Maggie Far

Deagen Demientieff wrote:WOW i think earthbag building is the best i saved literally thousands if dollars doing it rather than frameing a house and i framed house from ages 16-20 in alaska! im 24 now. i want to tell you what i did for my floor. wich is a heated floor i dug a square filled it with gravel and rocks and then i made a earthbag floor with bags filled with more gravel i then laid tubeing down for a heated floor and plasterd over that nothing beats a heated pad in alaska and it looks good. ive seen people build earthbag style stem wall foundations that allow plywood floors with a crawlspace area! make sure you lay down plastic and insulate with a vapor barier! show your husband some earthbag building books and videos with pictures of the homes finished! you can save thousands of dollars! with all the money i saved i forex traded me up some more land leverageing omps lol i woulda never been able to afford that if i had framed my home something to think about

Thank you so much for sharing that.

Thank you posting & sharing the photos. It's very interesting. I noticed y'all didn't use any type of anchor between the concrete pads and the beams. Are y'all going to add some type of tie-downs later? Just curious!

Thank you for your insight. I hope you have a lovely day.

Gentlemen thank you each for your thoughts.

Ron, that's an interesting insight about the space not feeling right to you. Thank you! I'd not thought about that and it might have bearing on my husband's hesitancy. We'll have to consider that issue.


Jay & Dale, as I said, I appreciate each of your thoughts and do understand others' love of stick or framed building. My beloved father was a builder and so I was raised in lumberyards and building sites. The smell of wood, the satisfaction of a well framed house runs deep in me. We've lived in framed houses, brick houses, stone houses, renovated houses, family built, contractor built so we know there is a beauty and purpose to all types of building. However, I respectfully ask that if you're against earth bag building that you take that discussion to another thread. I respect your thoughts and your feelings but I began this thread to ask a specific question of those with experience in earth bag building.

Thank you so much for your understanding.

I thank you for your welcome and your thoughts.

Good morning. I'm new to the site & forum. I've been reading for the past few days and now I've got a question for those who have experience in earth bag building.

I've almost convinced my husband to build an earth bag home. I’ve been researching alternative building methods for years and frankly I simply love earth bags. My husband doesn’t love alternative building nearly as much but he does believe in the motto “happy wife – happy life”! This year when we take a break from working (we travel for our work) we're going to build two small buildings, a traditional stick build 8x12 and a 12ft diameter earth bag. We’re doing this because my husband is a very cautious person while I’m the one that gets crazy ideas and just expects it all to work out. Why the man hasn’t buried me in the compost heap by now is a mystery!

We’re testing our abilities and the abilities of our helpers. One helper is our son, 33 and very active & squats 320 lbs. The other two are our 17 year old grandson who squats 430 lbs and our foster grandson who is also 17 and squats 350 lbs. Frankly I think I’ve got helpers who can lift & tamp those earth bags. They all three are very committed to building whatever we choose. But my husband is concerned about several issues so we’re going to do a test project.

Currently the big question and concern he has is the floors of an earth bag house. He really wants a traditional wood floor at least a foot off the ground. He doesn’t like stone floors.

Wouldn’t it be possible to run floor joists between the 3rd and 4th row of bags and then just do a traditional sub floor? Or would that put too much weight on the lower rows? Thank you for your insight.