How late in the season can you continue building with earth bags?

Hello,

Just wondering how far into fall & winter I can continue to build. We should be done with our monsoons by mid Sept, and first frost is right around end of Oct. I understand covering for UV protection, keeping it dry and/or plastered. However, if it is not raining or snowing, can a build continue?
We have gotten a late start with ground prep and just ordered bags. We plan on building a multi dome home and also use the bags for a pit greenhouse. Nothing other than ground prep has been started. It will be mostly me building (I know, crazy!) and I think I can get one of the domes done before winter, cover it and be done till spring if I had to. However I would like to continue as long as I can. Also, the greenhouse is 35'x55' and about 6' deep. That is a lot of bags to get he walls up before even starting the roof. If I could continue with that through fall winter that would make me very happy.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Jim

You dont mention climate. As long as the materials or substrates you are using are not negatively influenced by freezing temps or you can mitigate for them, then keep on building.

If you can raise a large tarp over your building you can build as long into the season as you like

What about frost heave? If the temps drop low enough to permeate the bags before they cure.. might be disastrous. I am in the same situation in western NC.. trying to decide if I should wait until summer, but the advantage right now is it is drier in the winter!

Daniel Bowman wrote:What about frost heave? If the temps drop low enough to permeate the bags before they cure.. might be disastrous. I am in the same situation in western NC.. trying to decide if I should wait until summer, but the advantage right now is it is drier in the winter!

Frost heave shouldnt be a huge issue if the bags are able to stay dry right? There shouldnt be enough moisture in them to suffer frost heave to begin with and if they are drying then you should be safe!