Earthbag Plans....Version 3 (and probably counting)

After all the great tips I got from everyone with my Version 2 plan, I went back to the drawing board.  As you can see, I kept some stuff (the rounded wall for stability where the most earth berming will be.  Here's my scale drawing (forgive the squiffy lines).  The toilet is composting (humanure handbook style).

The shower/tub is a freeform ferrocement creation.  The tub will be covered with a slatted cedar floor when not being used and a rain shower head will go directly over it to utilize the drain.  The little woodstove in the corner is both for addition heating of the water in the tub or if we want a dry or steam sauna.  

The bump out for the table acts as a buttress as well as a place to push the table when not in use.  Besides, it looks organic.

I'm debating whether I should put the water tank on the other side, BUT it will be more exposed there since that is down hill, so I've left it there for now.

I like it Vastly more practical than the beautiful spiral. With the bed backing up to the internal wall, there is no downside to the curved exterior wall.

Are you thinking of the non-heated bench as cob/earthbag built? That seems like a waste of interior storage space; a wooden bench could have lids or drawers to hold a lot of things, and could be sculpted for comfort the same as earth.

I have to say, I have been enjoying observing the process and learning. Fantastic effort

Glenn Herbert wrote:I like it Vastly more practical than the beautiful spiral. With the bed backing up to the internal wall, there is no downside to the curved exterior wall.

I'm also assuming that the internal wall will be of strong enough material near the exterior wall to act as a buttress for the straight section of exterior, bermed wall. My understanding of earthbag building is that it is very strong when curved, but quite weak to side pressure when straight. Using some sort of an "umbrella" to keep the earth berm dry in that area will decrease pressure also, from things I've read.
and wrote:

Are you thinking of the non-heated bench as cob/earthbag built? That seems like a waste of interior storage space; a wooden bench could have lids or drawers to hold a lot of things, and could be sculpted for comfort the same as earth.

If you were really creative with the design and used separating wooden benches, you might be able to reconfigure them into a bed if you had overnight guests.

I really like the redesign of the kitchen area!

Lovely design! I do think I'd move the water tank, though, and if necessary, do some extra berming, around it. That would make your water lines both shorter and easier to map.

Jay Angler wrote:

Glenn Herbert wrote:I like it Vastly more practical than the beautiful spiral. With the bed backing up to the internal wall, there is no downside to the curved exterior wall.

I'm also assuming that the internal wall will be of strong enough material near the exterior wall to act as a buttress for the straight section of exterior, bermed wall. My understanding of earthbag building is that it is very strong when curved, but quite weak to side pressure when straight. Using some sort of an "umbrella" to keep the earth berm dry in that area will decrease pressure also, from things I've read.
and wrote:

Are you thinking of the non-heated bench as cob/earthbag built? That seems like a waste of interior storage space; a wooden bench could have lids or drawers to hold a lot of things, and could be sculpted for comfort the same as earth.

If you were really creative with the design and used separating wooden benches, you might be able to reconfigure them into a bed if you had overnight guests.

I really like the redesign of the kitchen area!

It was a wrench to give up on the spiral idea, but I would have had to expand it too far to make it work.  This shape works better for the space anyway and I still have a few curves.

According to Adobe code (which is what they tend to use for earthbag) a freestanding wall needs buttressed every 12 feet of straight wall and walls in a structure every 18 feet... that's for unbermed.  So I figured 12 feet of straight wall for bermed.  The pantry acts as a buttress on the SE wall, which is why I put it there.  The interior wall will be post and beam with 6" cobwood infill.  The RMH will extend into the bedroom wall so the cobwood will sit on top of it.  

The entire bermed wall will be covered with Poly or EPDM and there will be gravel backfill with a drain pipe along the entire wall sloping west to come out in the draw that sits back there.  We're also planning a 24" overhang all round with the roof.  All water coming off the roof will go into the tank and any extra will be sent to the draw.

I hadn't really considered what the unheated bench would be, but probably not cob because I don't like manual labor THAT much!  It may even end up being some kind of conventional sectional with recliners.  I do like the idea of an extra bed.  We saw some pretty cool designs when we were building out our van that might be applied to this with slats that pull out for the bed.  We have a stationary bed in the van, so we didn't get to play with those concepts.

Thank you all for your input!!

Carla Burke wrote:Lovely design! I do think I'd move the water tank, though, and if necessary, do some extra berming, around it. That would make your water lines both shorter and easier to map.

Thank you!!  That's what I was thinking as well...there is also the option of dropping the tank below grade a couple of feet as well.  The other advantage I can see is that if for some reason there was a catastrophic failure of the tank, the water would flow away from the house down the hill.  It would hit the corner of the goat pen, but no buildings.

You could build a bench with storage...?

Carla Burke wrote:You could build a bench with storage...?

That's definitely a possibility, but I'm wary of adding TOO much storage.  I'm a minimalist and my husband is a packrat.... and that's all I have to say about that!