You should never forget that every creature has its purpose in the cycle of nature and can also be very important to humans. Sepp Holzer's Permaculture
Thanks T Blankinship and Connor!
Re question: It rains a lot in the UK, and the ground is often damp.
To mitigate this the building is sitting on a 3 foot deep gravel foundation which extends about one foot beyond the perimeter The gravel bag foundation extends 2 rows above grade. Deep roof overhangs. Ventilation bricks.
So far the building is warm and dry in the winter (with a small electric radiator), and cool in the summer. I'm stoked!
You should never forget that every creature has its purpose in the cycle of nature and can also be very important to humans. Sepp Holzer's Permaculture
It's sedum...drought resistant.....planted into recycled plastic trays filled with perlite with reservoirs at the bottom. Very low maintenance. Eventually it will spill over the sides of the trays and colonise the loose perlite in-between. The perlite and sedum are good insulators. The idea is to prevent overheating in the summer and lessen heatloss through the roof in the winter. They have beautiful flowers all summer too.
Hi, I am to learn this way of construction. We want to build schools and little medical centre in DRCongo ( part of our NGO’s project). Is there anywhere in UK tolearn this, please?.
Hi Nanou, welcome to Permies!
I'm not sure, but you could try CAT - the centre for alternative technology in Wales. They run short courses on environmentally friendly building techniques so might be worth asking. They probably have more information on other people who work with earthbags as well so could pass you on to someone else if it isn't something they do themselves.
Good luck!
Looks great. It looks like you used raschel netting on a roll. Where did you get it? I'm in the UK too and was thinking of doing hyperadobe for a building but haven't found any suitable supply of continuous netting. I've used bags before, which works fine too, but I think hyperadobe has many more advantages. One problem I found with bags below grade or built against soil is that rats will gnaw holes in the fabric and burrow into/through the bags. The plan for future work is to surround the bags with stone below grade, maybe use some slate pieces vertically against the bags as a shield.
If you can move it an inch, you can move it a mile. Just expect it to take a little longer.
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