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earthship

Filling Tires, dirt vs sand

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posted 3 years ago

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I've been looking at cob houses for a while and with cob I'm also considering an earthship design. One of my setbacks is using tires which also led me to creating a post about using hay bales instead. The biggest reason that I'm hesitant to building an earthship house is the amount of labor involved in filling the tires. When I watch videos and read books on the topic they always fill each tire with dirt and pound it with a sledgehammer repeatedly, per tire. I have a full time job(something I want to free myself of via natural living) and I drive 45 minutes one way, so roughly and hour and a half a day to and from work, so using tires is something I just don't see myself having time to do. A few weeks ago I was showing a friend cob and earthship houses on the internet, he was in the army years ago and he immediately mention how they use to build tire bunkers and fill them full of sand. That gave me an idea, sand doesn't really need pounded/packed as it's already really fine. I could order a few loads of sand and fill each tire with it really speeding up the process. Is there any reason sand wouldn't work? Do you see an drawbacks to using sand in the tires? While we're here, what about earth bags as opposed to dirt filled tires?

Rebecca Norman

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posted 3 years ago

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I think it's packed earth that is the key in earthship designs, and the tires don't really do much structurally. They just force you to make wall thicker than you might otherwise. The packed earth or cob would hold up wonderfully well even if there were no tires. So no, I don't think filling tires with loose sand would be a good idea. I don't think they'd hold it up well, and the bottom ones might ooze.

If you are working full time plus commuting an hour and a half a day, and hoping to get your house built in an hour or two every morning or evening, I don't think any kind of hand-built earth house will get built within a small number of years.

Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.

R Scott

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posted 3 years ago

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The army was worried about stopping bullets, not necessarily holding a roof.

There is a parable about a guy that built his house upon the sand....

Sand doesn't compact and hold. It will continue to shift

Pounding tires does sound like a pain. I tried it. I could do one a day after work when I had a commute similar to yours. That means 3-4 years for the average earthship if you can do it year round and don't do extra on the weekend.

I am considering an earthship inspired design but will probably use the big landscaping blocks. They are made from surplus concrete, so they are a waste stream product.

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John C Daley

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posted 3 years ago

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I believe sand will just keep dribbling out and if you need to purchase it the economics may be ruined.
Earthbags are a practical concept, do you have you have suitable soil on site?
What size are you looking at building?
What is your location, it helps to tell. Somebody may know the soil type or even be able to help you on site.

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Lew Ashby

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posted 3 years ago

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John C Daley wrote:I believe sand will just keep dribbling out and if you need to purchase it the economics may be ruined.
Earthbags are a practical concept, do you have you have suitable soil on site?
What size are you looking at building?
What is your location, it helps to tell. Somebody may know the soil type or even be able to help you on site.

I wouldn't want to use soil from where i live just because I would end up with a pretty big hole in the ground, if I lived at the foot of the mountain and owned the property I could maybe use my own but that's not the case, and again I don't have the time to spend bounding each tire for 20-30 minutes full of soil. Earthbags is an idea I have considered but I need to do a little more research, I have no idea how expensive it is or how it holds up, but I think it should hold up fine especually with copy around it on both sides. I live in Tennessee about an hour from the city of Chattanooga.

Cristo Balete

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posted 3 years ago

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You know when someone does something really annoying and they get told to "go pound sand"? Military stuff is temporary.

Consider that back wall of an Earthship just as crucial as the foundation, and don't take any shortcuts. Overdo it right the first time and you won't regret it. Unless you have a crew of people working for you, Earthships are not a quick way to get housing. You don't want shifting, leaking, sagging, or any kind of movement in that back wall. Major structural repairs a decade or two later is a real drag and expensive.

And, honestly, I've wondered why people want to live with off-gassing tires.

Mediterranean climate, hugel trenches, fabulous clay soil high in nutrients, self-watering containers with hugel layers, keyhole composting with low hugel raised beds, thick Back to Eden Wood chips mulch (distinguished from Bark chips), using as many native plants as possible....all drought tolerant.

Lew Ashby

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posted 3 years ago

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Cristo Balete wrote:

And, honestly, I've wondered why people want to live with off-gassing tires.

What do you mean by this?

I have no idea where I'm even going to get the dirt for cob to try and get started.

R Scott

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posted 3 years ago

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Lew Ashby wrote:

Cristo Balete wrote:

And, honestly, I've wondered why people want to live with off-gassing tires.

What do you mean by this?

I have no idea where I'm even going to get the dirt for cob to try and get started.

tire compounds have changed considerably since Michael Reynolds started, and not for the better as far as longevity goes. Tires degrade differently, continuing to off gas longer than they used to. After they are encased in plaster and utilize the ventilation of the earthship, I believe they are no worse than any modern house. But I think it is worse than an earthship built with tires from the 80's. But I can't prove it.

John C Daley

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posted 3 years ago

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What is the problem with a hole in the ground?
It can hold rainwater perhaps.

Goldie Mariola

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posted 2 years ago

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We built our Earthship in the desert and used the local sand on our property. It’s called blow sand and it is very fine. It worked really well for tire pounding. We would get it a little wet so it would stay in place. In earthship design, the TIRES ARE THE FOUNDATION. The tire acts as a form for the earth. They are very strong and unless you use a blown out tire, it’s unlikely that it would have any problems. Once filled the tires are like 100 pound earth bricks.

As far as offgassing, it’s a non-issue. Off gassing happens when the tire is exposed to sunlight, oxygen or water, non of this happens when they are finished with plaster. We have finished our Earthship and there is no odor or offgassing.

Earth bag and strawbale and even tire bale are all great ways to spend less time on the structure of the home. It took us two summers to finish the tires for our 1,600 sq foot home.

John C Daley

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Location: Bendigo , Australia

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posted 2 years ago

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OP, I am curious about why you would build an earthship on land you do not own?
Earthships are VERY labour intensive.

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