No problem. I hate that s*** too

Glad it helped

You should consider hyperadobe for a tiny home… that is what I would use. They are more versatile as far as shaping and overall I think they would be easier than these 😎

If you do decide to go with earthbags, a dome would be a little more sturdy, and you wouldn't have to worry about engineering a roof or buying any other materials. You can cover them with adobe or concrete, depending on how natural you want, or pricing, whichever is more important to you. The domes also tend to be really strong too. There's quite a bit of info on here as well as online in general about building them safely if you are interested 😀 (btw, if you want an extra nudge, I believe I saw somewhere that the cost of an earthbag dome was about 14$/sqft on average to build, while an average tiny house was about 114$/sqft)

@@OffGrit what is hyperadobe

@@kerryann2036 they are continuous tubes that look like onion bags . They have a lot of advantages to bags . One being that you don’t need to do the barbwire in between layers… main disadvantage is that they are stationary and once you get higher on the walls, moving dirt can be tedious.

I like it too because it sounds good bulletproof and warm in the winter cool in the summer.

thanks, this one is almost completed and we will be working on our house soon, but we are going to us shipping containers. we are going to incorporate earth berming into our design as well as using earth tubes for cooling.

I am up at the pinky Tip of Michigan lots of water basically have a massive plateau about 80 to 90 feet up from my springfed creek bed which is a wetland area that attaches to a river… I'm also manipulating in modifying redirecting small bits of the springfed creek to create a fill for my gravity feed and to keep my critters water fresh and then I use the runoff from that for irrigation and fertilizer. berming has been my friend. Even in the coldest winter I rarely need much heat so I just make biochar and use the radiant heat from that to bring us above the 40° norm in the winter... It's always nice and cool even at the hottest point of the summers ... makes me wonder why people build up into the sky. I use light tubes and mirrors... and then my south facing pitch I've done as walpini design to maximize the winter solstice light and heat options... I'm 60 and I've run an animal sanctuary and I work full-time and this is a work intensive lifestyle but it's so worthwhile and I feel so connected to my surroundings. It's also nice that I don't have to worry about the grid going down or skyrocketing energy costs. Nor am I concerned about grocery store shelves because I don't purchase food I grow my food or I barter with local farmers first things I cannot or do not grow... it's awesome to see other people being innovative and sharing thank you so much.

@@suzyskye733 I seriously felt every word. That freedom and connection is a spiritual one and I know what you mean about the harmonic balance of everything... I wish longevity and continued success with your walk with the creator and creations, I envy you 👍

Estoy pensando en adquirir una plancha apisonadora a motor , cree que quedará más firme ? Aún no estoy convencido de la firmeza antisismica de este tipo de estructura

Hello

REDCLAY HOMESTEAD 🙏 thank You I greatly appreciate it

Thanks Fred. These were purchased at Sandbaggy.com and they are 14x26” and definitely get the UV protected ones

How many bags approximately per small house?

Hello , thank you. It was around 950 bags for this one.

Lol thanks 🙏

Most definitely 🙏💪. I know it would work as far as a cistern goes... This building flooded when I first moved out here and it was a cistern...not by choice... But if you dig out the first couple feet like this one and then make the walls the bulk of the water pressure will be distributed in the ground and then you could probably get away with filling it full with a liner

Awesome man congrats 🎉. Where did you get them

I laid these directly on earth. I did dig a trench around the outside perimeter and laid a moisture barrier in the trench and over the first couple courses of bags to keep them dry. I know people dig out a foundation and use gravel etc.... one thing out where I live is that the ground is extremely hard so it doesn't really require it for a build like this.... But if you live in a place with less stable soil and get a lot of rain, digging a trench with gravel underneath the bags may be a good idea

@OffGrit Thanks for the reply! You've inspired me!

Well, there are actually a lot of people out here that build hyper Adobe or super Adobe and which it is a continuous tube. And overall, I think that they are structurally better than this method. However, in certain circumstances these bags are actually better at least for me because number one. I like the fact that these are mobile and that I can fill them in one place, move them another place etc. So there's that. Also, I now have a tractor that I will be setting up to fill at least 12 bags at a time if not more so it will be faster than doing the tubes. Thnx

@@OffGrit ohhh, great job man, thanks!!!

Most people will put a trench with gravel as the foundation. On this one I put a moisture barrier around the perimeter and the bags are directly on the ground... Where I live the ground is extremely hard so it works

@@OffGrit cheers. Do you think this could works for a tropical island ?

@@povbodyboard if I were to build this on a tropical island, I would make sure that the roof overhang was at least a couple of feet in all directions... Might also put up a moisture barrier on bags and then use lath with a stucco mix for the coating... There are people building these all over the world and I have seen them in rain forests so I think yes.... You may just have to consider what type of soil you have to fill the bags and see if there needs to be amendments made...

You don't HAVE to use barbwire BUT it can easily become unstable after 4-5ft.... If you use bags that are wider you could be ok . Also I used to look at military structures built with sandbags and they have some interesting setups that don't use it between the bags

I used about 1000 bags for this and the building is about 3 foot in the ground so it is taller inside than outside. It is 300 sq ft thank you

Yes. I have since used a tractor with sifter to fill

Thank you!

@@OffGrit we would weld about 9 of them together and 3 spikes on each side so as to slip them over our livestock water troughs floats. Damn hogs wouldn't just drink water but tear the floats up. RR plates were so damn heavy we had fewer instances.

Well the structure has been done for a couple years and it is just fine. Most bags were staggered

We used polypropylene bags. The lighter colored ones. I would look at SandBaggy.com they have options and even UV resistant bags. My experience because I have built other things since, is that you have about a year of exposure with this before it is even an issue... If you are covering them in a stucco like I have, they are good to go

Appreciate your kind reply. 👍

What will be a good media to fill in these bags which will really be strong and stand for a good number of years? Do give me a couple of options to help choose which is price worthy. Thank you

@@albertamanna2258 there are ratios that work well with natural dirt. people use anywhere from 5% to 30% clay ratio in normal soil (look up soil jar test for diy dirt analyzing) i didnt use anything except soil and i sifted it through a screen to remove stones....and then tamped it....that is it. 3 years later and this building is solid

Thank you 👍

Hello and thank you 😊 I have this thing almost finished. .. we are now working on furnishing a tiny home made out of pallets and this earthbag is going to be a mushroom grow room . If you watch our channel I will be posting more on this build soon

hello I have had a roof on this for a couple of years,,, the roof is a standard lean to style roof with metal panels over pallet slats and a diy steel truss. thanks for watching

They are for ventilation

You can mix concrete or cement.. I don't need to because our soil has good ratios out here

I can do 20 per hour

it still isnt done..lol. although i have been bouncing around to about 5 different projects at once.

@@OffGrit I really want to make a dome that I keep adding additional domes to over time. The first one I worry will take too long. Especially if I'm alone.

@@oOAjjOo my advice to someone that would want to live in something and add to it, ,,,, i would go with a shed or a cheaper rv... it is a long process and almost every video i watch of these being built is with a group of people which is a different ballgame when you have help.... a shed can be built fairly quick (livable in a couple of weeks if you spend about $1500-2k) and then you can take your time on the build....

@@OffGrit yeah. I think I can build a cabin pretty quickly by myself. I just feel a super adobe would work best in this climate. I guess I'll just stick to the cabin.

😂 thanks man

Hello. I don't know at all. Best thing to do is contact the county planner in your area

So you can buy the barbed wire separately (tractor supply, Lowe’s Home Depot) and you do a course on the bags (layer) and then you roll usually 2 lines of babrbed wire between each layer. Once you do the next layer you then tamp the bags to make sure they are well attached to the previous layer.. the barbed wire prevents shifting

Yes there can be. We got ours covered before there were any issues. I also bought UV resistant bags

@@OffGrit “UV resistant”, good point. I’ll look 👀 into that locally. Thanks

Are you wanting to know the weight with the dirt? If so between 40- 50 lbs each

These are 14x26

@@OffGrit thank you

Well...... Not sure what your dirt is like... I have a good mix of clay/sand so it isn't necessary for me to add cement ..

@@OffGrit Thank you for answering no one else has. I live in Oklahoma. I was just going to use sand. But the first two rows I was going to use rocks. I was going to use rebar and wire to secure and lock down more. Tornados are common and lots of lightening.. I wasn't going to use cement because I live on a thousand a month. But I will now because several say it's needed. Im just trying to have a home so I don't freeze like last year or cook like now.

That's a bummer

4:30 of this video I explain it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rJZhldJms83Np5c.html

I get them @ sandbaggy.com they cost between.30 - .33 cents each ...I don't remember. I know the more you buy the better deal

Those are for ventilation

Paul filled roughly 21 bags per hour. Each level of bags took about 2 hours to lay barbed wire and tamper. The digging .... lol ran into caliche so that took a while.

@@OffGrit That evil Caliche!.... maybe there is a way to make caliche block homes?!?! They will never fall down, lol

How do you tell the difference from caliche to clay?

@@ripsagoly caliche has rocks that appear locked into its matrix and more calcium that acts like cement. Just my take

I have one in one of my later videos... Involved a tractor and a sifting screen. I was able to fill 12 bags at a time with minimal effort

@@OffGrit --- cool --- something fully auto would be a game changer, maybe something that works slow but continuously.

Hello, I recently figured out that ROUGHLY 2.27 bags per SQ ft of wall

Southern Arizona Cochise County

Yeah I know it sounds strange but it does. It acts kind of like Velcro, especially once the bags start weighing more and more. On top of it, The dirt just creates alot of weight... Plus the barbed wire is continuous without brakes so it attaches the next course to the previous course etc

yep... it has evolved quite a bit since, but i had a lot of time to think out here LOL

This structure was close to 1k bags for 275 sq ft... but it is partially in the ground so we used less

I got these from Sandbaggy.com

@@OffGrit thank you very much, in the process of buying my material to start building soon.

Hey 👋 this is Cochise county

Near Sierra vista, tombstone, Pearce. RU4 property.

😂

Grow a brain

Hello, no this is just an outbuilding but yes it is just on the ground. The ground out here is very hard... There is a moisture barrier around the perimeter that is buried below grade to block water....

Some people have had issues with that. However, I had these bags covered before it became a problem. Plus I bought the UV protected versions