandate things like "bond beams" and "stabilization" (adding cement to the mud), which increases cost. These requirements (like steel rebar) are primarily driven by seismic safety. Unreinforced adobe performs notoriously poorly in earthquakes; it is heavy and brittle, which can lead to "catastrophic collapse." Codes moved toward steel and cement to prevent houses from crushing occupants during tremors, not just to sell more cement. I'm in NC, and I looked into this. In North Carolina, building an adobe house is generally considered a bad idea unless you are prepared for extreme maintenance and significant design modifications. While the video makes it sound like a "one-size-fits-all" miracle, NC’s climate is the polar opposite of the desert environment where adobe thrives. The issues I found is: 1. The Humidity "Sponge" Effect. Adobe is hygroscopic, meaning it naturally absorbs moisture from the air. This leads to mold growth inside the walls and can eventually turn the structural mud back into soft clay, causing the house to "slump" or settle unevenly. 2. The "Freeze-Thaw" Trap. Because adobe in NC would stay damp, the winter cycles become dangerous. When the water trapped inside the mud bricks freezes, it expands, causing the surface of the bricks to flake off (called spalling). In the Southwest, the bricks are dry when it freezes, so this isn't an issue. In NC, you could lose inches of wall thickness every single winter. 3. The video raves about thermal lag, but that only works if the temperature drops significantly at night (the "diurnal swing"). In the desert you have 100°F day / 50°F night. The wall cools down at night and stays cool for the day. Where I'm at you have 95°F day / 75°F night with high humidity. The wall never actually sheds its heat. By mid-July, an adobe house in NC would become a "heat battery" that stays hot 24/7, making your AC work harder than a standard insulated wood-frame house. 4. NC gets about 45-50 inches of rain per year (compared to 9 inches in Albuquerque). Traditional adobe requires "sacrificial" mud plastering every year or two. In NC, the heavy rain would wash this plaster away constantly. To make it work here, you would need massive roof overhangs (4-5 feet) and a high concrete foundation to keep rain splash-back from "melting" the bottom of your walls.
Great points, and that is largely how these types of buildings are constructed in the UK. Though, almost nobody here uses AC; I use cross flow and passive stack effect ventilation... and if I was building in the US, I would bend over backwards to find local and historic examples of how to manage seasonal heat, specifically to avoid the costs of AC!
I grew up in the southwest and everybody there knows that an Adobe structure can’t survive a high humidity environment. Adobe works well in deserts because of the desert conditions. Note that every example of Adobe that he gives is in a desert country or state it’s crazy and Florida would be even worse than North Carolina.
Yep the amount of people thinking mud huts are some magical thermal device that works in any climate is crazy. No, Maggie from Wisconsin, a mud hut is not going to do well thermally in your climate. As you said, it really specifically only works in hot deserts like Arizona, and even then you need heating for winters when the highs are in the 60s. Because just like how they’re a good heat sink, they’re also a good “cold sink”.
My house is roughly 200 years old, made of stone, outside walls are 2 feet thick, inside walls even on first and second floors are brick. No need for AC even when outside temperature is 44c (110f) only need a little heating when outside is below 10c. There is a lot to be said for the old methods of building .
Does adobe hold the same climate benefits in somewhere much further north, where there's significant snowfall and -40° winters? Can traditional pitched rooves be combined with adobe walls and maintain the consistent temperature? And would northern, granite mountainous regions contain the kind of clay used for adobe?
We live in a corporate prison..
Unfortunately
Jews
its called capitalism.
@jamiecormack5900 Jewopoly is more like it; capitalism on its own is nowhere near as dangerous as a Jew-opoly
No, it is worse than that. We accept a corporate prison.
Lobbying is just a polite word for bribery.
Each citizen has that right.
That's why we have to lobby "first". They will always need our votes. We just need a system where we can use our votes as leverage. IMO.
@BeachesIsland
Yes, each citizen has that right … but getting to see your government representatives who will *LISTEN* VERSUS a well paid lobbyist who offers money *under the table* is A VERY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE.
You are right
I'm just trying to figure out how this lady in Texas is going to survive the winters because they get bad weather in the winter time
Even the name ‘Adobe’ got co-opted by a corporation.
So did apples, and a forest in South America, and the sound birds make (Before it becoming a letter of the alphabet), and a 1 with 100 zeros, and... Discord
@TanookyTeneka South Africa?
@RUclipsOLEDTypo my bad, I meant the Amazon Forest in South AMERICA
so did bald, man. can we not use words?
why you cant build your house how YOU want??????
the "land of the free" hahaha united states of israel.
And people think enshitification is a new modern problem
Its just capitalism without boundaries
finally my 10 years of experience in making dirt houses in minecraft is going to pay off
Make me one
I’d say make me one but Actually just teach me please. Might take me longer than 4-6 weeks to build a simple one. Older. Disabled. But will work and not afraid to what it takes but will need some help and willing to help others in return. Too bad jimmy carter didn’t get these types of homes into Habitat for Humanity instead of stick built homes.
corporate greed
@bonnieklapel1825
While Adobe construction is awesome BUT access to modern infrastructure like roads, hospitals, grocery stores, schools and universities are not local.
Carter had no choice but to build according to access.
👍👍👍👍
These homes are not banned in the USA. You can get a permit for one of these homes through a group of lawyers that specilize in obtaining the permits. There are a lot of these types of houses in the USA, You can even watch people teaching you how to build on right here on RUclips.
missing mortgage payments and going homeless is more dangerous than an adobe collapsing on you.
True lmao
Already homeless. 1 1/2 years. I need to figure out what Oregon allows and what material I can build with and find someplace I can afford to get some land. I can’t afford to buy a home at today’s prices. Nor would I buy one at these outrageous prices. Not worth it.
Adobe is actually extremely unlikely to collapse!!!😂
Profiteers of building codes and their structures are more likely to kill you! The "gassing off" of formaldehyde from chipboard and the health issues like cancer it causes are!!😮
Adobe with sealed beams may never get termites
Nothing. Everything good for the Oregonian population or us individually is all illegal. We’re not the most expensive place to live in the country but when you factor in what we get from our government, we are amongst the worst place to live. 43rd in return on investment 47th in education and we have the highest state income tax in the country
My grandfather built his house out of adobe more than 60 years ago. He sourced all the materials himself and its probably the best built house I've ever seen.
Wow! That's certainly impressive. ❤
So if adobe is so good, why aren't they building with it in Taos today?? Cause it falls apart of it's not routinely entirely replastered on the outside annually . The historical buildings that are not on the plaza are all caving in after 100 years - like the St. Anthony's church in Questa, where the whole west wall just collapsed out after 150 years.
@philippolacek3475corporate sponsored comment
A lot of indigenous people aren't primitive, they were extremely smart. They built architecture entirely suited for their environment.
@philippolacek3475sure but it's literally dirt cheap and sustainable, I'm sure that it can theoretically be adapted to our modern world somehow to provide affordable housing. Also, 100 years is a long time. And in that timeframe, virtually any building will be in need of serious maintenance.
We have so many critics here that are self experts and think are smart but they aren’t; they are wrong. Many here think they’re experts but really have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about. Im 45 yrs and my grandpa’s house in Central America made of adobe has passed the tests of everything. Extremely high humidity with zero mold, hundreds of earthquakes and it’s still standing strong. 6 continuos months of rain every year and still strong. Granted it has been “repellada” which means stucco inside and outside but it was done only once and then painted over. So i do know the truth and what im talking about. These guys just love sounding like they’re smart but all they do is ridiculing others on things they know nothing about.
أنا من الصحراء الكبرى وتمّ دفع مجتمعنا قبل فقط ثلاثون سنة إلى هذه البوت الخرسانية القبيحة والملوّثة للبيئة .... وذات التكلفة الجنونية والخسارة الطاقوية ... وزمن البناء الطويل ...بعد أن كنّا لمئات السنين نبني بيوت نظيفة واسعة واجميلة ومتينة وذات تكلفة رخيصة جدا ويبنى في أسبوعين على الأكثر ...ويمكنك أن تمضي فيه الصيف في أشدّ المناطق حرّا على وجه الأرض بدون أي تكييف ...حيث أن غرفه باردة في الصيف دافئة في الشتاء ...أنا كشاب ... لا يمكن إلا أنّ أغتاظ من ذلك وأحتار ماالذي دفعنا لهذا ...وما الذي يرغمني على خسارة وقتي وجهدي ومالي لشيء قبيح كذلك وخاسر كذلك.
@االزواريى من فضلك اخي الكريم انا كذلك اعيش في منطقه حاره جدا و رطوبه مرتفعه جدا هل من الممكن أن تعطيني كم درجه الحراره الداخليه لديك فأنا لا استطيع تحمل ارتفاع الحراره في المنزل و شكرا لك
I live in an 80 yr old adobe home. I love it.
Where at if you don't mind me asking. I'm in the North East, and I'm curious as to whether or not an adobe house could weather the weather up here
@OYME13 Southern New Mexico
@OYME13 Adobe does best I'm arid climates, you would have to have different engineering
@OYME13 traditional adobe would not survive well east of the Mississippi in general.
If you are interested look into hyperadobe, cordwood homes, earthbag homes, and earthships. You'll find a broad variety of building materials and styles that can be used in your area with proper construction and exterior materials.
@Gleepglopglorpahaha Thank you 😊
If you ever find yourself asking the question about society "Why is X the way it is?", 99% of the time, the answer is "someone is making money from it".
Also, it is wealth consolidation at the cost of the working people. I think personally the wealthy would not care if most of us were sick or dead. Look at all the toxins in the food supply, the building industry, big pharma, especially in the US.
Or white supremacy
like government programs pretending to help minorities
@sophiapaulekas4767the realy rich ones are evil and totalitarian. They think they are superior to anyone and want to prove that by any means. And on top of that there is some of them that are realy satanists who wants to drop the humanity numbers because they think like Thanos 😅
@gahpetenuci The way the population curve is, I think it's more the opposite. Just fund countries and promote cultures with no contraception products and wait...
If you pay $300 for the materials and handle the labor yourself, why would you need a mortgage? The bank has zero claim on your home..
That’s how people in Mexico all live in brick and adobe homes that they make themselves. No mortgage
@KatjaZabloudoskyexactly. What do you need insurance for the structure when it only cost a few hundred dollars upwards of a thousand to build. You need only insure your private property inside. The building gets destroyed build another. You can insure expensive electronics and valuables directly. Basically anything worth more than around 200 bucks. Anything less valuable than that can be replaced really cheaply and affordably if it's destroyed in a cave in or something. I honestly would build one like this and then stuff it full of cheap used furniture I got either from the side of the road or off Craigslist or Facebook marketplace.
@mhrgames PEOPLE DONT HAVE INSURANCE TGERE AND BRICK AND ADOBE HOMES ARE NOT PRONE TO FIRES.
@KatjaZabloudosky yup I can confirm, my house is made out of brick, adobe and cement, its really comfortable, a bit cold on winter but its easier to heat a house than to cool it without having massive electricity bills haha
Still need to pay for land somehow
Adobe only works well in dry climates, mfers get caved in if the moister gets too high
I learned the worst way, It just requires a little more work but it's doable.
A rock foundation to not let it touch the ground plus a roof that extends a bit so the rain doesn't touch the walls.
@cenzala22that wouldn't help with humidity though
@hii@hiiiimkat1 drywall is susceptible to turning moldy in humid climates, less so than adobe, though. Solid brick is probably the best material for humid climates, imo
Houston TX. WAY too rainy and humid all year for this to work. Great idea for west Texas. It absolutely should be an option.
Doesn’t work in earthquake zones either. So can’t do California despite its dry climate.
So it only works in the southwest. Arizona and New Mexico.
And the clay building looks better, too.
Most likely healthier also.
The texture of a hand-plastered adobe wall has a warmth to it that you cant replicate with stucco over OSB.
@littlelamb6804 No formaldehyde, no VOCs off-gassing from adhesives, no fiberglass particulate trapped in wall cavities. Just clay.
Cobb built the buildings for thousands of years. Gess what alot are still standing! My house was built in the 1890 is on its way out?
You are assuming they look like the buildings presented in this clip. They do not. A mud house is a mud house. It looks like a mud house. If you want it to look like a "normal" house, you have to pay more than 300$ for it.
“You don’t need home insurance if your home is made of stone brick alloys…” USA homes are literally constructed from materials which indentify closer to combustible accelerants than “BUILDING MATERIALS” WTF
Sorry, cool is the absence of heat. It doesn't "charge" anything. The wall gives off heat at night until the sun rises and starts heating the wall again.
Also, you do NOT need home insurance if your mortgage is completely paid off. USA's homes are constructed for business purposes, e.g., all wood frame for termites, and the termite extermination business is a multi-billion dollar industry!
@googolpi Home insurance is still needed for repairs, replacement, and liability. You don't need mortgage insurance.
Yes, US homes continue to be made mostly out of fire wood and termite food, and can be susceptible to tornado and wind damage. Few are made from concrete, masonry, and steel.
@jayejaycurry5485It costs 25% more in total to be built out of Masonry. Try getting a quote for one, its very expensive and timelines are outrageous. You basically have to build through owner exemptions in like Tennessee. Outside the south, no other place allows owner builder exemptions or at least its very rare.
@jayejaycurry5485You can literally get a quote for masonry home but it not cheap at all. Your Foundations have to be deeper, more steel and a very high labor rates. Its basically expensive to do so no one except rich bureaucrats do so. And also concrete building takes longer so you pay more in interest to the bank.
I'm from El Salvador and there growing up I always wondered why my abuelita's house was always cool and felt great and our house was always a fucking oven... Her's was made from adobe and when my bare feet touched the floor in that house it felt amazing, like an oasis in an unbearable heat, shit this video made me so nostalgic from those times.
You also got grounded by putting your feet on the ground
@-Never-bored abuela: ponte las ginas!!😡
Then an earthquake happens bye bye home and anyone inside 😂
@eulyer3722 Reinforce it with modern techniques and materials.
@eulyer3722 that's simply not true. As stated in the video, there is seismic activity in New Mexico and those modern earthen buildings are still standing with no problem. As are the multitude of abandon ones left behind by the tribes who inhabited them eons ago.
I have absolutely no doubt that greed plays a huge role in the suppression of reasonable legislation and property valuation for adobe buildings. That said, I think this video goes a bit far in presenting adobe as a miracle building material, superior in all respects and in all places to all alternatives.
Adobe buildings are great for dry, equatorial climates with relatively low seasonal temperature swings. The video does a great job of explaining that adobe can regulate temperature because of something called **thermal mass**, which is the ability of earthen (and stone) structures to slowly absorb heat and slowly release it over a period of time. Adobe buildings have high thermal mass, but relatively poor insulation. This means that if you're in a climate where it gets very warm during the day, and very cold at night, you can mostly rely on the thermal mass to absorb heat during the day, keeping the interior cool, and release that heat at night, keeping the interior warm. If, however, you live in a climate where temperature swings are seasonal, you're going to need proper insulation. Anywhere near or above the Canadian border, you're looking at winter seasons of anywhere between 3-6 months of the year, where daytime temperatures do not rise enough for the thermal mass to absorb enough heat to avoid the need for active heating. Active heating an adobe building that has no additional insulation is basically like slowly heating the outdoors. The process works almost in reverse of what you get in climates with warm days and cool nights: instead, you run your fireplace or your furnace 24/7, and the thermal mass slowly expels it out into the world.
Additionally, adobe has fantastic compressive strength, but poor lateral stability. The use of proper construction techniques can mitigate these problems in buildings built in ideal climates for adobe, but the problem is made worse in more humid climates, where - without proper weather treatments, like stucco, lime plaster, or added cement - moisture and freeze/thaw cycles can significantly degrade adobe's lateral stability. The last thing is that these buildings take a lot of muscle to build. Which is great, where time and labour are cheap, and materials are expensive, but not ideal when these conditions are reversed.
All these reasons are why you actually **do not** see adobe buildings throughout all times and places, even in antiquity, and instead see people using all kinds of different materials and construction methods throughout history. Log cabins with stone fireplaces in northern regions like Scandinavia, wood and stone in much of China, and stone, wood, adobe and concrete in ancient Rome. Modern construction methods, I will happily agree, do not always take full advantage of ancient knowledge of how to do climate control without central heating/cooling systems. The advantages of thermal mass are too frequently ignored, and too little consideration is given to how to build for energy efficiency. All that said, you can't blame modern North American building codes for ancient Chinese, Roman, or Nordic peoples opting for wood, stone, or concrete rather than adobe, and I think this video would be a lot stronger and come across less as a conspiratorial diatribe if it did include some of the cost/benefit or drawbacks of adobe, especially when making the choice of how to build in different climactic regions.
probably worth mentioning what percent of people in the US actually live in a climate where this is a good idea but I still like it where it applies
Yup, I have gravel, not clay soil and those houses would melt in days, not decades where I live.
The south is mostly clay. Should be cause to relocate. If you arent building to sell. Youre building to live for generations. Just hide it. We have homesteading exemptions in certain states. In alabama the only permit required is the septic. Get the permit and install septic first. Then build what you want. Selling it may be impossible though. But again. Is this a house or an investment. Actually i think in 2021 alabama made adobe builds completely legal. Without requiring expensive engineering. Just do it.
Yeah it only works in low humidity climates right?
@TomBaker-l4e yeap. Adobe bricks aren't known for surviving the tropics and rain. You'll need modern cement and waterproofing for that. Its a DESERT building material for a reason.
If you build an Adobe house in Hawaii you'd end up with a mole hill by the end of the monsoon.
@TomBaker-l4ewhile adobe might not work in wet/humid climates. There are alternatives that are just as cheap and good. Who can withstand those climates.
Look up: earthbag, superadobe, compressed earth blocks(CEB homes)
No one needs the government's subsidies to build affordable housing; they just need the approval to build affordable housing themselves.
You are NOT allowed to build your own cell in the corporate, free range economic prison we live in… not affordably anyway…
government is hard at work "saving" us from ourselves.
You don’t need approval… just do it.
@TrueBlueFlowerChild that’s a good way to get a court order against you
Send your local building inspector a Notice of Liability. He'll quit.
No hyperbole:
Turns out modern civilization is a PONZI SCHEME ran by psychopathic cannibals.
Gg 2026
Thank you. Having clippy which is a Microsoft thingy is weird though 😉
@PriscillaKaye the whole clippy pfp thing is protesting big tech corporations, including Microsoft. Clippy was hated back in the day, but compared to what the companies are like today, he’s a saint.
Ok, go get your next shot.
THIS!
#psychopathyawarenessproject
Yeah, um, I'm going to say that's hyperbole.
What are you talking about? You can "legally build" this way anywhere in USA. It's no different than building a treehouse or a fort. There are only 2 steps to the process.
Step 1. Purchase a few acres of land.
Step 2. Build whatever structure you want.
$300 to build, $0 to heat, $500k to pass regulation and claim
Rather pay the fines, it's cheaper
You know that's cheap in America right?
@TalkingTothewind1 It's not though. In the slightest. You can get an actual nice house and not some dirt for that price. You know that right?
adobe buildings are definitely not cheap to build. I helped to build one once. The materials are kinda cheap if you get hand on straw bales from some nearby farmer but it needs at least 2x times more work to finish it. We spend 2 1/2 months in 3 people to erect 2 rooms cottage.
@TalkingTothewind1idk who you're fooling that 500k with +6% int rate is cheap
(1) It called artificial scarcity
(2) Its corruption from the top
(3) They complain about people living off a countries safety net.
(4) The question is who are the scammers
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
@FromPovertyToProgress I'll wager there's cost effective ways to produce adobe with machinery now (concrete mixer and a loader and a conveyer place molds on and take off with a fork lift...) we mass produce everything why not no bake easy make brickery. Clay is one of the most abundant resources on earth and any suitable organic material is easy to get. I personally have seen three story Adobe buildings in the Middle East that use cheap concrete and wire cage pillars for load bearing and the rest is mud brick and they survive earthquakes.
@RickyBobby-z9v I think @FromPovertyToProgress has a point. I've been telling everyone who'd listen (and quite a few who wouldn't) that building underground or partially underground (earth-sheltered) creates a maintenance-free home that costs almost nothing to heat or cool.
It doesn't matter. When the nephews needed homes for their young families, they each just poured a slab and plonked a manufactured home on top that they'll need to keep heated all winter and air-conditioned all summer. They even have all the earth-moving equipment (either owned by them or that they can borrow from their circle of friends).
It just didn't appeal to them. They wanted the wife and kids to have a house ASAP and they wanted it cheap. That's the thing about building for yourself or to sell to families. Everybody wants it NOW.
Meanwhile, I've been dreaming about building homes this way my whole life, but just never quite had the opportunity. I, too, needed to get into a home and get my life going. Closest I got was making sure my places came with full basements. Saved a lot of money heating and cooling by fixing up the downstairs and hanging out down there. Small victories.
The desert Southwest... All the single-family dwellings should adobe or earth-sheltered, or both. It's a perfect climate for passive heating and cooling. Hide from the Sun in summer. Glory in the Sun in winter. But everybody's got an aboveground cracker box that they spend hundreds of dollars every month to heat and cool. Everybody's dependent on the same central grid. It's actually kind of terrifying, especially for the people stuck in the cities, which most people are. Out on the fringes of civilization, we have our own problems, but we have lots of alternatives.
Me, personally, I just keep adding features to the place I bought. It'll never be perfect, but it grabs more sun in winter (strategic window installs). In a couple years, I'll bury some air pipes to get the passive geothermal thing going. Last year, I converted an open pole building into an enclosed workshop/greenhouse. Taking what's there and throwing some money and labor at it.
I think it's really all about putting your labor into it. That's where you get something for nothing, because the time spent puttering on the place is recreational. Some say it's spiritual. I won't be here, forever, but somebody will think "That guy was really cool! He put a lot of thought into this beautiful thing/place, for us to enjoy after he was gone."
@FromPovertyToProgress ya, also using modern electricity and plumbing in an adobe house is an issue too. It can be done, but the house needs to be built around some of these things, and plumbing leaks can be disastrous as moisture is the enemy of adobe. There's a reason why it works fine in third world countries with smaller dwellings, but not when trying to build middle class+ neighborhoods with modern amenities.
Government, every time. The biggest cancer on humanity is the belief in and obedience to governments.
Great video, very informative. I live in NM. We have thousands of adobe structures throughout the state. It is cheap and efficient. With the current housing shortage and materials costs astronomical, Americans should start demanding their local governments allow inexpensive , natural building methods.
I lived in a 70's era log cabin which is basically like living in a pile of kindeling. Never again. I would consider living in an adobe home though.
My dream is to live with a home that is paid off!
Better yet, just do it and stop acknowledging their legitemacy
✔✔✔
@Nurse_CJ get a tiny home
I fought for this country. I watched my brothers die for this country. I’ve been permanently damaged for this country. Myself and so many of the people I love have sacrificed so much, sometimes their lives, for this country. We did this because we believed in “freedom”. We believed we were sacrificing so that our countrymen, our families, and ourselves could be “free”. Now, with every passing day, I realize more and more that the “freedom” we fought for was all a lie. We don’t have the freedom in this country that we’ve always been told we have. We may have some freedom, but most of the freedom in this country must be purchased. The rest of us are prisoners of the economy. The American dream is only afforded to those who find a way to become rich and stay rich without working. That means an extremely small number of people in this country actually enjoy the freedoms that all the rest of us provide them. Most of us are worker bees, slaving away so that an extremely small number of people can enjoy the “freedoms” the rest of us ensure them. All the “freedoms” we claim to have are pretty much illusory. They only exist when it’s convenient, and will be essentially taken when necessary. Freedom of speech? Sure, kinda. Your entire livelihood, income, safety, and pursuit of happiness can be stripped away overnight because of your speech, so I’m not sure it actually exists the way we like to think. Sure, the government can’t prosecute you, but why would they need to? That’s just one example. When it comes to this subject, freedom is very limited. Even on your own land, you can’t just build your own home. You have to play the game and the game is expensive. Depending on the state, you can’t even live in an RV on your own property. That’s absolutely insane, and there’s no valid reason for it. We don’t have much at all in the way of freedom in the US. The only way to have freedom is to get out of cities and make it for yourself. Even then, you still have to play the game carefully.
Now if you want a home in a city where you can have a career, a moldy shack, where you can literally see daylight through cracks in the walls or ceiling, will cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. I hate this world.
Me too, brother
When people make such ridiculous comments it makes me laugh.
Me too, buddy.
@anthonyherrmann860timmy tuff knuckles with the combined asset value of $10 million wants to speak - listen up
I like the world, its humans I loathe
I live in Mexico and have a 3 story bovada-brick dome-in my living room. Not only is it stunning to look at, it keeps house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I need to wear a sweater while my friends that live in contemporary houses need to run the AC. Bovadas are also known as “Spanish Arches” and have been around thousands of years.
i visited a traditional home like this in luxor, egypt
"a 3 story bovada-brick dome" "Bovadas are also known..."
It almost sounds like "bobadas".
They are called BÓVEDAS.
What about water, bathrooms, washing clothes? I imagine maybe ground floor only?
investigating building a home of this kind in Mexico. Did you build it yourself or did you have it built. How does it hold up with earthquakes, insects and rain? What area of Mexico are you living? I am in rural Mexico in Oaxaca.
We need to hype this video and get it to everyone we demand change!
Nothing EVER happens
@TheeOnlyStolasThen why don't we change that?
Was done as a birth control measure, many other examples also exists.
Hyped!
You have absolutely no idea how labor intensive it is to build one of these things. Does bricks are HEAVY and those walls are more than a foot thick. It takes a lot of brick to make a house like this and labor is not free. It's either going to take a single person many many months of working all day everyday (time is money) just to assemble the construction materials or it's going to cost them a lot more money than it would for a bit of wood.
All fun and giggles until your realize you got no sun to heat your home in December in cold climate
to the title: because the greedy pig, robber barons that run everything can't profit if you are self sufficient
Give credit where credit is due , they had no intentions to SWEAT / WORK , so they learned from the devil the art of en-slaveing , thereby force others to work for them .
@obbiebeal3060 Both of ya'll are referring to the Jews of course.
"Self-sufficient" is what Carl Sagan was responding to with "if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch." Pretending that the parts of state and society you want to take for granted don't count is as misleading as assuming that the corporate-capitalist state ultimately has any loyalty to anyone but the landlords and profiteers.
😆😆 I laughed so hard at this, it's so true and if I don't laugh I'll cry lol
@M_M_ODonnell I'd rather take the time to bake an apple pie from scratch than accept ANY form of modern "society" at all.
In Poland, we build houses out of brick but adobe is becoming used as internal plaster. It controls humidity inside, it sinks in when it's too high and give back when it's low. I've heard it creates very pleasant climate to live in. Also building out of clay isn't prohibited and it's very rare but there are houses out of clay. Unfortunately in my area there is no adobe in the ground.
Isn't brick just fired clay?
Fired bricks have the same thermal properties as adobe bricks so besides cost it shouldn't be that big of a deal
Also isn't wattle and daub construction still common in rural areas of poland?
@lol-ih4wy Bruh, first of all it's almost the same tech. Second of all, it's 2026. Nah, Poland belongs to IMF debt system just the same as you, perhaps in different modalities but nevertheless same swamp that previous, oh sorry current president of US promised to clear.
Yeah, west is fudged, global south is fudged by what the west did to the south and then to the west... you see we are all FUGDED
Welcome on the same boat
Same here in Germany, its actually quite nice!
I just started working at the adobe brick making business you featured in this video, Tucson Adobe - they’re great people.
I will say that costs for labor should be factored in as brick making, building and ongoing maintenance are major time consuming activities. Also, an argument can be made for cement stabilized adobes as they provide more strength and resist water damage which is something that traditional adobes can’t do. This means the exterior can remain unplastered, a major time and cost saver.
Yeah, I love this method and all, but there is no way a 1500sqft Adobe house is being built in 2-6 weeks by owner/builders. There is a fantastic amount of work that is involved just digging the clay up, not to mention kneading it into bricks and then aligning and stacking. It would take much more than a few people to meet that timeline and some powered equipment. I think folks are underestimating how much labor this really is.
Ignoring labour costs when labour is one of the biggest parts of the total costs. And also ignoring the needed knowhow.
But cement stabilized adobes aren’t as good at maintaining temperature, are they?
I'm still watching the video, im still early in, does your company ship bricks? I need like 94k bricks
@stevenkenney8747
Could you imagine the S&H cost? LOL
If this costs $300 then a gallon of gas costs 1 cent!
My country has a lot of rain. Someone started building a mud brick straw house 20 years ago, finished it a few years ago. By putting a layer of cement over the outside, it withstands rain. It's a nice house. Warm in winter, cool in summer. Took a long time for one person to make though.
Any idea why it took so long?
@avamaria8447 Big house, dug by hand, probably on weekends as they would have a day job
how did they get the brick dry in the first place /genuinely
@endymonyt4268 Summer. about 7 months of the year. Not great. but i'd certainly follow
@avamaria8447'for one person'
The man you quote at the end, Nader Khalili, was the inventor of Superadobe (Earthbag Construction).
I met him ~1999 at Cal-Earth (the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture).
He was wonderful!
FYI: If you go there, don't ever call the material "dirt" - you will be corrected to call it "earth" 😊
If I'm not mistaken, there was a picture used with the red walls. It used that bag method. Cuts down on the labor significantly.
The biotect (biological architect) Michael Reynolds has been building and advocating EARTHSHIPS much sooner than 1999.
Used tires and other recyclable materials.
Taos, New Mexico
Taos FINALLY allowed an Earthship community once Reynolds agreed (thru forced coercion) to put into place the "appropriate development infrastructure - roads, hydrants, et al", all of which utterly unnecessary.
There was a long ago completed Earthship down the dirt road my father bought land on in Placitas, NM... in 1985. We moved to Albuquerque in '72.
It's all "the same" - use what's around you - including trees when applicable.
Just examples of why capitalism and continuous consumption isn't always in humanity's best interests.
@jaredouradaThere is a family on here that has built a whole compound of sandbag structures. They have many children and each one gets their own bedroom separate when they reach a certain age. I believe they are in arizona. 💜💜💜
J4P
J4C
@62Movement
Yeah, I went down there (near Taos) a couple of times and met Mike Reynolds back in the 90s (before he lost his license).
I was just pointing out Nader Khalili's name since he was quoted but not named (and I'm realizing now that I had typos in his name, so I'll edit to fix that). [Edit: I was mistaken ... he WAS named in this video.]
There are tons of good methods for building that are extremely sustainable. Most of them ARE quite labor intensive, but well worth it.
Edit:
P.S,: Khalili invented superadobe around 1984, and founded Cal-Earth in 1991 ... but **I** didn't go there until 1999.
And yes, Earthship biotecture came before superadobe.
@jaredourada
That would be "hyperadobe" (if they were the red bags instead of the white ones) which came after "superadobe" ... similar methods, but different material used for the "bags" --- I don't think I saw that in this particular video.
Edit: I watched this again to find it. I didn't see any superadobe, but I found hyperadobe at 19:34 for just a second (red bag material method, which is a different material than the white ones).
I’m in San Miguel CA. The local Catholic mission was constructed using Adobe and repairs are ongoing and construction is still Adobe. It’s over 300 years old but it’s been around much longer than the stick built houses here . I’m 2 blocks away from this place.
And I bet Dan Miguel is somewhere near an earthquake fault of the last 300 years, isn't it?
@grovermartin6874does that mean it’s earthquake proof?
@aojorel That's just what I'm wondering!
@grovermartin6874 I’m in the RUclips rabbit hole learning about all this. I decades ago was looking at Earthships by Michael Reynolds.
I went to confession there. Great buildings
Heavy tattoine vibes from the thumbnail
Imagine not having to pay the added expense of heating/cooling your house. You would only pay for the light you use and maybe only at night considering you could strategically place skylights. It's definitely something to think about.
I live in the Northeast so this wouldn’t work for me but my brick home has MUCH smaller hvac bills than my family in wood frame houses.
Just food for thought
Coal hates your imagining
Bring back thermal mass heating and cooling!
I live in this kind of house, in my country in rural areas most houses are made like this, it's awesome because the walls are thick and it doesn't take long to heat up during the Winter and it stays cool during Summers, in bigger houses it's even cold during Summers lol.
It even looks way better than Sim city copy paste neighborhood
@nenadpopov3601Shouldn't the thermal mass make it difficult to warm up in the winters?
Is there enough of it to supply so many people and how renewable is it? I'd use it in a heartbeat though...
It would be quite the opposite actually! It would make it much more difficult for the heat to seep out of the house. Similar to how its great at keeping heat out, interior wise that means its great at storing heat inside!
It's always greed and money that forces people into slavery. Follow the money trail.
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
@FromPovertyToProgressyou’re brainwashed keep telling yourself these stories. I agree it’s not full on illegal to use cobb but they definitely try to make it super difficult.
or just stop using the increasingly useless currency/money and find yourself a better economy. the govt has mismanaged the usd for the longest time. its circulating supply and the policy around it is pretty much compromised at this point.
the more people linger to govt products, the more brazen it gets. this is due to there being neither feedback, natural selection nor significant usurpers to their system.
the country runs on fumes and sunk-cost fallacy should've bottomed out a decade ago.
And there's no greater example of that than gov't - they steal through tax, through counterfeiting currency, through fees, through licensing - then they get their corp cronies to do the dirty work so they can claim their hands are clean. It's WWF writ large to live off the back of the people who never needed them in the first place.
You read my mind .
So before I watch the video, we add some more material and call it something different but better and it’s the loophole
Today we built houses with the cheapest and quickest material ever only to then having to install heater and air conditioner which both expensive to operate and maintain. It's almost they are creating problems and sell us the solutions
didnt you watch the video? you dont build by the cheapest and quickest materials... you build by what the industry and your corrupt politicians WANT you to use for building.
@seraphimsixty613and with the whole purpose of keeping you in need for money, thus to keep you working for the rest of your life.
@seraphimsixty613 Yes and the materials they used are crap
@JhennyMo you didnt say "crap" :D you said "cheapest and quickest" - very unlucky if the video itself demonstrates what actually is the cheapest and quickest and why its superb XD
@seraphimsixty613I beg to differ. Adobo is indeed cheap but it's not quick. You're too focused on the video. In Asia or middle east, houses are made with bricks and concrete whereas in America they're made from woods and dry wall. That's what i meant by cheap and quick which translate to "crap".
If you are not spending money you are not a slave to the economy so they can tax you and build bombs to drop on other countries.
true
We keep paying they keep bombing other countries. Only few are benefiting in this earth. You’re gone be a slave to work and pay or you’re gone be killed as a part of your country with resources. And we still allow this people to lead us.
@lilishyta-ep4wr The ESF was made with confiscated american's gold and since then the dollar has been plummeting/they have been milking america dry.
You mean a slave to GOVERNMENT. They are the enslavers, no one else.
"other countries" is doing all the heavy lifting here.
8:26 houses cost easily 500k+, I would happily pay 25k-30k in fees to build adobe
Hmmmm, make the house for less than $1,000, pay $25k+ in fees. I built an everlasting house for my bloodline for generations to come for only $30k-$50k , worth it.
Reoccurring fines like rent/mortgage
@ASJyirod Zero chance the "adobe" buildings in the video cost any where close to $1000. The construction numbers are grossly misrepresented! Plumbing, electrical, doors, windows each add thousands to the cost and we didn't even start to discuss labor costs. Those bricks don't dig and form themselves much less stack and install.
@bhough410bro, we simply just talking about the actually cost it is to dig up good mud and mix it with sand and straw and water…that’s literally nothing financially. Utilities are utilities yes, but the actual materials to make foundations, walls and roofs/ceilings aren’t expensive in traditional/classic adobe home construction.
@ASJyirod its labor, which is usually one of the biggest parts of any construction cost
I live in an 5 story house bulid in 1898. Wood, clay, bricks and wood. Fassade with clinker. The roof after this long time is first time made new with the same roof tiles. Inside the climat is very comfortable, it stays longer cold in hot summer as well longer warm on cold days in the winter, never moldy, windows from 1980tis still good, not too sealed. So that the house can breath. An large beautiful tiled stove for wood is still there for cosy days. Maybe some days I need new windows. They from the 1980tis. But a recent check was positiv. All is good for the next decade or more. No new house in my neighborhood can compete with theses 128 year old buildings. Sad that those architectures will not constructed anymore. Where? In Germany.
I have an imperfect memory of living in an adobe brick house when my family lived in Tucson. Also, that all of the residential homes were made of adobe brick. I have zero memory of running air conditioner or of my mother ever yelling "Shut the damn door! You're letting the cool air out!"
10:50 This same corporate structure that pushed to overbuild Toronto into a condo showroom.
Monolithic adobe is in the ICC 2021 and has been adobted by many manicipalities across the united states. Currently building a full sized cob house in southern midwest.
Its gaining acceptance. Although in order to build an actually long term sustainable house given a variable climate, theres a lot more to be done than just stacking "free" adobe bricks. Its aboslutely cheaper but its no where near as cheap as this video makes it out to be. But yea currently budgeting $50k for a ~1400 sqaure foot house including all modern amenities. There are plenty of self regulating temperature advtanges to cob but its not magic. Insulation is still needed if you live in a moderate climate(straw bale or light straw clay).
That's what bothered me about the video. "$0.03 a brick" I guess if you don't value in your own time and labor. And you don't want plumbing or electric.
Love to hear it! I'd love a house that costs less than $400k
@sleepysentretthe location is a lot of that price tag too. I know a guy who has basically a mansion out in the sticks that's worth 400k, bought my house in the suburbs for 200k in 2019, and I have family who spent over 800k on a glorified shack next to a lake
@circlingoverland4364definitely. I live in the midwest in an area that use to be well below the average cost of living but has shot up to above average in the past 5 years. And the average house price is $260k. Clay is cheap and heavy machinery/concrete is cheap.
Yes video never addressed plumbing and electrical lines
lol that's like asking why an igloo is "banned" from being built and used as house in LA. Go ahead and do that pile of mud in the middle of NYC and tell me how much "free heat" you get.
Cold weather insulation, earthquake zones, ground water erosion, and relatively high maintenance are the only weaknesses of 2 foot thick adobe walls I am aware of. They can be dealt with.
Remember when the govt (federal/state/local) and corporate America use "safety" to make ridiculous laws, it means that they want more taxes and wealth transfer!
Back in the day they sold a spot in the good place in the after life, now it’s security/future because people don’t fall for d superstitions and myths.
Same story different version
Adobe literally is just mud.... You can do exactly the same, and build your own home and everything with actual wood you grow, stone, etc. build it yourself with those videos... But adobe bricks were literally only used because they couldn't use stone or wood. It's the off brand **off brand** version of clay... And our ancestors used a material similar to mud clay mixture for the interior heating, but added wheat, wood, and stone to hold formation and keep structure and walls....
When "they" aka a safety inspector, says you can not because it's literally not safe. It's because your "adobe house" can, and will, break down onto itself within a years time.
@c@cerealguy6359 Theres a reason why build codes exist and thats because people died or lived in terrible living conditions. Its one thing to say that developers or corporations skimped out on the housing budget and tried to cram as many people into a singular apartment room as possible, but its another situation entirely when someone builds their house out of a material that is literally mud in a place known for getting heavy winds and rain such as San Antonio which is Sub Tropical. Depending on the climate certain materials are just not good at all, and are genuinely not safe to use.
You guys are just getting mad because your being forced to spend money to make sure your house is actually good or at the least being forced to pay someone to check your house won’t burn down from improper wiring or wash away in the next rain storm.
You realize most local governments are actually interested in making sure their housing is actually good and can last. Thats because they often times have family and friends who will eventually move into those houses? Theres a reason why aluminum isn’t allowed to be used in wiring for houses and thats because houses kept burning down due to Aluminums lower conductivity. It genuinely is a situation of concern for safety.
Here in Texas heating really isn't the issue, it's cooling. Summers are brutal here.
I wonder how adobe holds up in the more humid environments
@superturkeylegs Moisture moves through the walls as vapor, but then again humidity would, to some degree, prevent the vapor from escaping, and may wet the clay, at which point it will either collapse after a while, or somehow be able to hold it all in until the humidity stops, at which point it will have held so much vapor that I bet it will become humid again for at least an hour, eventually leaving the surrounding areas with only a bit of humidity if by the humidity stopping we mean it fully going away. Summer after summer, year after year, the structural integrity slowly strips away the natural ac advantage, until one bad storm strips away the structural integrity of the place, to collapse some time soon. Either way, the Adobe style was made in the desert for a reason.
@superturkeylegs There a lot of techniques/recipes from high humidity places with traditional adobe building.
Most of the time is just adding baba de nopal (cactus sap) mixed with lime as a ending plaster, some places even use beeswax.
@luckytrece4985Thanks for this. Where can I learn more?
@SolarisJustitia Adobe houses exist in tropical environments, just the construction styles are different and the recipes for the adobe add some ingredients like nopal or cattle manure.
These designs work well for the climate and time they were constructed - with changing climates and typically wetter, they will not perform the same. They are absolutely not a complete solution to every situation, and building codes look to address this. The costs and red tape associated with this not only stifle competition for materials but increase costs tenfold, but overall the idea is the stock of buildings are improved and fit for purpose in many environments. This obviously didn't eventuate due to the top to bottom corruption present in the US, but the idea of standards shouldn't be rejected outright. It is interesting that the footage you show in this video is pretty much just modern construction, some of it not even mud brick. I think anyone interested in this that lives in a lower rainfall climate should absolutely give it a go, but there are 100% drawbacks that you will experience
Yeah, this is a good caveat to attach to the video's premise. It's absolutely not a universal solution, and it's disingenuous to not mention the drawbacks.
That being said, I still think it should be a more widely considered solution. I live in the southwest, the benefits of an adobe construction home are obvious to me.
1:03 aren't gov buildings typically what they aim at in civil war?
That's a very good point
Survivalship bias
Kind of. The real reason why this is impressive is due to proximity.
Obviously they would not survive a direct impact, but it’s impressive that they survived in close enough proximity where the blast and shrapnel would have considerable impact on the building. The shockwave can reach levels of intense earthquakes depending on the size of ordinance.
It’s still impressive, nonetheless
What evidence do we have to suggest the adobe buildings shown were in proximity of the fighting? As far as I know these buildings are from different countries.
I looked for news articles covering this and didn't find anything. One would think something like this would be very news worthy.
Given how little research the creator put into the rest of the video, I'm not very likely to believe his claim on this. 😊
@foundingfarther It would not be news worthy in the slightest. GWOT was a war that spanned 2 decades, multiple countries, and many regions within said countries. Government buildings were subject to U.S. strikes more times than 10 people can count on both hands. You are not likely to find these reported anywhere except for Al Jazeera, and even then you’d need to know the exact date.
Large scale reporting mostly stopped after around 2008. Updates on GWOT were few and far between.
It is not likely that the buildings shown in the video have any relation, but the information still holds up. These buildings are very prominent in the region, and have been subject to fighting for many decades. Government buildings are typically in extremely close proximity to residential and commercial buildings. You can find countless bits of footage of what was described in the video. These buildings withstand huge shockwaves and shrapnel from massive air strikes.
I can speak for my personal experience as someone formerly a noncombatant in the Middle East who has witnessed several bouts of warfare from around 2006-2017.
The main reason that I have little faith in any of our institutions: making common-sense solutions illegal is considered standard practice, as long as the alternative is lucrative enough.
No, this video is completely wrong. Adobe construction is explicitly recognized in modern U.S. building codes (through provisions for adobe masonry and alternative materials), and it is perfectly legal to build adobe houses as long as they meet local code requirements. The reason adobe is rare in new construction is not legal prohibition but cost: making and laying adobe bricks is labor-intensive, requires thick load-bearing walls, and is slower than modern wood-frame or concrete construction. As a result, most builders choose cheaper methods that imitate the look of adobe with stucco over framing. In other words, adobe is uncommon primarily because it is usually more expensive-not because building codes forbid it.
@FromPovertyToProgress"as long as they meet local code requirements" That's the problem, did you watch the video? 😂
The people who built that house knew what they were doing, and had to live with the burden of consequences of any errors they made. The average American home owner is completely clueless about how to maintain anything.
I have mold illness and am finding it impossible to find a place to live that doesn't make me sick and you're right. People do not properly take care of their homes. If it's not water damage, bad roof, it's the HVAC system not cleaned properly or a bunch of other issues. I've gone to look at places to rent and they're literally missing caulking around the tub and around a bunch of the shower wall tiles and still using the shower like nothing is wrong! 😮 When I mentioned it as the reason I wouldn't be renting they tried gaslighting me into saying that they just worked on the shower and there wasn't a problem. Smfh. I was in a hospital that was missing an entire tile of the shower wall and were also using it like it was no problem! People are brain dead.
Maybe if there was mandated learning about housing maintenance people would actually know the quality of their houses.
People are unaware and the building industry takes advantage of it.
@KierstenJ-m4pwell to be fair the reason most dont complain about that is because they dont have such a specialized illness. Your right, it shouldn't matter but because your probably the only one to ever call some of these people out, they go all Pikachu face
@SeraEMS Yep, you are right! And they get HIGHLY offended too! It is a nightmare!
$300 doesn't even cover food for the first week of work.
There is a Beauty in simplicity.!!
That 3-5% cement added into the adobe bricks can also be added straight to cob, for those in wetter climates. it turns it into like, a stone composite. Though I still recommend a solid water-proof foundation of stone or another water-proof material. This information was lost to both the natural building community and the standard builders. It can be used to harden any mud building mix. It can replace straight concrete too, like if you want a garden wall, it can be made of cob with that3-5% cement added and it will be a strong garden wall. A little goes a long way in clay building. For those who didn't know. Cement is basically just fired clay with a bit of lime added in.
You can also mix a slight percent of limestone into the mix so it self heals when cracks eventually form
This is what kept the Roman buidlinga standing for thousands of years
No, you can't, it destroys the thermal capacity and its process for water to move from inside to outside. Don't add cement to Adobe, you're just destroying its properties.
@The_Accolade_1901 Yes, I can. And so can you! I said for wet areas, places that can't use cob. But want a cheap way to build a house. One can add a small amount of cement to the cob, so the weather doesn't turn it back into mud. Don't pretend to be ignorant like that
We’ve been made to believe that modern technology is a saving grace. *IT IS NOT.*
It's not that black and white, simpleton mindset.
Much of it is WONDERFUL. Not this. :/
most of it built on a lie and suppressing better more effective ways.
Look at how they tried to RAM electric cars down our throats. This same thing was done with Gas cars but it actually worked, there are other ways to power vehicles like steam and water
Modern technology is a death sentence to humanity itself. We have to remember.
The problem isn't the technology. It's the economic system it's wedded to, and the laws written by its richest adherents that reinforce it.
My colleague in Sudan just pondered on how her father was an official adobe builder, how the one room in their home stood strong while all other buildings in the street fell done in a flood, how adobe houses needed no cooling or heating, were sound proof, and during wars bullet proof.
Here's an organization that needs to be investigated; they'll be kicking and screaming, but "We The People" will have the advantage again.
@3:49 That is rammed earth, which is how I built my home 40 years ago, before my County had a building department. Rammed earth is now only for the wealthy to have Trophy Mansions. I recently self-retired from architectural design because of the bleeping building departments, which is why there is no affordable housing.
A few of the other pictures in the video look like rammed earth too but it can be hard to tell. (For those who don't know, rammed earth is essentially the same as adobe except it's monolithic, made in situ as a single structure rather than from individual bricks.)
@tessjuel There is much less clay percentage for rammed earth, too much and it sticks to the ram head and does not compact well. A Chino Valley AZ architect developed a system using gypsum for an additive, blown into forms like gypcrete.
I’ve lived in New Mexico for almost four years and didn’t know about this. I stayed a night in The Phoenix at Earthship and it was amazing, 38° overnight while remaining 70° indoors without a mechanical heating system rattling away…
Subscribed
Did you bother to ask the people that live in them permanently why most move out after 1 year??
@philippolacek3475 no I didn’t, what’s their secret?
You mixed Celcius and Fahrenheit! 😊
@j@jean-marclamothe8859’m not sure what you’re talking about, mixing Celsius and Fahrenheit.
I always knew my parents were evil when they told me to stop playing in the mud.
6:50 I think the only addition that I would make for my own self, is some kind of solid roof to protect the bricks from water. And honestly, I think you could probably get away with building one of these houses if you know the right people and just put siding on the outside so nobody knows.... I'm not suggesting that you do anything illegal, I'm just suggesting that you can know the right people and do this at the right place at the right time if you're particularly lucky...
Don't think putting siding on it is a good idea if it reacts in any way similar to brick when you do that
Don’t forget a liquid barrier between the two
In the UK Building Regulations cover Cob(Adobe) construction, and it doesn't require the addition of the 24a 'reinforcements, that is mainly because the designs here are hybrid designs that has Cob External/internal Walls with floors suspended from those walls.
Meanwhile Zuckerberg just put facial recognition on his stupid raybans that can instantly identify you and your address, family members, etc…
BS
And that is why I do not wear designer sunglasses
He's part of the evil people
Good luck building skyscrapers with Adobe lol
We live in an unincorporated town in Texas, trust me, you can build a house out of anything out here.
Texans are always doing stuff right. Housing is the best example you guys are doing at the moment.
@donperegrine922 Just had to flee Texas due to the violence and constant government interference. Folks like this learn the laws will affect them when, 17 years later, some Texan suit shows up with a fine. They're only actually good at marketing... More expensive than NYC when you account for wage averages vs cost of living.
@RobinTheBot 😳 sounds like you have a fascinating story. I'm sorry that you had to flee, that's terrible. And very unique experience of Texas
Major earthquakes with significant casualties in adobe-heavy regions include:
Guatemala (1976): A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck, with adobe structures destroying nearly all rural homes, resulting in over 23,000 deaths. Many victims were killed as their homes collapsed on them while sleeping.
Peru (2007): The 7.9 magnitude Pisco earthquake destroyed nearly 100,000 homes, most of which were adobe, leading to 593 deaths.
Morocco (1960): The 5.75 magnitude Agadir earthquake destroyed the city's old adobe quarters, killing roughly 20,000 people (one-third of the population) in just 12 seconds.
El Salvador (2001): Earthquakes in 2001 caused "disproportionate damage" and high mortality rates, with almost all collapsed buildings in affected areas being unreinforced adobe.
Turkey (2010): A 6.0 magnitude quake in Kovancılar resulted in 42 deaths, with the highest devastation found in stone and adobe villages.
Key Reason for High Fatalities
Low Strength: Unreinforced adobe walls are weak in tension and shear.
Brick buildings are the reason, earthen cob is a monolithic structure and not the same. Has higher shear strength than brick and mortar.
@akatsukiawsome13 He clearly cited the facts, it was Adobe that killed not brick
@sparksmcgee6641 Adobe brick is very different than cob structures. I did not lie, cob is monolithic.
Brick is one of the most dangerous earthquake materials and that is why people have moved to steel frame construction.
And yet we understand brick is a perfectly fine building material in the west.
So far not much survives earth quakes...quanset homes one of a few.
All of those regions are on highly active fault lines. Dangerous to live there, for sure.
Hell yeah this is how we move forward thank you.
More like the right way to move backwards
@charlyx3z894 nah not at all you use what you can use no reason to be stuck doing things only one way. Giving your time and money away like a fool.
@jackeilhigh worse part yet, is giving your money to people who don't care about your comfort but rather giving it all to a zio entity in the middle east...
Checking facts:
1) In other parts of the world like Europe, clay bricks are still common, but not "adobe" but as burned clay brick. Don't worry, they make building even more expensive in other ways.
2) Unburned clay structures doesn't work in more cold and wet clima as well.
Afaik USA has different clima zones as well. Banning something in general is very often a bad idea.
Making it much harder to buy firearms in contrary might be a better idea, but same story here: Big industrie...
Many States have building codes for earthen construction. I am currently building with compressed earthen blocks (CEB). Think compressed adobe. Soil from my property, a bit of lime, a bit of cement and a bit of water. Mix well and then compressed under 2k lbs of pressure.
The key question is
Are you required to use steel rebars? That's the cost killer.
@latinlover769 No rebar required. I am required to use wire ladder every five layers of block. I used rebar in my footer foundation, stem wall and will use rebar when I pour the concrete bond beam at the top of the wall.
Sounds fascinating! How do you compress adobe ?
@ShoNuffSoulBro1 Just search for ‘Compressed Earth Blocks’. There are a couple machine manufacturers out there. Mine is a relatively small one that produces about two per minute. It is a matter of keeping the mixer filled with the ingredients; sifted soil, cement, lime, and water in the correct proportions.
Seems like a class action lawsuit against the building code writers is in order.
This misses the point. Lawyers and judges are nothing more than grifters. The only law that has any true meaning and value is the kind humans can observe and participate in, but have ZERO say in.
Adobe does not handle seismic events well. There is a method called SCIP that leverages the strengths of adobe and structural integrity of reinforced concrete.
"None of this required a conspiracy" - dude, it literally was a conspiracy, a conspiracy of suits with financial interests and corrupt politicians.
Do you live in an area with rain or snow? Adobe only works in the desert.
Thank you so very much for this valuable information. I’m so grateful. It might just help me to build my own home in my old age. I’ve always wanted a small affordable home of my own. May be the Powers that be Bless you a thousand fold for this information.
Agreed! Yet in my older age, i consider being in a distant remote area where Adobe *might* be allowed, contrary to medical care and infrastructure needs...
The video would help a lot more if you could find where there are communities doing this already. Probably in New Mexico.
After WWll my uncle and his brother built several home in Orovile Ca a couple were of adobe construction, The earth material was taken from a nearby rivert bank west of town
A) walls don’t need to breath (unless the criminal industry admits their SOP is clearly flawed yet mandated) b) 10 foot minimum overhangs eliminates need for rain gutters and keeps water away from foundation
Yes. Large overhang makes lime plaster redundant and unneeded. Lime plaster can be reserved for small exterior walls used for gardens/privacy.
Interior floors can be made of clay and "wax sealed" as well for a nice warm and clean moppable floor
don't you man 10 inch overhangs?
Keep in mind that this method becomes one of the most expensive there is when you don't have access to free labor and your local soil isn't suitable so clay has to be sourced from far away and driven there in trucks. I investigated it 2 decades ago when Earthships were popular and for Florida it's simply not financially viable even at the individual scale and functionally impossible to scale up to a housing system for half a million new residents a year.
Adobe needs to be engineered property to be resistant to earthquakes. Really only involves incorporating hog wire in walls and roof counter leverage so the walls are not pushed in or outward. Still not expensive.
Anyone have a link to the study from university of Arizona?
This video raised my spirits, and made me feel like vomiting, screaming in fury, and crying, all at once. It makes total sense, all around. It makes me wish Malcolm Wells, grandfather of underground houses, were still alive. (Although I wouldn't wish that on him for other reasons.)
I built a 5000 square foot esrth sheltered/underground house in the Fingerlakes region of New York state. It was a functional work of art looking out over beautiful Cayuga Lake. I started designing it in 1968, and got my certificate of occupancy for it in 2008. It was constructed of poured, reinforced concrete, with about 5' of earth on the Styrofoam insulated roof. It has 19 Solatubes, huge windows [dictated by zoning codes, based on square footage]. It cost me $1.5 million to build, which did not include the land. I could have built a village like it, in New Mexico. Without the lake view, of course. But it would have provided so much more for so many good souls!
I know, I know. "Of all sad words of thought or pen, the saddest of these are, 'It might have been.'" Maybe what I did will plant a seed for the future. After all, look how long it has taken the astonishing decades of brilliance and dedication for the vision of one giant of Egyptian architecture to be manifest in the American Southwest, thanks to one student whose biography I hope you will someday create for us! And WHAT A COMPELLING VIDEO you have produced! I will forward it to everyone I know who might be moved by it! And I will watch it and weep again, and again.
THANK YOU!🙏🙏🙏
when you calm down from your hysterics you'll be happy to know that this video is complete bullshit...
@puzer1 Why do you think so?
@puzer1 What makes you say that?
@grovermartin6874likely because they are a part of the corruption, the machine that scams people all over the world!
I've personally verified dozens of this videos statements. Anyone with a modicum of integrity and intelligence knows posts like this are a desperate attempt to sway the weak minded to dismiss it.
Fortunately 90+ percent will realize this is absolutely TRUE from beginning to end.
I've slept in Rammed Earth and Adobe with smooth Earth floors ~ it's an incredible feeling.
We are in Arizona and will be building tiny homes with the abundance of clay here!
He doesn't mention that thick Adobe/clay walls shield from the constant bombardment of EMF's Satellite and 5g, 6g, microwave radiation.
Buy land
Build with Earth!
Dig a basement and use that clay for your walls. Build into a hill and have an Earthen roof (I'd personally use extra insulation of some kind) and you'll have a home that will last generations!
There are huge desert ranches for sale sitting on aquifers with an abundance of pure water
Hopefully we can find like-minded people and build a small community here and there with orchards and vegetable gardens... work together, trade, barter, distance ourselves from the corrupt food system, medical system, political system, etc. etc. Money, profit, greed, is indeed the root of all evil
Break free!
Get Back To The Land
Regain health and vitality
Live, Learn, Love ♡
The last time I heard someone try to make fun of Africans for living in "mud houses," I told them,
"If only you knew how much better those "mud houses" were better than our wood & brick ones, you'd eat your words"
20:00 how does plumbing and electric get installed if the walls cannot be drilled into, and surely the cost mentioned here does not include them?
You don’t have to dig in electrical for the most part, just a tiny bit to connect to powerlines which you can simply make thicker and don’t run it through in a straight line so you still got isolation (like in a zick zack pattern for example. Plumbing can be done inside (just don’t drill into the outer walls) with no problem and then you just let the pipes go though the ground. Could also just make the same with electrical when you plan right
Dig under where the walls will be, lay pipe, cover with earth. Build the walls
Very solid work, research and presentation. Well done!! Thank you.
Living off the Earth is possible. Housing, growing food. No banks, no heavy machinery needed.
Adobe is hard to use in wet climates. Here in New England, if you are going to use adobe you need to coat the outside of the brick with concrete.
Nope, you need to seal it, linseed oil is the best, and lets it breed. Covering adobe in concrete will DESTROY the wall over time, as it prevents if from breathing.
How would oil allow it to breathe? it would not
Yes. Adobe is traditional for hot, dry climates. For New England, look at techniques traditionally used in more temperate climates. In Ireland, where the climate is more similar to New England, they used things like stone or wattle and daub. Thatched roofs.
@tanyajones5821 Yes, it does. Linseed oil based paints as well. I've used it on houses built antirely out of gypsum and natural rocks, after restoring damage due to owners havin used plastisol paints. Gypsum HAS to be able to breathe to keep dry, and not to dissolve, since it's hydrophilic. This is true about oiling wood vs. painting it with most types of paint as well.
@Trysalis12thank you. people keep saying, this won’t work in my climate. adobe is very specific, but the idea of natural brick making definitely varies in ingredients from climate to climate because of course it does. and who says it needs to be all or nothing
13:17 a hero🫡
12:40 that's six states
Was wondering about that. 🤔. I'm always more skeptical about a video made by a man who can't count.
But only 3 of them are deserts.
@deborahemielita5949that's cope bro
I was just about to make the same comment, I'll just leave this👍
Yea I’m glad you said it.
This would have been so much more helpful if a formula for Adobe was included in the video! It's just like all of the other videos who give you information and tells you what you don't have, but fails to tell you how to acquire it!
It’s literally just clay dirt, and water
@angusarviso4003I didn't look up some recipes after I saw the video. The one that I saw used sand as a mixture
There’s a few errors in this video editing-wise, such as at 17:50 you say 2024 but the video shows the year 1991. Otherwise, this is very interesting and I am taking notes, and might pick up that book by Hassan Fathy if I get the chance.
It's not just about the material, Adobe is breathable but architecture and thickness of walls is as important when building a structure. If the walls are thick enough it can withstand earthquake easily.
What about electrical work for lights and cooking and other utilities
If you didn’t want an small internal frame like most renovated old stone buildings you could just have conduit. If it’s done well I don’t think it would look bad aesthetically.
Break out the candles and books. No electricity 💀
@Float_Lockerlol
@skipperv7884do you need to do the electrical work beforehand or is it possible to do it after the house is built
not sure if you're aware but people can live without lights, and cooking does not need electricity otherwise humanity would not have survived the hunter-gatherer phase
My adobe turns the north side into a walk in cooler in the winter. At least we stay cool in summer.
It may be useful to increase the thickness of your north walls to 4 - 5 feet (1.2 - 1.5m) if possible. At those thicknesses the same principle that governs the day/night heat cycle also works for the winter/summer heat cycle. For example, buildings covered with 1.5m of earth maintain an almost constant temperature year round.
But what if you feel cold all the time and you actually want it hot in the summer? As in hot inside the house? And 72 F inside is cold to me. Plus our winters here often are -20 F wind chills outside, sometimes for weeks. Will it stay warm inside under those circumstances??
@sarahb.6475 Well nothing will stay warm without a heat source. In the desert it's the natural temperature/sun that provides heat. But in colder climates, you need much less internal heating than you do with modern US construction. If you had an adobe home, your heating bills would be significantly lower, and the temperature more consistent. Throw a handful of solar panels on the roof, get some old iron radiators(can get them cheap from idiots ripping them out for HVAC systems), fill them with oil(stand alone - no need to connect them with a boiler system), put heating elements in them(similar to what's in an electric water heater), and hook them up to the solar panels for power. Easy peasy, pays for itself very quickly in the grand scheme of things, and you'd never be cold or worry about an electric bill or the local electric grid going down. Dream home as far as I'm concerned.
@sarahb.6475 I would add a lovely adobe fireplace in that room
0:22 love how the materials were free back then but now we have to pay for it
We need this in Arizona! People need houses!
Amen 🙏
Can we make money off you on it?…..no?!?! No way.
Let’s start building!
Don't the Navajo homes do this idk if its the same material but they use natural source from earth
So... there is a few issues with this video. Like some truths but issues.
1. Adobe is essentially free if you have the right soil on your land. The raw materials (clay-heavy soil, sand, and straw) are dirt cheap. If you make the bricks yourself, the structural material cost is indeed negligible. The $300 figure is highly misleading for a modern dwelling. It excludes the costs of a foundation (which code almost always requires to be concrete), a roof, windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical systems. Even the "Adobe Alliance" projects mentioned later in the video are cited as costing $800-$1,500, and those are extremely minimalist structures.
2. Adobe has high thermal mass, which creates "thermal lag." In a desert, the walls absorb heat during the day and release it at night, keeping the interior stable. Adobe is a great "thermal battery" but a poor insulator. In climates with sustained cold (like the Northern U.S.), adobe walls will eventually lose all their heat and become "cold sinks," making the house nearly impossible to keep warm without significant energy. In humid climates, adobe is susceptible to mold and structural "melting" if not perfectly maintained.
3. Adobe is not explicitly "banned," but it is unregulated in most state building codes. Because the International Residential Code (IRC) doesn't have a "prescriptive" chapter for adobe (unlike wood or concrete), most local officials won't approve it without an expensive, custom-stamped engineer’s report. The video frames this as a targeted conspiracy. In reality, building codes prioritize standardization. Since "dirt" varies from one backyard to the next, it is hard for the government to create a "one-size-fits-all" safety standard for it, whereas a 2x4 piece of lumber has a guaranteed strength.
4. Simone Swan (who passed away in early 2025) was a real and highly respected advocate who founded the Adobe Alliance. She did build "Nubian vault" homes on the Texas/Mexico border to help low-income families. The claim that she built 600 homes is a major exaggeration. Most architectural records and the Adobe Alliance’s own history describe her work as a series of demonstration projects, workshops, and a relatively small number of residences. The "600" figure likely refers to something else (perhaps students taught or a specific number of bricks produced) but is not supported by housing records in Presidio County.
5. Trade groups like the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) do lobby heavily to ensure building codes favor their materials. Codes do mandate things like "bond beams" and "stabilization" (adding cement to the mud), which increases cost. These requirements (like steel rebar) are primarily driven by seismic safety. Unreinforced adobe performs notoriously poorly in earthquakes; it is heavy and brittle, which can lead to "catastrophic collapse." Codes moved toward steel and cement to prevent houses from crushing occupants during tremors, not just to sell more cement.
I'm in NC, and I looked into this. In North Carolina, building an adobe house is generally considered a bad idea unless you are prepared for extreme maintenance and significant design modifications. While the video makes it sound like a "one-size-fits-all" miracle, NC’s climate is the polar opposite of the desert environment where adobe thrives.
The issues I found is:
1. The Humidity "Sponge" Effect. Adobe is hygroscopic, meaning it naturally absorbs moisture from the air. This leads to mold growth inside the walls and can eventually turn the structural mud back into soft clay, causing the house to "slump" or settle unevenly.
2. The "Freeze-Thaw" Trap. Because adobe in NC would stay damp, the winter cycles become dangerous. When the water trapped inside the mud bricks freezes, it expands, causing the surface of the bricks to flake off (called spalling). In the Southwest, the bricks are dry when it freezes, so this isn't an issue. In NC, you could lose inches of wall thickness every single winter.
3. The video raves about thermal lag, but that only works if the temperature drops significantly at night (the "diurnal swing"). In the desert you have 100°F day / 50°F night. The wall cools down at night and stays cool for the day. Where I'm at you have 95°F day / 75°F night with high humidity. The wall never actually sheds its heat. By mid-July, an adobe house in NC would become a "heat battery" that stays hot 24/7, making your AC work harder than a standard insulated wood-frame house.
4. NC gets about 45-50 inches of rain per year (compared to 9 inches in Albuquerque). Traditional adobe requires "sacrificial" mud plastering every year or two. In NC, the heavy rain would wash this plaster away constantly. To make it work here, you would need massive roof overhangs (4-5 feet) and a high concrete foundation to keep rain splash-back from "melting" the bottom of your walls.
The low number of likes on this comment just shows how dumb an average RUclips viewer is and how you can sell them anything.
Great points, and that is largely how these types of buildings are constructed in the UK. Though, almost nobody here uses AC; I use cross flow and passive stack effect ventilation... and if I was building in the US, I would bend over backwards to find local and historic examples of how to manage seasonal heat, specifically to avoid the costs of AC!
Great write up. Thanks for sharing.
And the humidity in nc might be a problem for homes but at least everything grows like crazy haha
I grew up in the southwest and everybody there knows that an Adobe structure can’t survive a high humidity environment. Adobe works well in deserts because of the desert conditions. Note that every example of Adobe that he gives is in a desert country or state it’s crazy and Florida would be even worse than North Carolina.
Yep the amount of people thinking mud huts are some magical thermal device that works in any climate is crazy. No, Maggie from Wisconsin, a mud hut is not going to do well thermally in your climate. As you said, it really specifically only works in hot deserts like Arizona, and even then you need heating for winters when the highs are in the 60s. Because just like how they’re a good heat sink, they’re also a good “cold sink”.
My house is roughly 200 years old, made of stone, outside walls are 2 feet thick, inside walls even on first and second floors are brick. No need for AC even when outside temperature is 44c (110f) only need a little heating when outside is below 10c. There is a lot to be said for the old methods of building .
Where do you live?
Does adobe hold the same climate benefits in somewhere much further north, where there's significant snowfall and -40° winters? Can traditional pitched rooves be combined with adobe walls and maintain the consistent temperature? And would northern, granite mountainous regions contain the kind of clay used for adobe?
Regulatory capture everywhere...centralize, simplify, mass produce...'licensure and certification'....goal 'profit and monopoly'...