Bristol Green House 2008 Earthbags

• blog
• plans
• links
• home

build@bristol
greenhouse.co.uk

• Foundations
• Tyre walls
• Straw bale walls
• I-beam roof
• Living roof
• Clay/Lime render
• Insulation
• Earthbags


• Map
BAG YOURSELF A WALL
Leave the concrete blocks in the builders yard

If you have ever built a wall with concrete blocks you'll know you have to be very precise, first with the foundations, then with every course, making sure it is plum, true and straight in three dimensions.

Next time you need a wall in your garden, try using earthbags instead.

Fill the bag with a 20 to 1 mix of soil and cement, plonk it down, then jump on it until satisfied. Aaah, that's what I call precision.
I found the method and recipe for my humble wall on Sharing Sustainable Solutions. Their recipe is 20:1, in my caution we have done 10:1, but next time I'll try 20:1 and report back.

The finish they recommend is a kind of paper mache using hessian and a clay, sand, cement slip to give the wall a hard finish. I'm looking forward to that stage and will add more here when I do.

Having used the technique for this simple wall, some of the projects and images I found online inspire thoughts of more elaborate projects in the future. See below for just a few.
Picture:US National Park Service.

Picture: Green Home Building.