Dee Dee Foley

Hi Deagan, good luck on your RMH stove! I attended a RMH course hosted by Cindee Karns at the Alaska Bioshelter in Eagle River. She also hosts clay plastering and light clay workshops. She got a large load of good quality clay from somewhere outside of Healy. If you email her, she could probably tell you the location (alaskabioshelter at gmail dot com). Anyway, I am planning on building a earthbag house and RMH also, but I currently live in Maine. I always thought earthbags would work in Alaska, but the tricky part is the permafrost. In Maine the frost line is below 4 feet, how far down do you have to dig in the North Pole to prevent frost heaves? Looking forward to reading about your progress. Lasse Holmes is also a good resource in AK about RMH, he teaches courses around the state. Good luck again!

There is a book called "No Building Codes" where some guy checked all the states and counties to see what there restrictions are. It was reviewed somewhere here on Permies. I do not know if it is still available.

Here is a link to Owen Geiger take on No building code counties http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/counties-with-few-or-no-building-codes/

I know of 2 places offering workshops, there are probably more

Austin Tx http://www.earthbaghouse.com/
Scott Howard offers workshops all over the world. He is currently offering one in Thailand for 3 months I think. http://www.earthenhand.com/workshops/

If you live in Missouri, you should investigate rice hulls as insulation for earth bags. Here is the link.

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/ricehullstudio.htm

Hi Jeremy, there is a builder Kelly Hart who used papercrete over earthbags. Not exactly cob, but it is a type of rammed earth. Here is the link http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/hart.htm He does report good insulation with it. The only concern I would have in your climate is the moisture. Most papercrete is done in dry desert like environments, I always thought of SC as humid. Since you live in the South, you should investigate doing rice hulls in earth bags. It is insulated, faster to build then cob and cheap. You live closer to the major rice states ie Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama. Often times you can get the rice hulls for free. It contains high silica like strawbales, so it insulates, resists mold, fire etc, but that probably belongs to another thread. Good Luck