Earth Building: for Free

[makeiteasyable]

wahahah ye its fun alrightn

[CTKLG]

My Dad Told me to go POUND SAND alot when I was younger....I never knew it might actually come in-to a good use....

[AcidLifeform]

this is pretty useful for my architectural project

[Damis10001]

Lovely! And you obviously stay in great shape doing this work--cheers!

[santiu10]

wow

[ChuckPrichard]

Walls are the cheapest part of a house and are not the place to save money.

[99cachorro]

@ChuckPrichard when you consider siding, insulation, drywall, it definitly adds up. rammed earth, using your own earth not trucked in has to be cheaper. lots of labor though

[redhotbits]

@ChuckPrichard its not only money, the earth walls are healthy!

[RooftopWind]

Looking at videos today. I like the clip, nice job , have a look at my Home Wind Turbine videos and subscribe or friend me if you like. My patent pending system won a Green Design Contest, check it out.

Thanks, Sam

[smokarette]

He sounds like he's from Dublin

[vutEwa]

You could shotcrete the exterior walls for weatherproofing, or you could build Roman walls by first building two outer walls with bricks or something , rocks perhaps, and then infill with rammed earth and also debris of all sorts.

[troybrownrigg]

Will you people forget the music in you vidoes just wasted noise!

[Riscet4ever]

in north italty this well is called "trunere"

[jmg1957]

well done.

[MrEhud77]

cool! Whats the sand to clay ratio?

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 typically 3 to 1 sand to clay...

[noturningback7]

Great video and looney is good! lol

[noturningback7]

Great video and looney is good! lol

[noturningback7]

Great video and looney is good! lol

[kawaiikuronekko]

lol sorry still logged in gf's account.

[brwmeister]

This looks so cool. I am 28 years, and hoping to soon build an all natural, yet sturdy house, for cheap as dirt (no pun intended...or perhaps there was...). New to the whole thing, and would appreciate any info.

[simcitymoviecritic]

@brwmeister Where are you?

[kawaiikuronekko]

@simcitymoviecritic  I live in NJ, but plan on building elsewhere. I had been looking at the whole cob ville thing in Oregon, thats kind of along the lines of what I what.

[simcitymoviecritic]

@kawaiikuronekko I am actually heading up Northern California- in the red woods. Good luck, hope you achieve it.

[Ladyhawkwright]

What is the total price of an earth home? My family and I are considering it but to spend $25,000 + on concrete and timbers would seem crazy when I could buy a tricked out double wide for that price. I want to do it but not sure if it is financially worth it.

[plumevine]

@Ladyhawkwright Check out cal-earth institute, just google it.

[giveabighand]

Shot crete is a bad idea. You want the walls to breathe. I repaired a wall on my 150 year-old house with concrete and it got corroded and got mildew because the walls didn't breathe any more. Now I use plaster.

[pw342]

I repointed and plastered all the walls of my 500 year old house in cement too and just as i was finishing my friend told me I should have used lime which allows the walls to breathe. Also he said that if it cracks from the walls settling it either repairs itself or you can repair it with a little water. I did rebuild a two story building on the same site though out of mud, straw and small stones with larger stones on the outside as that was how the original building was made.

[fredyvideo]

there's a very similar technique in Mexico, it is named "adobe" (look for Patzcuaro) and it was very frecuently used in the past and is still used by the "poor", "ignorant" people who hasn't even go to elementary school, some of them don't even know how to write nor read...

hahaha very ironic isn't it and that lets us know again how wise are natives at their own lands, but some of us still rater prefer to call them savages.

[MrEhud77]

@fredyvideo Adobe is kind of similar, but there's alot more water involved and straw (It won't hold up in rain as well as this will, but adobe makes a great home if you maintain it well. (I'm oringially from New Mexico..)

[dascool15]

How do you support the mform?

[aaronanalog]

Yeah what about the rain ? Go to the store and come back to mo house, because it washed away lol.

[PakaNoHida]

This is rammed construction using "cob" and there are homes all over Europe that are older then any stick construction we have in the USA. They don't wash away, they are actually better construction then our current square wooden homes all over the place. You laugh, but this is very old technology.

[rushin2]

@PakaNoHida

Indeed... We just finished Phase 3 on our Earth Lodge using these same ancient techniques... Nothing new, but lots of work. Check out Earth Lodge Phase 3...

[NewJura]

@PakaNoHida this is not cob, just rammed earth.

[eicebleu]

You put plaster on it silly. Most of the Great Wall of China is rammed earth, and it's still there.

[JapaneseModernist]

Actually, most of it was rebuilt recently

[cdltpx]

I wouder if thompsons water seal would help? Personally I would build walls like this then I would shot creet the inside and out. As for the roof I would use MDI method and have a house that could survive a tornado. Sadly we live in an area where humudity high year round. Great thing about an earth home is they are fire resistant. Some folks will place clay around the house and make a fire to cure the clay.

[eicebleu]

Thompsons water seal would actually be a bad idea... when using natural building materials like cob, rammed earth, and strawbale it's best to use natural plasters so that the wall can breathe.  If you use something like sealant or concrete stucco you'll get mold!

[cdltpx]

When I look into a home I want to consider any additional maintence/energy cost as an expense in the total owner$hip. McMansioners ask just one question will this make others jealous? I ask what is the total cost what is its strength will it do what it should if I encounter X when I reach Y what level of maintence is expected. Container houses look so attractive right now since they can be used with concrete to break the look of the container and are strong enough to load with energy panels.

[mrmaciejm]

What about the rain?

[lescar88]

nice video

[bryce1jw]

far paly to uy!

[TheAcacia1984]

Hi, Me and my family are looking to find more information about making a home with natural resources. We are trying to find out more information about cob, or mud bricks, or anything similar, but unfortunately no one has yet responded to our e-mails. We have a family and need a way to make a home at a low cost, and why not using natural resources? If you can help us out we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Please leave a valid e-mail I can contact you at thanks.

[4footvagina]

smoke one more joint and then show me how the roof goes on

[fadedexile]

ROFL !

[phillipseric]

looks like a fucking shanty.

[GoatHollow]

Looks better than the tent you might be living in soon!

[DominickBlack]

HAHAHAHA!!! You're funny. And wrong, too.

[pumkinvine]

"give me a buzz" ?

looks like he already has a buzz to me.

[redbandfilms]

Good one, thanks for the laugh.

[DragonovSVD]

i could hang out with this guy.

[MisterBahston]

@DragonovSVD

As could i. Knowledge is power. This is the kind of person that hanging out with is an valuable beyond estimation use of ones time.

[BuyUsSomeTime]

Nice, but why not mix some straw in there for better insulation and more tensile strenght?

Could it be less work that way too, because you wouldn't have to move so much heavy earth and sand?

[rwgain02]

Great stuff! Looks like a load of fun, and smart too.

[clauagui1]

sos un maestro!!

[bknegsnlzy]

john ryan -rammed bong hits w/eatn chickens in the shed listening to zepplin

[Ninyae1]

John almost looks like John Hurt!

[OpeningYourEyes]

I'd love to spend some time with the "nutter" ermm i mean learning :D lol

Great vid 5*

[odin422]

a skill i need!

shared.

Hope you post some more videos =-)

[kohakuAmber]

wow! yes, who wouldn't want to spend a couple of weeks with him!

[desertblbuesman]

I cannot decide between cob and rammed earth. Why did you chose rammed earth? I am thinking of doing a cob dwelling.

[spud4peas]

The big difference between the two is that with cob you can be very organic in your shaping - curves, soft edges, etc. Around square glass you can cob it in so they look circular........Rammed earth gives you fine strong straight walls - mayber you could do a combination of both? This is what John Ryan has done. Good luck with your building.

[AussieFoodShop]

awesome cant find that music though after quite a bit of research! nice and instructive. good onya!

[spud4peas]

The reason you can't find the music is because I got the name wrong. They are called the 'Chicken Shed Zeppelin'. And I really must take the film off and correct the name. I've been very slack. Glad you enjoyed!

[cdoug25]

you dont need to take the video off, just go into the editing options which will be at the top of this video if your signed into this account, and edit the information section.

:)

[Kaberf]

Nice video - thanks for sharing. Rammed earth can be stunningly beautiful - I would like to see more videos on how to work with it.

[kazuhithomerun]

is this technique water-proof?

what will happen when it rains or snows?

when it snows, will the voids of the earth walls freeze, expand, and finally make cracks?

[spud4peas]

as far as I know the over-hanging roof protects the wall. A bike-shed built in Swansea, Wales (lots of rainfall)lasted 3 years until developers knocked it down! I will ask John Ryan for more info when I next see him.

[kannon9]

Thanks for sharing this good way to empower people to be self sufficent and do for ourselves.

[Cstrife234]

@spud4peas You can probably use some kind of lime (calcium) wash to seal it on the outside.

[MrEhud77]

@spud4peas you could use stucco outside to protect your walls, or even concrete (a brand called flexcrete)

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 you should never stucco earth, it needs to breath and stucco prevents it, any moisture and it will rot from the inside..

[MrEhud77]

@NewJura I come from New Mexico USA, Lots of adobe there, Lots of stucco over the Adobe, How is rammed earth different?

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 if you look at many of the older buildings that have been stuccoed over you will notice that they are all rotting from the inside, I was born AZ I know them well, this you will not find ANY native american adobes stuccoed over because they know that it will cause the wall to rot, rammed earth walls are adobe but instead of single earth bricks they are long layered bricks, I build all of these types of buildings all the time.

[MrEhud77]

@NewJura what rots though? Wood used or the Dirt itself? If it's the dirt what do you mean by rot.. Just trying to understand

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 @MrEhud77 soil is made up of micro organisms, those same organisms can rot just like anything else, now sand is a different story, its made up of rocks that have been crushed over time smaller and smaller, if you seal up soil in an encasement such as stucco the organisms that make it up will start to rot and the wall will actually start to deteriorate inside the cavity of the stucco.

[MrEhud77]

@NewJura So what does the bacteria do to the dirt? does it soften it so it provides less structural stability?

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 imagine a solid wall made from soil, it has heft and body, it has a certain volume in its form of a wall, air passes through the wall, the organisms do their thing the wall stays solid, it will keep that form for the most part forever if protected from the elements, now imagine another wall coated in a non breathable substance, the micro organisms die and deteriorate and the soil turns into a fine powdery material no longer keeping it form, now you have nothing solid holding the wall

[NewJura]

together except the stucco, the wall fails and shatters under the load of the roof. Earthen walls must be able to breath!! Go to some places that are a bit older that are Adobe with stucco over them, ask the owners how they are holding up, there are many many adobe buildings that were stuccoed on their last legs if not already condemned. The only place stucco works is over concrete or some other cementitious version.

[MrEhud77]

@NewJura So the Bacteria are important for the structure itself then... That makes sense actually... thanks, So in place of somthing like stucco what would you use to protect the walls?

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 earthen plasters with lime wash or lime added directly to the earthen plaster. It takes a bit more maintenance but thats ok, because it allows you to be more in tune with your home which 90% of people are never in tune with their homes.

[NewJura]

@MrEhud77 also, the best method for building a home is the "hat and boots" method. A good roof with nice long overhangs goes far to protect the walls from rain & sun, as well as a nice high stem wall base separating the earthen wall from the ground itself, this also protects the wall from "splash" from rain. Simple age old methods to help keep your earthen home happy and healthy for years!!

[Mikdeelo]

@MrEhud77 Hi there, pls fogive, I wanted to chime in on the problems with concrete and it's various forms, like stucco. Stucco forms an almost impermeable barrier to moisture, all the water which will pass through an earthen based wall will stop at the stucco and start migating downward. When this water stops at the foundation it will saturate the wall, be it cob, adobe or whatever, at the place where it needs the most strength. The result would be a catastrophic failure of the wall.

[rollinshultz]

@Mikdeelo I understand your postulation, but it assumes moisture only travels one way. By monitoring humidity levels, one can through the creation of airflow or 10 minutes of burn time in a simple fireplace, remove moisture from the air and reverse the process and direction of moisture through the wall. In winter when the windows are closed air heated at the wall surface will cause the same reversal.

[Mikdeelo]

@MrEhud77 A very good resource is the book, 'The Hand-Sculpted House", by Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith and Linda Smiley, Chelsea Green Publihing Co., it answers any questions you might have about cob, which can apply to about any earthen based contruction.

[MrEhud77]

@Mikdeelo Thanks, I'll have to take a look at that

[bryncomeaux]

@kazuhithomerun can use waterprofers but some people want the wall to breath. some builders add liquid asphalt to cob . diferent stuff is done to prevent spalling.

[agilitysnail]

I met John a couple of weeks ago in spain afetr he'd just finished building a caly oven. Wicked guy and very in touch with the univervse.

love the film too. Theres only one way I reckon to make a film lke that and thi is is it. Nice one.x

[deckchair15]

fab film keep on dancing on the earth john!

[skedski]

gosh ive always wondered how to do that earth type dance stomp on!!

[smileyjon22]

i really enjoyed this film - fab music, fit bloke, funny yet informative! really well made. more films from this film-maker please, with this guy in!

[spud4peas]

Dear SmileyJon thanks for your kind comments, look out for my next film - 'Swansea - the City where the Action is!' Can't promise John Ryan will star though.

[kannon9]

John should do a DVD on green building.