So sorry that you had so many mistakes while building your earthbag home. I'm wanting to build a cellar, so your video has made me aware of the do's and don'ts. Thanks!
Better to have tried and made a mistake than to have never tried at all, congrats on building your own home how is the build going did you complete it yet?
I watched Kelly Hart interview who stated that the polypropylene earthbags will degrade in the sun from the UV rays so don’t leave it uncovered. Also, watching another video I noticed that using smaller bags and staggering the joints as in brick laying, with the barbed wire in between, is easier to maintain level and plumb walls. The tamper was used and it was not overused or done very hard but more to pack the bags down to shape them almost like a brick, which makes them lay flatter and the weight more evenly distributed. I hope it all turned out well! 👍
Wrong on some points. The degradation from the sun of the polypropylene bags is irrelevant. The material, properly mixed in the correct ratio of sand/clay.... possibly some lime, with water, is tamped down, compressed to just about as much as reasonably possible and then the sand bag has done its job. Staggering the bags ? Why not? After the material dries in a few days the sand bags can be cut off, or burned off. It does not matter. If you would go to Cal Earth and take their workshop, and walk around to see some of their creations, some old some new, one that you will build there, you will see buildings with the sand bags weathered off and the building still standing strong. And, you would know that you will finish the home - your home = with a plaster of lime/whitewash, or oil-based water-proofing to protect from the weather. The sand bags do not matter then. If you cut them off or left them. About the wire you mis-understand and I think this presenter also does - what it is for. It gives tensile strength - the converse of compressive strength to the structure. So the weight of the higher parts, and the roof, pressing down and pressing the walls is absorbed by the wire. The whole structure is integrated. So, using the barbed wire properly and tamping down each bad, over-lapping, means you will get it all plumbed close enough to perfect. He said that he made up for the problem of the wire by using re-rod at intervals . He should have used re-rod driven into through several layers of bags and used the bars to anchor the barbed wire - and shown that in the video. Why bother to do it wrong and then learn to do it right. Learn how to do it right before you do it.
Good job, man. Doing something for the first time gives quick lessons. You'll be a master when building a second one. Thank you immensely for sharing your mistakes and your views on how to do things better.
We can also incorporate the reuse of old tires by filling them with dirt on the lower levels and use bags on higher level. Used old tires can be collected from shops selling new tires. Used tires are also good for plants and gardens Thank you for sharing your experience
Learning from your mistakes and being able to teach others is great. I am looking into building my own home or one for my mom. Either way it is a great way to build a home!!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I wish more people knew about earthbag homes. There are not many people that share videos about their building earthbag homes, but the ones that do are great. From someone that will be building one in the future I appreciate your experience. Thank you brother in Yeshua
Great video.Thank you for caring. I just finished building my Hyperadobe (Andre Ferreira and Fernando Pacheco) earthbag home using the earthbag bible- "Earthbag Building" by Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmayer. Another great resource is Atulya K Bingham..she has a blog called The Mud Home, with online courses covering every aspect of building with earth bags. Invaluable. Even with all that advice, I didn't notice that my tarp had a hole in it, and a few weeks of heavy rain caused my building to bulge in one section. I think the rebar saved it, and I was able to straighten the wall somewhat when I plastered (with earth plaster) I hope your building turned out well in the end.
@@utube012341 I mean you might as well buy the bags, they're cheap per spool and if you're already gonna' do rammed earth you might as well just have the extra layer of protection. Having adobe on the outside will protect the bags from dry rotting, which as we both know is the biggest issue out here for plastics and rubbers.
Johnathan Doughs yes I was thinking of the earth bag walls covered in stucco or adobe , still am but now I’m a little concerned as to wall height stability issues. Want a 12 to 14 foot ceiling with a flat roof and garden / patio up on top . Have to do some serious thinking on this one
Tom Drozd www.amazon.com/Earthbag-Building-Tricks-Techniques-Natural/dp/0865715076/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=earthbag+building+book&qid=1570225631&sprefix=earthbag+buil&sr=8-1. This is an awesome book that walks you through heights and supports I’m doing a cistern first then starting with the garage/mil apartment then moving on to the house.
1: Fewer, larger bags are better then many smaller bags. 2: Always overlap the seams. NEVER put the bag ends of two layers directly on top of each other. ALWAYS put a solid layer over the top of a join, just like laying bricks. 3: Beat and shape the layers before they dry. A 2x4 board can be used to shift the dirt inside the bags once set, use a level to ensure that the walls are straight up and down, and that each layer of bag is level on top of each other. 4: If building a square structure, place overlapping peers on the corners similar to log cabins with each overlapping layer running the length of the peers. Sloppiness is easy, doing it right lasts longer.
I really appreciate you making this video. It made me decide to use some posts that will be hidden in the walls so I can put up the roof first. This may keep me from having issues with the walls getting wet during the build.
Great video! I learned more in this short video, then all those other well meaning videos. You helped me Not make the same mistakes. Which I most definitely would have done. Thank you.
Thanks for you video. I'm making my own bags from vapers barrier. I plan on using pallet strapping to hold my bags together. I don't want to use metal. I hope ya'll will do another video of the complete building.
Thank you for sharing about your mistakes!!! I'm planning to build a earth bag house on my own. Your advice is greatly appreciated. I wonder how your house looks like now? Good bless you, your family and your house.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. Learning from our mistakes is such a beneficial process. I am definitely sharing this video with my friends in my Facebook group to "Off Grid & Natural Living".
Thank you for the video sir. I am looking into building an earthbag home as well, and I appreciate the advice. I'd love to hear how the build turned out. I hope you post a video about it.
I’ve built one myself, still completing finishing touches.. My first time as well, I personally learned that the compass is your friend , especially on the roof if your using earthbag to top. I had to take 10 layers off 1 and 8 off the smaller dome because of it starting to lean inwards, especially last 10 bags or so, better to go in 3 inches at a time until capped.. I’ve made numerous mistakes , 8 yrs later I’m close to done.. impatience was my downfall as well my friend.. at least we learned 👊
Must use the measured swing around poll for every room and keep measuring with each round of bags layed.Also tamping every bag is huge.No need to cover or use barbed wire if using hyper adobe bag.
I need to know the cheapest way to purchase about 200-300 meters of 14inch woven earthbag roll in either San Diego or Baja Mexico. Great video 👍 lots of good information
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE continue to update this project. How is this legal? I'm in Ohio and I just can't pay rent anymore. How do you do this legally so you have no issues down the road?
You need to look for land in a county where this is legal. Some states and counties are more relaxed with building codes than others. Arizona is pretty accepting of alternative builds, and some places in Texas, New Mexico, and California too. Ohio might have some counties like this, but I don't know. Usually the further away from cities and suburbs you are, the more relaxed the laws are. Look for an area you would like to live, then look up the county building codes online. If it's vague about alternative construction then call up the office and ask about your specific plans.
@@fishface6247 Look for allowable building materials. One county (I forget which) states that "only 100 tires" can be used in the build of a house. That's a good sign that they'll allow other alternative materials as well. Also look for something in the codes that allow for off grid lifestyles. Like here in AZ many have codes already set up for people wishing to have compost toilets (even in the city/suburbs), out houses, or rain catchment systems. The codes for the county I want to move to states that you can bypass the installation of a septic system if you submit to the board your plans on how you're going to properly compost your waste. I know that they also allow for alternative builds and have almost no rules for earth builds, but that's not mentioned anywhere in their documents. You have to approach the board with that first before they'll talk to you about it. The only clue to me was the 1 sentence on composting. Since building with earth and other alternative "back to nature" lifestyles are becoming popular again, it's slowly getting worked into the official documents and legal system of some counties, but mostly you'll just have to call and ask. If you see any acceptance of anything alternative that's a good place to start. But even if there's nothing like that in their codes, it still doesn't hurt to ask because sometimes they allow it for lower populated areas but just don't write them in or haven't bothered to update it because there's not enough interest from others in the area to do this.
Hey brother happy to see a smart spiritual man building a house out of the land around him. Let us know how things are going at this point and if you need any info on earthbags I have all the best books on using this great building technique and can email you them for free.
This guy should have gone to Cal-earth - where the bags came from - and paid the money and time to take the workshop. Then he would not have had the walls fall in order to learn to tamp them down properly, very hard, and to use the barbed wire properly, integrated with re-rod bars driven into the ground at intervals to anchor the barbed wire to. I liked that he framed in windows. But I wonder about having two big, square windows next to each other. Why? This is so structurally weak. Can you visualize the tons of earth that will be over them in the top parts of the walls and the roof? Smaller windows, and round - why not? - could be made structurally stronger. Made out of metal culvert, or out of large-diameter PVC pipe, for example. Then you have nothing to worry about for plumb or for weakness. No framing necessary. This guy should have planned the project first anyway. In detail, but flexible so as to make changes as yougo He would have learned all this at the workshop.
Thanks for te vídeo. I am buiding a small place right now and already made some mistakes. How high is it safe tô build an earth bag wall, do you know? Thanks
Thank you for the video it was greatly appreciated, Question is there a website I can order the bags from besides the ones you were using and did you need a special permit to build a sandbag home on your land?
actually sun isn´t really good, it´s pressure it like rammed earth to form the solid structure you could also ad a little cement but protect the bags from sun, they need to be protected from the elements until the final coat is applied at wich point it becomes nearly as resilient as stone
Good video, Its hard to admit when you screw up even harder to make a video showing it....
I've watched sooo many earth bag videos, and this one is probably the MOST useful. Knowing what not to do is just as helpful as knowing what to do.
Thank you Brothers for that‼️‼️‼️💯💯💯 it’s humbling but you are empowering others!
A smart man learns from mistakes. Don’t ask how I know.
🙄😳🤪😆😆😆😂😂😂😂
I always learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.
So sorry that you had so many mistakes while building your earthbag home. I'm wanting to build a cellar, so your video has made me aware of the do's and don'ts.
Thanks!
Better to have tried and made a mistake than to have never tried at all, congrats on building your own home how is the build going did you complete it yet?
Better take lessons than try random and fail
@@andybaubau5961
Failures are lessons.
I watched Kelly Hart interview who stated that the polypropylene earthbags will degrade in the sun from the UV rays so don’t leave it uncovered.
Also, watching another video I noticed that using smaller bags and staggering the joints as in brick laying, with the barbed wire in between, is easier to maintain level and plumb walls. The tamper was used and it was not overused or done very hard but more to pack the bags down to shape them almost like a brick, which makes them lay flatter and the weight more evenly distributed.
I hope it all turned out well! 👍
I saw that too. I wasn't sure if it was as stable as the tubes. It would be nice to see a side by side comparison.
Wrong on some points.
The degradation from the sun of the polypropylene bags is irrelevant. The material, properly mixed in the correct ratio of sand/clay.... possibly some lime, with water, is tamped down, compressed to just about as much as reasonably possible and then the sand bag has done its job. Staggering the bags ? Why not?
After the material dries in a few days the sand bags can be cut off, or burned off. It does not matter. If you would go to Cal Earth and take their workshop, and walk around to see some of their creations, some old some new, one that you will build there, you will see buildings with the sand bags weathered off and the building still standing strong.
And, you would know that you will finish the home - your home = with a plaster of lime/whitewash, or oil-based water-proofing to protect from the weather. The sand bags do not matter then. If you cut them off or left them.
About the wire you mis-understand and I think this presenter also does - what it is for. It gives tensile strength - the converse of compressive strength to the structure. So the weight of the higher parts, and the roof, pressing down and pressing the walls is absorbed by the wire. The whole structure is integrated.
So, using the barbed wire properly and tamping down each bad, over-lapping, means you will get it all plumbed close enough to perfect.
He said that he made up for the problem of the wire by using re-rod at intervals .
He should have used re-rod driven into through several layers of bags and used the bars to anchor the barbed wire - and shown that in the video.
Why bother to do it wrong and then learn to do it right. Learn how to do it right before you do it.
@@danielcunningham5940 great job bro!
@@danielcunningham5940 Yep, measure twice - cut once.
Good job, man. Doing something for the first time gives quick lessons. You'll be a master when building a second one. Thank you immensely for sharing your mistakes and your views on how to do things better.
Thank you for the video. I plan on building an earthbag home. This was very helpful
Thank you sir this was very helpful. The mistakes teach much more than just teaching the basic steps.
We can also incorporate the reuse of old tires by filling them with dirt on the lower levels and use bags on higher level.
Used old tires can be collected from shops selling new tires.
Used tires are also good for plants and gardens
Thank you for sharing your experience
Learning from your mistakes and being able to teach others is great. I am looking into building my own home or one for my mom. Either way it is a great way to build a home!!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I wish more people knew about earthbag homes. There are not many people that share videos about their building earthbag homes, but the ones that do are great. From someone that will be building one in the future I appreciate your experience. Thank you brother in Yeshua
Best Video Yet! Hats off to you sir! A good man will tell you how to do something a better man will teach you what Not to do! ✌🏽
Great video.Thank you for caring. I just finished building my Hyperadobe (Andre Ferreira and Fernando Pacheco) earthbag home using the earthbag bible- "Earthbag Building" by Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmayer. Another great resource is Atulya K Bingham..she has a blog called The Mud Home, with online courses covering every aspect of building with earth bags. Invaluable. Even with all that advice, I didn't notice that my tarp had a hole in it, and a few weeks of heavy rain caused my building to bulge in one section. I think the rebar saved it, and I was able to straighten the wall somewhat when I plastered (with earth plaster) I hope your building turned out well in the end.
Great job !!!! We never stop learning. You are doing great
Thanks man , no fun admitting mistakes but your a good man to do that .
I’m looking at this method for my land in Arizona.
Me too, man.
Johnathan Doughs thinking of rammed earth inside main wall and adobe outer walls now idk .
Got a 40 by Havasu out in the desert
@@utube012341 I mean you might as well buy the bags, they're cheap per spool and if you're already gonna' do rammed earth you might as well just have the extra layer of protection.
Having adobe on the outside will protect the bags from dry rotting, which as we both know is the biggest issue out here for plastics and rubbers.
Johnathan Doughs yes I was thinking of the earth bag walls covered in stucco or adobe , still am but now I’m a little concerned as to wall height stability issues.
Want a 12 to 14 foot ceiling with a flat roof and garden / patio up on top .
Have to do some serious thinking on this one
Tom Drozd www.amazon.com/Earthbag-Building-Tricks-Techniques-Natural/dp/0865715076/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=earthbag+building+book&qid=1570225631&sprefix=earthbag+buil&sr=8-1. This is an awesome book that walks you through heights and supports I’m doing a cistern first then starting with the garage/mil apartment then moving on to the house.
I think what you are doing is a huge leap in bravery. Great job! Keep up the strong work and I look forward to the final outcome👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for sharing this experience, man! Sharing the setbacks you faced can certainly be very helpful! Thanks I 've learned a lot!
Thank you for this. I'm getting ready to build a 20'x30' earthbag home with a single slant roof - appreciate the info.
Earth bag home definitely sounds a lot better than dirt bag home. Interesting idea.
😆😆😆😆
I wanna see the final results! Also thanks for the help I’ve never seen a video like this.
No project is completed without mistakes. Thank you for sharing your project with us, inspiring.
A great video to help those of us, either working on or considering an earthbag build. Would love any updates! 👏
1: Fewer, larger bags are better then many smaller bags.
2: Always overlap the seams. NEVER put the bag ends of two layers directly on top of each other. ALWAYS put a solid layer over the top of a join, just like laying bricks.
3: Beat and shape the layers before they dry. A 2x4 board can be used to shift the dirt inside the bags once set, use a level to ensure that the walls are straight up and down, and that each layer of bag is level on top of each other.
4: If building a square structure, place overlapping peers on the corners similar to log cabins with each overlapping layer running the length of the peers.
Sloppiness is easy, doing it right lasts longer.
Pretty sure they need to be staggered like bricks
and compacted solid
I've seen them in one continuous row
Yes, everybody who played with lego knows how the wall gets more solid
I really appreciate you making this video. It made me decide to use some posts that will be hidden in the walls so I can put up the roof first. This may keep me from having issues with the walls getting wet during the build.
You've sold me on the concept of a continuous run...
also need atleast 2 foot trench for base
Thank you very much for making the video, this will help me in the future.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm about to begin building after years of saving for land, and I'm so thankful for you sharing your lessons. :)
Thank you for sharing your learned wisdom with the rest of us!
Thank you for your humble and honest report.
Probably the most useful video on the subject thanks.
Everything needs this type of video.
Thanks for sharing, man. Please keep us updated on your house so we can see the finished product. I'm sure it's going to look great.
I’m so glad I watched your video. No one else has this information out. Thanks Raeanne
I am working on a series of tutorials. Check out moradasverdes.com and moradasverdes on facebook
Great video!
I learned more in this short video, then all those other well meaning videos.
You helped me Not make the same mistakes. Which I most definitely would have done.
Thank you.
Thanks for you video. I'm making my own bags from vapers barrier. I plan on using pallet strapping to hold my bags together. I don't want to use metal. I hope ya'll will do another video of the complete building.
Thank you for sharing about your mistakes!!! I'm planning to build a earth bag house on my own. Your advice is greatly appreciated. I wonder how your house looks like now? Good bless you, your family and your house.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. Learning from our mistakes is such a beneficial process. I am definitely sharing this video with my friends in my Facebook group to "Off Grid & Natural Living".
Very important video, good job. I want to see the finished house
thank you for your honest talk through, thats what we need.
Thank you for making this video. It's really helpful.
Thank you for the video sir. I am looking into building an earthbag home as well, and I appreciate the advice. I'd love to hear how the build turned out. I hope you post a video about it.
I highly commend you brother!
I’ve built one myself, still completing finishing touches..
My first time as well, I personally learned that the compass is your friend , especially on the roof if your using earthbag to top.
I had to take 10 layers off 1 and 8 off the smaller dome because of it starting to lean inwards, especially last 10 bags or so, better to go in 3 inches at a time until capped.. I’ve made numerous mistakes , 8 yrs later I’m close to done.. impatience was my downfall as well my friend.. at least we learned 👊
This was an awesome video!! Thank you for caring!
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for sharing your experiences
Im in the process of building my earthbag structure- it is truth when he said to tamp down bags completely to remove any voids in the bags
Thank you for sharing your expertise.
Must use the measured swing around poll for every room and keep measuring with each round of bags layed.Also tamping every bag is huge.No need to cover or use barbed wire if using hyper adobe bag.
Thanks for the advice bro!
Great brothers thank you for this video. Respect! Salute from Curaçao
So thankful for your honest video
excellent video! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome video man, thanks. Very informative
I need to know the cheapest way to purchase about 200-300 meters of 14inch woven earthbag roll in either San Diego or Baja Mexico. Great video 👍 lots of good information
I'm grateful for this info
Great video thank you for making this we will learn from ur wisdom and your funny too make more videos
Nasi- thanks for this. Could tell you guys were prior service before you told us verbally. Keep on doing things right. Tom
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE continue to update this project. How is this legal? I'm in Ohio and I just can't pay rent anymore. How do you do this legally so you have no issues down the road?
You need to look for land in a county where this is legal. Some states and counties are more relaxed with building codes than others. Arizona is pretty accepting of alternative builds, and some places in Texas, New Mexico, and California too. Ohio might have some counties like this, but I don't know. Usually the further away from cities and suburbs you are, the more relaxed the laws are. Look for an area you would like to live, then look up the county building codes online. If it's vague about alternative construction then call up the office and ask about your specific plans.
thanks. I've been trying to avoid Valencia County but it's starting to feel like one of the last places!
Thank you. What should I look for in the billing code that would identify earthbag homes lol?
@@fishface6247 Look for allowable building materials. One county (I forget which) states that "only 100 tires" can be used in the build of a house. That's a good sign that they'll allow other alternative materials as well. Also look for something in the codes that allow for off grid lifestyles. Like here in AZ many have codes already set up for people wishing to have compost toilets (even in the city/suburbs), out houses, or rain catchment systems. The codes for the county I want to move to states that you can bypass the installation of a septic system if you submit to the board your plans on how you're going to properly compost your waste. I know that they also allow for alternative builds and have almost no rules for earth builds, but that's not mentioned anywhere in their documents. You have to approach the board with that first before they'll talk to you about it. The only clue to me was the 1 sentence on composting. Since building with earth and other alternative "back to nature" lifestyles are becoming popular again, it's slowly getting worked into the official documents and legal system of some counties, but mostly you'll just have to call and ask. If you see any acceptance of anything alternative that's a good place to start. But even if there's nothing like that in their codes, it still doesn't hurt to ask because sometimes they allow it for lower populated areas but just don't write them in or haven't bothered to update it because there's not enough interest from others in the area to do this.
@@CurbHopper111 Ok! Thank you so much! So who do you call and talk to?
Hey brother happy to see a smart spiritual man building a house out of the land around him. Let us know how things are going at this point and if you need any info on earthbags I have all the best books on using this great building technique and can email you them for free.
Hey sis check your email I sent you all the books on earthbags one needs to build using this awesome technique.
Thank you for your advises! Go foreward!
is there a update ... I love to see the finished product
Thanks for the tips.
Thank you brother !
Thanks for the I formation man.
Thanks so much for this. Way helpful.
Thanks for the “heads-up”…🤗
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Do you build for other people? How much is it to build a home?
Great tips! Thanks!
Man i luv this..i need 2 get into something like this
Thanks for this video. Much appreciated
Please give us an update on your build! Video or response in the forum. Peace and blessings!
Wow this was awesome thank you
If you pound rebar every few feet it works really well mate
Thank You for sharing😌
Looks very nice
Great tutorial !!
This guy should have gone to Cal-earth - where the bags came from - and paid the money and time to take the workshop.
Then he would not have had the walls fall in order to learn to tamp them down properly, very hard, and to use the barbed wire properly, integrated with re-rod bars driven into the ground at intervals to anchor the barbed wire to.
I liked that he framed in windows. But I wonder about having two big, square windows next to each other. Why?
This is so structurally weak. Can you visualize the tons of earth that will be over them in the top parts of the walls and the roof?
Smaller windows, and round - why not? - could be made structurally stronger. Made out of metal culvert, or out of large-diameter PVC pipe, for example. Then you have nothing to worry about for plumb or for weakness. No framing necessary.
This guy should have planned the project first anyway. In detail, but flexible so as to make changes as yougo
He would have learned all this at the workshop.
Like your place thanking the same thing my house burned down in the Paradise Campfire
I see you ach “Building literally” ✊🏾
Staggering each layer like bricks, makes the structure stronger
Great videos🙏
How can I get info on how to build a earthbag house
Great video! Thanks! You should try hyperadobe next time
"Fats Cameltoe"?
"They call her Cameltoe"... That is one of ZZTop's Best Songs......
Thank you for sharing...
Thank you for sharing ♡
I see where the errors at. The bags are not tamped out and stacked incorrectly which will make them unstable. No columns to support either.
Thanks for te vídeo. I am buiding a small place right now and already made some mistakes. How high is it safe tô build an earth bag wall, do you know? Thanks
Could you please include a link for the bag material
Did the project get completed? I’d love an update
Thank you for the video it was greatly appreciated, Question is there a website I can order the bags from besides the ones you were using and did you need a special permit to build a sandbag home on your land?
Do you all have workshops yet
thank you for this!
actually sun isn´t really good, it´s pressure it like rammed earth to form the solid structure you could also ad a little cement but protect the bags from sun, they need to be protected from the elements until the final coat is applied at wich point it becomes nearly as resilient as stone
Thanks man! Great video.