Well I haven't posted in a while as I have been digging in to learn more. I have been following Alyssa's progress (my neighbor about 1/2 mile away) and have seen where she is having some trouble with wall plumb as well as squareness of door and window bucks. Since she has been working on this non-stop since May, it is apparent as well that there is a LOT of labor and time in building an earthbag home, which is something I don't have. Since I can't build it all at once, I need to find a method that will allow me to build, let it set if I need to, and come back and finish. I also want to start small and learn. Based on Alyssa's experience, the amount of labor and time required to build earthbag and the fact that I can't leave it (the bags will rot), I am not going to use earthbag design.
To that point, I am going to use earth. Did you you that a home made of 12" or thicker earthen walls will only fluctuate +/- 3 degrees off of the median tempature of the day? So in Taos, where it's 90 during the day and 60 at night, our house will sit at a comfortable 72 to 78 degress without doing anything.
Compressed earth was my next selection, but with this, I still need to either make the block or buy it. To make it I need to have a machine or rent one. I can buy one from $12k, and I don't know where I can rent one. There are folks who will come onsite and use my earth, but they want $1.85 / block to do this. So, if I want to do it I need capital for the machine, time to test the earthen mixture and time to make the blocks. That won't happen, not now anyway. If I buy stabilized blocks they are stabilized with portland which means that it will feel as though I am working with cinder block walls, even though their insulative properties will be of earth. In speaking with folks who have used these, this is tough, dusty and demanding. CEBs, at this point since I don't live in Taos to work on this full time, are out too.
So finally, Adobe. I can buy stabilized adobe blocks (weather proof) which are fairly easy to cut and size (compared to CEB) and have them delivered for $2/block. This saves me the time of making them, figuring out the earth mixture etc. Now I only need to make the mortar. The blocks can be delivered anytime and I can use them when I am ready. This will be my choice.
To make this reasonable, I will be building in 3 phases. 1) a cabin/tool shed combo. This will be a building that is 8x12 and will be about half the size of the next building. This will have water and heat, rubble foundation etc. I will design this in miniture really to make sure I learn as I go. It will have parapets on 3 sides and a sloped metal roof to gather water. We will have an outdoor shower and bath. 2) A guest house twice the size but of the same basic design as the shed. 3) The house. The design is still in question. I will post the layout on the 10 acres in an upcoming post.
