Cheapest earthbags you know of?

Lif Strand wrote:I know this is an old thread and that since the last post thinking on materials might have changed, but just in case...

If a person's not in a rush and is looking for free sources for bags, I'd suggest putting out the word with horse owners asking for their feed bags.  If a person volunteered to pick up feed bags once a month after a while you'd have quite a lot of bags and a lot of happy horse owners.

I'm not sure what the material the bags are made of is called, but it's a kind of woven plastic-like material.  It will break down into strings of material if left in the sun a long time, but then earth bags all do that, far as I can tell. I've offered my bags for free to anyone who wants them locally but nobody around here seems to be into earth bag construction.

I always thought that would be a great way to use my chicken food bags as well.  I think they are made of the same thing.  I may build a small dome doghouse type thing as an experiment.

How did the OP finish up?

We gathered up used grain bags for our root cellar. Would those work for you. They were free.

I did a blog post about this where I try to share the latest, least expensive bag link. Right now $275 for 1000 delivered is the least expensive I can find.

https://sustainablelifeschool.com/where-can-i-buy-earthbags/

Morgan Caraway wrote:I did a blog post about this where I try to share the latest, least expensive bag link. Right now $275 for 1000 delivered is the least expensive I can find.

https://sustainablelifeschool.com/where-can-i-buy-earthbags/

That's a great link for traditional earthbags, which are good if you have short runs or need to pack odd corners.  If you are building longer runs, check out hyperadobe, which uses raschel mesh. The most reliable supplier I've found is https://bagsupplies.ca/products/tube-netting-rolls-hiperadobe-superadobe/ .  They are so confident they actually advertise it for hyperadobe  construction.   I was quoted $600 a roll for delivery to NC.

I merged your stuff with the following thread. I hope that is okay by you.

Hey guys, I'm trying to find a cheap source for earthbags. I'm in the Southwest US. I was reading about hyperadobe - using mesh material instead of poly material. I found this roll online, but I couldn't tell if it's the right thing. Can someone confirm?

If that is no good, where could I find the best prices on bags to build an earthbag or hyperadobe structure? I found an old thread on the topic, but it was many years outdated, and most of the links either didn't work anymore or took me to a blog that didn't actually say where to buy the bags.

J, I agree that solid information is lacking.  

What you have pictured there is single strand netting.  It does not have the strength to withstand shear forces.  You need raschel mesh, which is woven and has more heft.   Its strong enough that you could fill a bag with onions 8 feet high and it wouldn't collapse.

The most reliable supplier I've found is https://bagsupplies.ca/products/tube-netting-rolls-hiperadobe-superadobe/ .  They are so confident they actually advertise it for hyperadobe  construction.   I was quoted $600 a roll for delivery to NC.

The cheapest earthbag material is fimding a source of used feed bags.  That means doing some leg work, screening bags for holes, driving to pick them up, and then probably tripling your time and effort during construction.  

I have rolls of 14"x6000' woven pp earth tube UVI stabilized rated 2000hrs $850 plus shipping ready to go.
Same bag I have selling to the earthbag community for over 20 years
Steve 949 338 5978

steve villa wrote:I have 14" x 6000' rolls of UVI stabilized (rated
2000hrs) woven PP tube bag $850 rolls plus shipping. Same rolls I have been selling to the earth bag community for 20 plus years.
Steve 949 338 5978

Roughly what would it cost to ship? I'd have to have it shipped to Santa Fe, NM.

I did a lot of looking around when I bought bags for my foundation. I got a good supply of grain bags from the local breweries, but not enough and they were very large in size, great for foundations though. I got those for free and the rest just from an Amazon supplier really cheap and good bags with good ties. I've never used the continuous bag for super adobe, may be easier?

18"x30" at 100 bags for $47. Probably would get you around 200' of bagging when you take into account the bag length after filling/tying. Shipping is free. That is about 24 cents a foot versus the above post for more like 14 cents a foot.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2BARXY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've got 2 bales of unused bags in my garage and need to clear them out.  I'll donate to anyones project so long as you can pick them up. zip 72802

I operate a 60 stall equestrian center. We empty 6-10 bags per day. I have used them for earthbag  water tanks fo my pastures. If you check with horse places near you you can probably pick up plenty for free. The feed stores in the area will know who used the most bagged feed. I run them through the washing machine then turn them inside out so they are all white.

For those interested... Here's a relatively cheap hyperadobe bag supplier.

I found a supplier of Leno Mesh bags based out of the US. I know, I'm supposed to use Raschel Mesh, not Leno Mesh. Well, I contacted the kind folks over at naturalbuildingblog.com, and they said the main issue is whether or not the bag will tear when it is tamped. If the Leno Mesh won't tear, then they said to go for it! So, I contacted the supplier, and they said the Leno Mesh is stronger than the Raschel Mesh, and they would expect it would do better than Raschel. But, just to be safe, I had them send me a sample before placing my order. I got the sample in. It came in 18"(w) x 30"(L). I filled it with the earth and closed it with the drawstring it came with. I didn't use any staples or nails or anything to close it. Just the drawstring. Then I put it on the ground and tamped it as hard as I could. The bag held together beautifully. Just to be completely sure, I then broke up the compacted dirt in the bag, dumped it out, and refilled it with new dirt. I closed it with the drawstring again, and tamped it again. Once again, it held up great. The bag is still in great condition. I could probably repeat the process a few more times.

The final tamped size of the 18"(w) x 30"(L) empty bag was 16"(w) x 27"(L) x 4"(h).

Here is the link: https://www.glacierv.com/SPD/item-no-1089--35-lb-poly-leno-mesh-bag-with-draw-cord--500-pack--8000052A-1409950802.jsp

They also have other sizes available.

Total cost: $162 for 500 bags (which is $324 for 1000 bags, or about 32 cents per bag). Not the cheapest I've heard of... but still fairly cheap. Other suppliers I found wouldn't ship to my area (New Mexico), and I don't have the time to slowly gather used bags from local farmers or anything like that.

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