Hello Permies, would like to get your input please.
We are planning to start our earthbag
project next month. We are in South India.
While deciding on the specific site, we found an existing foundation/platform that was made by the previous
land owner, and we thought we could use that instead of making a new foundation from scratch. But now we're not sure.
The foundation is:
1. Rectangular shape, 4.5m x 9m
2. On a slope, so the front part has around 1m hight of stone wall visible, while the back part is roughly level to the ground.
3. Made of dry stone, no cement/mortar, and looks like a retaining wall. The middle portion is filled with soil and now overgrown with
trees and plants.
4. The foundation has existed for at least 15 years, and it's still looking strong. The shape looks fine, and the stones are still in place. (We think that previous owner had built a natural building that has completely degraded since, as we've found no remains of construction, only this foundation).
Questions:
1. Being the foundation is a rectangular shape, is it advisable to make a round earth bag of 4.5m diameter? We thought of making foundation for the circle shape, inside/overlapping with the existing foundation. Reasons being: a 4.5m diameter building is a smaller project for us, hopefully will be easier, and a round shape
should be simpler to make than a rectangle/square.
2. How will we 'attach' the first
course of bags to the stone? would the regular barb wire method be
enough?
3. Can we start the first course above ground, and not inside within the trench, so there will be no toe hold?
3. If we dig inside the foundation, would we undermine the integrity of the foundation, seeing that its dry rock? I guess we'd have to do try..
Would appreciate any inputs. If this foundation is not suitable, we'd have to let go of this idea and start fresh. We'd like to make this work since our land is on a slope and with not much flat areas, so if this flat platform is usable, it would help jumpstart the project.
Attaching some pictures below for reference. Thanks!