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Turkey Nest or Ring Dam house construction

 
Posts: 44
Location: Canet lo Roig, Castellon, Spain: Mediteranean:cool wet winter, warm to hot dry summer
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I want to build a rammed earth house below ground using a turkey nest or ring dam construction. Both Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton have said it is the cheapest and
quickest way to build and it´s flood proof and fire proof!
Geoff has built one for a prepper but unfortunately he isn´t in touch. I would love to connect with anyone who has built one as I need expert advice.

If you haven´t come across this type of construction before, the idea is you excavate a trench around the house site which will become your wall, you then excavate
the centre (the house) putting the most appropriate subsoil in the trench which the digger keeps compacting until you reach the desired height.  
You end up with a mainly underground house. You can put windows at the top under the roof, or cut out walls for door and windows.

Ideally, I would love to build one as a workshop to benefit from expert advice and to share the experience with others. It could be filmed.

I´m living on the East coast of Spain in Castellon some 30 km inland.

Would love to hear from you. Thanks
 
pollinator
Posts: 5347
Location: Bendigo , Australia
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image of turkey nest dam
I have built such dams, you description does not sound correct.


Try this
Essentially such a dam is build by excavating the soil within the circumference of the circle and placing it on the outside, thus building up the walls.
That is a bit different from what you have said.
But you finish with a sunken hole and raised walls on a flat plain.
You would not want any rain enter whatsoever
 
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