How to Build a House With Earthbags or Sandbags

The practice of building homes with earthbags or sandbags is not new. These materials have been used to construct homes for many generations. Even today, the military uses sandbags to construct and fortify bunkers. These simple, durable building materials provide terrific insulation and are structurally sound enough to withstand most kinds of weather. With the increased awareness of environmental issues, it's becoming more common for homes to be built with earthbags or sandbags.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tamper (used to compact bags)
• Rocks

Prepare to Build

1. Sketch out a design for your home. Since construction with earthbags is less involved than building a normal home, you might not need exact blueprints. However, you need to know exactly how many walls you'll be building as well as their specific placements.

2. Prepare a site to build a house from earthbags. Choose a site that requires as little clearing or deforesting as possible.

3. Dig trenches along areas where you plan to build walls. Save all the dirt you excavate. You'll recycle all the soil when you begin to fill the earthbags.

Build Your House

4. Construct a durable foundation within trenches. Use stones of different sizes to build sturdy walls beneath the ground's surface. Fill in the empty spaces with gravel before you attempt to build a wall on top of the foundation.

5. Create a mix to fill your earthbags or sandbags. Sift through the soil you've displaced while constructing the foundation, paying careful attention to removing any rocks.

6. Moisten the soil with water. Allow it to soak overnight. The soil needs to be wet enough that it can be compacted tightly.

7. Fill the first few earthbags with small rocks and put them in place atop your foundation. Create a single, even layer of earthbags.

8. Lay an empty earthbag atop your rock foundation and begin to fill it with moist soil. While more advanced equipment is available for moving soil, a trusty shovel should work just fine.

9. Seal a filled earthbag and begin to fill another one on top of it. For the most structurally sound walls, stagger earthbags, so that their borders do not form a straight line.

10. Continue to stack earthbags higher and higher. You may need to use a piping system with a funnel to fill earthbags near the top of your walls.

11. Tuck in all corners of your earthbags as you construct the wall. Try to make the surfaces as smooth as possible. This will save you a lot of time and money when it comes time to finish your walls with plaster.

12. Use a tamper to compact earthbags as you build. A tamper can be constructed easily, using a pipe and a flat-metal plate.

Finish Construction

13. Build a dome roof to finish your new house. A dome roof can be attractive and all natural, though you'll have to build a structure to support its weight. Consider asking for advice from an experienced construction professional.

14. Plaster the walls as soon as you can to keep sunlight from damaging the bags. It's possible to plaster your walls as you build them. Prime the wall surfaces beforehand with an organic-adhesive mixture of boiled flower paste or glue, manure and sand.

15. Finish your house with all the modern amenities, such as electricity, plumbing and flooring. While it's possible to do this yourself in a minimalist, eco-conscious manner, you can also call in a professional contractor to help.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider polyethylene bags. While burlap has been used traditionally in the construction of sandbag shelters, polyethylene bags have become more popular in recent years. Polyethylene can withstand the harmful effects of sunlight much longer than burlap.
• While rock foundations are the most durable, you can also build a foundation from recycled tires.
• Don't overfill bags with sand or earth. If you're unable to completely close and seal a bag, it'll be much more difficult to stack other bags on top of it.