Earthship Homes in Maine

Does anyone know anyone in Maine that has build either a berm home and or an Earthship home in Maine?

Hey i'm also looking for an earthship in the Northeast. Wondering if anyone has any contacts on a rental or work trade like wwoof?

I am working on the plans for one now and intend to start building it soon.

For right now I plan on renting it out after its done being constructed. My ultimate goal is it being a place for my wife and I after the kids are grown up. They will probably get the house we live in now as it is far too big. A kind of stay-close-to-the-kids thing, but out in the back 40 where we can live quietly and in a much smaller home. Definitely off-grid, limited access, south facing, etc. I mention all this because there is a heap of difference when a house is built for someone else to stay in, and one designed to keep yourself content. Granted from person to person tastes change, but building something for yourself typically has details that do not go unnoticed by others.

I am not sure on how long it would take to construct; like Paul's Wofati Cabins I have some heavy equipment to make the work go much faster and obviously have the trees.

We just bought land in Washington County near the ocean. We are planning on building a tire earthship home. My husband was a pilot who has started losing his vision to an early onset hereditary disease. We are dealing with a disability salary so we moved to Maine and bought some land to leave well within our means reduce or carbon footprint, and have a better quality of life that is self sustainable. My husband has experience working construction but our budget is extremely limited. We can currently set aside about $500 a month to build this. The procurement of tires has been the one easy thing just labor intensive. The thing is we are in our mid 30s and 40s with bad backs and not in the best shape but we are both fairly strong and hard working. We have wood on our land (6 acres) for some building supplies but no equipment or money for rentals. We are currently stuck on building the roof cost-wise but we just have to figure it out. It is just us and 3 silly friendly dogs and we have our land, the will, and now the tires. If anyone would benefit from cutting down and using trees on our land we would be happy to trade wood for labor (your help building). I also have a culinary background and can offer free meals while you work. Having my husband and me is like having one and a half person to build this house, and we will still do it no matter what but if anyone wants to donate their time or machines for wood/and or great food we would love to have you. We are currently glamping in 14×20 canvas tent but we are hoping to get a roughed in structure before first snowfall. We will be having gravel dropped in about a week and we are wondering how to rent a machine to dig up a pile of dirt for the tires and use that space for a pond later. Again if anyone has any ideas or offers on how to make the build easier and it benefits them or just pay it forward we would love to hear it.

Off grid, non toxic, natural homes in maine or nova scotia? spring water, compost toilet, the whole keeping it real shabang.  Where youuu at!

I hate to say this, but the best thing you could do is remove tires from the equation.

There are quite a few threads on this site that talk about tire toxicity. Cancer rates in the industry are ridiculous. If you need further dissuasion, either go into a tire store, or stand in the middle of your tire pile on a sunny day, and trust your nose.

I would suggest looking into insulated concrete forms (ICF). The idea is, and it accords with temperate climate earthship building, that the form stays in place as a layer of insulation to separate the thermal mass of the structure from the ground, which is subject to seasonal freezing.

I wouldn't use concrete, however, but rammed earth, ideally, just like you'd be doing with tires, only you'd layer up inside the form, and then either run a tamper across it or use a manual one, lay down the next layer and repeat until complete.

You could also use regular forms like they use for concrete and do the walls section by section. In that way, you'd be buying less form infrastructure, although if you wanted to insulate outside your thermal mass, that would be another step before backfilling.

If you do decide to use tires anyways, please either design your walls so the tires are completely encapsulated, such that air exchanges through the mass don't result in the tires offgassing into the structure. This could also be achieved with an over-pressure internal environment, where more air is pumped in, such that offgassing is pushed outside of the structure.

Let us know how it goes, and good luck.

-CK

smart man, natural pure things like clay, hay, wool, wood, stone are the way to go. tires and paper and plastic i wouldn't recommend

I would use tyres. but I would also encourage you to do you own true research to convince yourselves of the virtues of tires.
Earthships are very hard work.
You may think about getting an ait compressor with a tamping hammer to reduce the work load.
Hiring a digger to loosen and move soil is another thing worth thinking about.
You need clay and sand in your soil, so I hope the land has that naturally.
If any earthworks are planned, think about the final ourcome, pond, roadway, berms etc

I'm in washington county and was wondering how that worked out for you.  I would like to do something similar.