Well I am heading to Taos this weekend, specifically to Albuquerque to attend the first of two classes taught by the Southwest Solar Adobe School. The class is their Passive Solar Home Design class. It will cover the design of adobe / compressed earth block homes, specifically going over the NM building codes for compressed/rammed/adobe earthen homes.
After the weekend is done, I will be staying in Taos, on our new property, scoping it out, taking picture, meeting with the Taos Planning/Building department to determine next steps etc on obtaining a building permit. I will also be digging up a couple hundred pounds of earth and will be taking that to Powell and Sons, just north of Albuquerque. They manufacture compressed earth block machines. Compressed earth is how I plan to build our homes. I spoke to Bill Powell and he agreed to compress my dirt from onsite so we can see whether the onsite earth is of the correct make up to use in a compressed earth home.
I initially started my plans and design using earthbag construction as the method. After I realized I wouldn't be able to simply take time off work to build the home in one fell swoop, I realized earthbags might not be the right method for me. Earthbags won't allow me to stage the building of my property. I can't fill them, then come back a year later and stack them, really. If exposed for too long, they will deteriorate and I can't gaurentee that I can keep them covered. This requirement, along with my requirement to use earth, pointed me to stabilized compressed earth. Thanks and I'll share more later. You can also find more at my primary website, ourTaosHouse.com
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