The real advantage to a lot of these alternative building ideas is that a small group of people can build some kind of shelter over a period of time for nearly free.

Hello. You're the second you tuber that I've come across that thinks you move the earth bags. You place on the wall, fill and tip into place. I'm a 45 yr old women building a 15' earthbag dome by myself. Granted I'm almost as strong as a man my size, but it can be done. Bags are perfect for a solo builder as you can easily pick up where you left off. Also my bags covered in cob was barely damaged through a hour/ hour and a half of hard rain and nickle to dime size hail. I mean no disrespect, I just don't want people to be discouraged by inaccurate information. ( I'm in NM and use engineered fill mixed with my clay/ caliche soil in a cement mixer. I average 4 bags an hour. Having said all that, if I was as smart as I'd like to be, I'd do two 8' domes instead of one 15'😂 Good luck with your building ♥️

Thank you for this video. I’m a huge proponent of earthbag building but your points are 100% spot on. With a team of 4 fit people, they’re a challenge to build, and you will be exhausted at the end. I can source cheaper bags (especially for wholesale quantities of hyperadobe roll) and I am comfortable working through the process of using thermal mass effectively, but just like the design of the walls to ensure they don’t collapse, it’s a significant process and requires a lot of local conditions; not just erecting a building like can be done with other materials. While I love the method, I think so many of the failures are because people get excited without doing serious research and miss the points you explain here. Thank you for sharing these so succinctly.

That's true, most of the people don't talk about the cons. Thanks for sharing.

This is an excellent video. Very well done! As you said, not a lot of fail-states out there to learn from. Probably because there's such a tiny minority of people doing it as much as non-reporting fails. A hybrid Earthship/Hyperadobe using one of those giant dirt hills in the background would be n interesting project. Using the hills themselves to help provide thermal mass by digging out a section and looping the ventilation through part of the hill.

great video, i think you're spot on with four of the five points, but with point four, there is more options than just spray foam. I think it isn't widely spoken about because building that way is uncommon enough, but for earthbag building in the north, an outer course of bags filled with vermiculite/perlite is recommended. i don't know for sure, but a second wall might also help with the stability, if they are each slightly angled for a subtle triangle effect. most important thing to keep in mind i think is that earthbags/hyperadobe aren't silver bullets. if the design isn't well thought through, it can and will fail.

Really nice and compact overview of the drawbacks of this method. I think nothing beats the speed and flexibility of the frame and stick construction. It can be sturdy clean inside, easy to install any infrastructure inside etc. Yes dirt is in place and you can build with it but all at the cost of labor, flexibility and stability.

As someone with home building experience and that has heavily researched alternative building I could not disagree with you more. Do to your location you have no choice but to self build but you bought what you could afford congratulations on that. It's sounds to me like your building a shack not a home, lumber, T-1-11 siding probably no drywall as that is an incredible amount of work in it's self, etc. If that's the case in the environment you are in you're building for failure. Convince shouldn't outweigh logic. your stick home home will be an oven in the summer and a icebox in the winter and is the worst possible choice for your location and weather environment for longevity and easy of maintenance. I have been to Cal-Earth Institute, looked into Aircrete, cob etc. I settled on an adobe "Santa Fe" or "Taos" style build if you will for my upcoming retirement home. Fortunately for me I have access to inexpensive labor since I am building it on land in South America that is only a 30min drive to a good size city. Good luck.

Thanks for your video Sticks of 2x4 in Australia are around $4.50 usd per linear meter, they must be a LOT cheaper in the States!

Hi Joe! Thanks for doing the research. Another great video. In AZ I feel that concrete walls are best due to the temperatures.

We just finished a chicken coup that is 250 sqft and... 17 feet tall? Cob and plaster stick great to hyper Adobe. As for "cold in the winterr warm in the summer" is incorrect. Before the cob and plaster were put on yes, that was correct, it WAS still cooler then outside in the summer and a little warmer in the winter. However, once cob and the lime plaster was applied even when it was 20 outside it was 60 inside (no heat at all) in the summer when it was 100 it was 75ish inside. The bags were exposed for a year before cob or plaster was put on. When it rained the bags did get wet, BUT stayed hard. Yes cleats have to be used. Yes hurricane straps have to be used. And you are 100% on the labor part . 😊

Thanks for the video. I am coming into a similar life situation as you and have considered buying some desert land and building. I have looked at the earth bag home techniques and am impressed by these methods and what they accomplish. I've considered them. But I've also arrived at some of your same conclusions, it is hard work to build one of these earthbag homes. Not sure with my health I could accomplish it. It's possible, but it is definitely hard. Also this is the first video I've come across where the cons are talked about. Haven't seen that before. And people criticizing you for criticizing the building methods just because you "haven't done it before" really do not know what they are talking about.

I agreed until the insulation part. Earth walls don't need insulation. When the weather is warm outside, inside the house is cool. When outside is cold, surprisingly inside the home is warm. Actually, in North Dakota some pioneers built tiny mud homes and it worked out pretty well

Most of what you say is a good reason, but the falling walls issue was solved by the native americans and others by doing a better job of foundation. A lot of modern homes over the last 100 years in the US have foundation issues. There are multiple companies whose total business is around foundation repair.

Great video!

Agree with you 100%

Informative

Good video thanks to give us the info. But I disagree with you on only on one thing. building a house with earth it is not necessary any insolation, the earth adobe is the insolation. I lived for many years in an adobe house in Taos New Mexico and I know that in winter it keeps the heat inside and in summer it is cool inside. Adobe homes need no insulation.

There's an old structural engineer saying. Wood is forgiving, masonry is not. Meaning, wood buildings will give you years of warning before a collapse, masonry won't. It'll just fall over on you. Same thing goes for earth bags and adobe. They aren't an inherently safe or structural building method.

Thank you!

I’m so interested in your comments. Ru building a type of eco friendly home and what are r ur solutions?

Every time I look at something like this I think more and more that I would rather just pour a pad and put up a large quonset hut. It wouldn't be solo construction friendly, but it would be low skill labor friendly and that should be good enough. Build it, add septic, water, and electric. If you want to make it comfortable insulate it, otherwise consider having a camper or rv in the hut as your full service living space. It doesnt even have to be a drivable rv. It could literally be one with facilities that work and you just tow it to the site and park inside. The advantage with that is there are a lot of over the hill rvs that still have decent interiors, but have issues with engine, drive train, or a leaky roof. Those kinds of issues aren't an issue if it is parked indoors.

You could always keep thinking about it. If it was six months ago, your dome could be done and you would be healthier and more fit.

Hey Mate, what do you think of strawbale homes?

This is not true. Super adobe is not just earth in bags. You analyze the composition of the earth of your land so that you know with how much sand you have to mix it, and then you always add 10% of either lime or cement so that when it dries it becomes really hard and solid. When you use just earth it's not so robust and it's just called adobe, not superadobe. They are different.

Most of your criticism is Apple and oranges . Is building earthbag by yourself difficult of course it is : why not have a work away party , bring friends, relatives. Is being enslaved to the bank for 30-40 years better then hard for of 6 month. I know what I will choose. How many buildings of earth bag material have you done? 100? Or zero? Yes if you built improperly a wall can fall . So you just re built it and chalk it to expérience. This reminds me how after a concert of piano music a few older ladies came to the performer and told him that some of his playing was not correct. After ascertaining that they never played the piano we are stuck with the similar theme : practice what you preach otherwise it’s a a wasteland

00:00 Строительство дома из земли Джо строит дом на своей ферме в Аризоне, используя земляные мешки для стен. Он исследует различные строительные технологии и решает не использовать земляные мешки из-за их недостатков. 01:57 Недостатки земляных мешков Земляные мешки требуют много работы, могут рушиться, не имеют изоляции и трудно прикрепить штукатурку. Стоимость земляных мешков может быть сопоставима с традиционным строительством, но требует больше работы. 03:54 Взвешивание плюсов и минусов Джо обсуждает, что строительство из земли может быть сложным и требует много работы, но также имеет свои преимущества. Он призывает зрителей взвесить все "за" и "против" и принять взвешенное решение.

look at tiny shiny home. they are very honest with the complications and money.they also say its not cheap. but they doing it anyways.

"A lot of work" but remember that some people doing building work every day as full time job and they don't even have own house

Traditions Adobe construction has given society many historic Adobe buildings. So though you raise some good points you fail to mention actual building methods. I ve lived in Adobe for 47 years. Wouldn't want anything else

Hope the emergency gynecologist was on call. Is this a sattire ? Your so funny !! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for this informative video! I will never use this cheap poor mans way of life. Theres a reason why all our homes are made with sheet rock, timber and fiberglass. Trump 2025! Much love!

make concrete walls? What kind of solution is that? Your comments are not really valid. How many walls fell? What is your evidence of that? Your comments are unfounded and misleading.

Don't do videos that you are not educated on and passing bad info.

You seriously shouldnt make videos on things you havent done. Spreading other peoples information on something you dont have experience in is miss information. You cant claim to know anything about the cons of something you've never done.

Yeah you skimmed over alot of the benefits of earth bag building. Guys dont listen to someone like this. No experience and big opinions. I have built with earthbags, adobe, wood, pretty much any thing you can think of other than hempcrete. Earthbag building is affordable, storm proof, earthquake proof, bulletproof and its easy for a normal person to safely build. Hes a typical city person with a limited knowledge of sustainable building. Idk why he even made the video if im being real with you. Its not accurate

It is good for people to assume certain things just by watching videos, reading or doing some basic research. But, is not responsible to bring up information about building techniques that one doesn't have any experience whatsoever or any expertise. Thanks for your input, but to be honest, first try it and then dismiss it.

NEGATIVE NANCY

More work yes ,otherwise this is clueless B crap