The CEB Story - To Build a Village - Open Source Ecology

[missourigal69]

Im in SW Mo....all rock, packed in red clay down here...Y'all have better soil up there.

[TheDateLady]

We live in Egypt and make bricks by hand, with 4 guys we make 2000 bricks a day as well. We will contact your website, but for now, If you were to dig a hole and set you machine down, under ground, you could then fill by wheel barrel...saving you time and labor... Good luck , great work and well be in touch!

[a10fjet]

youre a great narrator

[MrXaipex]

wow!

[menonfire12]

Oh this proyect is so cool, so cool!

[torroland]

genial, me gustaria tener mas datos, soy de culiacan sinaloa.

[joshwand]

What about an elevator to load the hopper? Then you'd just have to move the earth longitudinally with shovels or a front-end loader onto the elevator... you could load the earth onto a horizontal belt feeding the elevator to have more surface area to work with. You could also stick a rotary mixer at the top of the elevator, too, to make the earth uniform.

[HeavyDemir]

How much clay is ideal for the bricks ?

[xntrik52556]

NW Missouri? Then you're going to want some thermal insulation on the outside of the structure. Compressed earth block is fine when there are large temperature swings between night and day, like spring and fall in the Midwest. But, when the temperature swings are hot and hotter or cold and colder, as it is in summer and winter, the thermal performance is terrible.

[TheDateLady]

IF you can make the walls extra thick, (mine are 60 cm and 80 cm thick...have fewer windows and doors, then WHATEVER you use to cool or heat is maintained.... Sheltering walls (roofs) from direct sunlight ( covered porches ) cut the heat immensely, a HIGH-double roof also works wonders.... The Rocket stove w/ winding chimney pipes thru the built-in-seating, then thru the upstairs bed /bathroom is great too... We use an evaporative cooler, but chicken farms have coolerpad wall panels. GREAT WORK

[carp1844]

I am building a press using concrete and a 20 ton bottle jack from Lowes. The drawback is that it will make about a block a minute. It should cost me around 70 dollars to build..

[YouTubeToen]

This is so incredible awesome!!!!!!

[md22mint]

Will a DIY steel building be easier and quicker to put up? They sell the steel building kits everywhere on the internet and I was thinking about getting one. Some of those steel buildings look nice and they are not expensive. Good luck on your project.

[oclandestin]

A steel building may well be easier and quicker to put up... but it wouldn't fit so well into the concept of a sustainable post-industrial structure. Compared to the materials being used in the video, steel is energy intensive, expensive (will be more scarce in the future) and doesn't adapt as well to the natural environment in terms of internal climate control, amongst other things.

[hotapplepie2009]

@md22mint not to mention the expected life span of a steel building vs a CEB building - steel looks like shit after 10 years - There are earth houses over 500 years old that look incredible. For an implement shed, I can see going with steel but I hope your not thinking about living in it!

[Antiks72]

@hotapplepie2009 Painted adobe also looks awesome, as does thatched roofing. My only concern with this method is that you still need a power source.

[bayareaartist999]

And to be truthful, the apocalyptic Mr. Rodgers voice over needs some work.

The world hasn't come to an end quite yet.

Great stuff though. Can't wait to see what you have come up with next.

[bayareaartist999]

I have been looking around and I have seen that the bigger machines that produce blocks are really two machines. One that the material is dumped into by a loader and then it prepares the material as to breaking it down and then transports it by conveyor to the block making machine at the proper rate so the hopper does not get clogged. That is what makes the machines so efficient.

[9z87z89]

I wish you the best of luck for your project. It does seem to be a lot of work to get some bricks, i guess buying them would require a lot less work.

[hotapplepie2009]

@9z87z89 are you stupid or something? This is the prototype.... they are essentially in the process of building themselves a portable masonry block factory. Go shove your head up your ass.

[MrPotatoesLatkie]

@hotapplepie2009

Hey, telling someone that type of thing seems completly out of place with this type of video. It's inspiring, but different from what most people today would consider normal, so scepticism is normal.

Be considerate and, positive.

[MrPotatoesLatkie]

@9z87z89

Nothing wrong with hard work.! It's much better than sitting around and, one can learn a lot. The point is to be able to live outside the system. They make their own machines and, their own building materials.

[greenmarcosu]

Why not straw bales for walls covered in earthen stucco? Seems like an easier proccess and more insulation for the effort.

[hotapplepie2009]

Exactly! Put strawbales on the outside of the whole building, thus creating the perfect atmospher for utilising the thermal mass of the blocks. Plaster both outside and inside walls with either lime of earthen plaster. Research: Earthen Floors to finish. Great job guys. and hay that front end loader/digger you guys built.... AWESOME!

[jbraly]

Questions... floors for your dwellings? Surely not living on dirt.... and what about a Stuco or adobe like covering for the inside and outside of the bricks? Wouldnt that not only be more pleasing to look at, but provide more support?

[marcinose]

We are in NW Missouri. We do actually have just dirt floors. We were considering some kind of stucco, although I think the plan might just be to cover the walls with a mud plaster, which is ok because the walls are covered with overhang.

-Jeremy

[techtipsforparents]

Would this sort of building work in any region of the US or does the type of earth play a major role? I would imagine in areas where the earth is hard clay it would work well but in areas with sandy, loose earth it would not. WHat have you found to be true in your research?

[marcinose]

I think it needs more clayey soil, with a little sand mixed in. I think the bricks made with looser soil fell apart too easily. We haven't gotten to do much testing yet, but we will when we finish CEB prototype 2.

-Jeremy

[poepflater]

@marcinose Here in south africa in days of old, houses had floors made from cow manure, look it up, its nothing like what you think like, its solid and smooth.

[TheDateLady]

My entire place has mud plaster...except for the Kitchen and Bathrooms.... OR the locals have outdoor Kitchens/Out Houses cause MUD Buildings (OLD) typically cant have water inside, duh. YOU CAN put a cement "Plaster" (5cm) on the walls right over the mud bricks...save that MORTAR! Use a mud mortar...you must use stone w/cement for the foundation, typically 30 cm above the ground...then start the mud const.....I use a regular brick for the corner posts & fill the rest in with mud brick..easy!

[jbraly]

only 134 views for something this amazing? GUess everyone is watching American Idol. Good stuff guys. Where is your location? I'd like to visit