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Earth bag, CEB or rammed earth?

 
pollinator
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Location: SW Washington State
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Background: I have some property in the desert that I want to start developing in 2 years and am looking for options for it.  I would like to build a wall near the north boundary - maybe 100 feet long - and attach some small buildings to the wall (a long greenhouse and a workshop): the wall would be one of the walls of the smaller buildings.  I want the continuous wall because:
1. there is an almost constantly blowing north wind that I want to shelter my house from.  In the winter it is COLD!!!
2. I want to put roof on all of the wall, whether there is a building as part of it or not, to use to capture rain, which will be used in the greenhouse.  Making the wall continuous helps me collect more water and makes the plumbing more simple.
3. There is a history of people and animals walking across the property from that direction.  I saw the property in the winter, when there was a few inches of snow on it, so did not notice that.

The area often has earthquakes, but most are less than 3.x, though some will creep up to 4.  It is not well known because it is in the middle of nowhere :)

When I talk to people about building this kind of wall, people usually jump up and say "use rammed earth".  The little information that I was able to find, however, says that earthbags hold up much better than rammed earth?  True or not?  I know that earthbags are a lot of work - set that part of the equation aside for a moment.  Either case will be a lot of work.  I would like to chose the method that will most likely hold up (if properly constructed) through earthquakes, and be useful for the next 40 years - at least.
Any thoughts?
 
pollinator
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Location: Kansas Zone 6a
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What power equipment will you have? How close to the "right" mix is your soil? Do you have rock available in usable sizes?

When I looked at this 10ish years ago, CEB took the most up front capital, air rammed earth was second, and earth bag was third but more than you would expect.  Any method is going to need a super efficient method for moving and mixing material for a project of that scale. You are talking at least hundred tons of material to move.

My preference would be a wide rammed earth wall.  Mainly because I have a front end loader and can get a gas powered jumping jack compactor cheap.  I would add a little Portland and steel.  I would add either a rubble trench foundation with short gabion wall or the big concrete retaining wall bricks, the 2 foot by 2 foot by 4 foot one ton each ones, as my weather protection.   Whichever is cheaper/available. You may want more,, probably need less.

Doing rammed earth with an air compactor is better, but $$$$. But so is the extra Portland needed for such a thick wall.  There are other stabilizers now, mostly polymers, but I haven't looked into cost or greenness.

You will probably need buttresses right away, so figure out where at least some of the buildings will be and start those walls.
 
pollinator
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Location: Bendigo , Australia
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plumbing earthworks bee building homestead greening the desert
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Lime can be used instead of portland cement, use at twice the ratio.

In areas around the world where earth building is common, earth bricks seem to be the most common building unit.
They can be compressed earth bricks or normally the bricks are cast in moulds on the ground and air dried.

I know in Peru we added a concept of a top perimeter beam to prevent instant collapse in a big earthquake.
This may help with the rainfall collection
benefits of rainfall collection
 
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If you can live with the wall being just a wall, and you have a lot of rocks, consider gabion baskets. They have a very distinctive look that some people like and some people hate. But if you have copious amounts of rocks on site, and I mean a lot of rocks, they can be a good way of handling that.

In particular they're great for desert climates; the galvanized metal will last for several decades.
 
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