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Division of labor with an earthbag home

 
pollinator
Posts: 335
Location: SW Washington State
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I have been intrigued with the idea of building with earthbags...for at least a decade.  I now have some property and will spend the next two years working on infrastructure..then want to build a couple of buildings.  I friend told me that he is pretty sure he could put eb accurately in place with his backhoe and an attachment called a thumb.  Got me to thinkin....I am a lot closer to 30 now than I am 20 ;)  I am concerned about wear and tear on my body...also concerned about being able to get bags up quickly and covered so that they can be finished and protected from the sun.  Can I divide the labor - set up a station that would do nothing but sift and fill bags using some simple machines until I had a few thousand, and then pull that station down and reconfigure the tools (that would be needed) to put them in place?  There are numerous details that would have to be worked out with each station.  I am concerned right now about the main idea.  If I did this, then earth bags would be sitting on top of each other for 2-3 weeks. They would start to confirm to the bags that they are stacked into and then set, then would be taken apart and repositioned in the wall of the house.  I am assuming that I can use the backhoe as a tamper to get each bag to conform in its new position.  If this would work, the bags would easily be sheltered from the sun while being stored.  I think there is a lot of time wasted building with ED when bags are filled one by one.  Put another way, I am trying to find a much more time efficient way to do it.
 
gardener
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I think your main concern about the bags sitting for so long is valid. The material going into the bags needs to have an adequate moisture content to get them to conform and set properly, if the material sits and dries, even if you retamp, it won't necessarily be the correct consistency for a strong brick. The labor on bagging isn't horrible. Instead you could fill enough bags to do a single layer, then lay and tamp. Use the machine to lift the bags for higher on the walls and save yourself the lifting. If UV is a major concern-get good uv protected bags and after you do two feet, spray with a clay slip to help keep the sun off.

Bags take some unique muscles to get them in place and tamped. If you've never done a building, bagging and tamping sucks for about a week, but then your body begins to figure it out and it you'll be doing double the number you could the first week.
 
pollinator
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Location: Bendigo , Australia
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Daniel is on the money, dont stack the bags.
Also hand tamp so you can watch what is happening.
Instead of using a backhoe, why not look at using a manual lifting boom system, or a gantry.
Or keep the bags small enough to carry up a mobile step / scaffold system.
Or use the sausage system and carry the dirt to the wall top.
What design of the building will you have?
- vertical walls
- curved inwards walls
images-7.jpg
mobile step system
mobile step system
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