Earth dome diary

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At the end of a day's building at the eco village near Sundurijal in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal Jan '07. Small Earth's Julian Faulkner gives a walking commentary describing the different buildings under construction.

Category:

Science & Technology

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[stitchimage]

i am moving to hawaii , and looking to use lava cinder- do i use concrete or morter

[earthboar]

Hello stitchimage - whatever material you have available must be made into a mix that has the right consistency. The simplest test you can do is to grab a hanfull of mix and squeeze it - you want it to retain it's shape when you release your grip and not be tto wet. This means you have to add water, cement, lime aggregate, clay or whatever other add-mix you need to achieve a "stable", workable filler. I've got no experience of using lava cinder - try different mixes, experiment.

[niamh2739]

A QUESTION: Once the domes are finished and covered with the soil and clay mixture how does that hold up in humid or rainy weather? I live in florida and would love to build one but iam not sure how well it would hold up. What is the best material to use on the exterior ? Cement ? Stucco? and how easy would it be to put some form of plumbing?

[earthboar]

Clay is good and provided that you work with care it will give you a sound water tight finish that will last a considerable time. Sand and cement render with an integral waterproofer in the final coat is ok is only appropriate when the bags have been filled with a lime or cement mix. We're building in the uk shortly and we'll be using a double coil construction with a waterproof membrane sandwiched between the inner and outer coils. The outside will then be covered in soil/turf and be planted.

[earthboar]

It's really easy to 1st fix all services once the dome is built. You can chase out channels for ductwork and fix back boxes for electrical fittings etc prior to plastering - same for all the plumbing. I'll sort out and post a vid showing this sort of work and you can also check out Lisa & Paul Major's Ardometv on youtube for fixing electrical boxes.

[WizzleThump]

What size rolls did you get? How does it look now? How many meters of bags did you use?

VERY NICE!

Thanks!

Subscribed!

[earthboar]

@WizzleThump At a guess we used about 65k to build about 55 domes. The most recent Cal-earth newsletter has more on the number of metres of tube used in relation to dome dia. The only dome where I've tried to evaluate materials used worked out about 780m and 18m3 earth for a 3.2m dome with buttressing, raised beds and serpentine seating.

[oceanali3]

great video! love it!

[oceanali3]

@JustAnotherViewpoint hi we live in SE QLD and bought our bags from Bundaberg Bag Co. We got 750 bags delivered for about $375

youll need more bags though i would imagine... this is using the individual bag method. cheers!

[JustAnotherViewpoint]

I live in Australia and have been considering building a shed using this method, Can anyone reply to tell me is it costly at all.

[omarnomade]

im in a caribbean island ,can i fill the bags with a salty mud from here?

[tamalayne]

great job! where do you get the long tubes? = )

[YUTOOBJUNKE]

how much do they cost.

[rushin2]

I'm glad to see projects like this one being completed. Inspiring... This is what moved us to start and complete our project on our Earth Lodge...