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2B Fall Home, Garden and Car Care The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, September 27, 2012 Commentary A better world, one tire at a time: Inspired by Garbage Warrior By Forest Byrd RENSSELAERVILLE — Trying new things can be strangely hard. When it comes to building a house of tires and dirt, which in itself is hard work, the conversation with people who have never heard of such a thing can be even harder. I always like having a strong grasp on my topic because I’ve noticed that, when talking about new things, a lot of questions come up: What do you mean, a tire house Is it stable Does it catch fire Is it sanitary Are you crazy After I learned that it is possible to use tires as a building material, I was intrigued and since then have soaked up all sorts of information about the process. YouTube is a wealth of information on houses made of tires and you can even watch the movie Garbage Warrior, which portrays Michael Reynolds, the man who invented the tire house or “earthship.” The film catalogues the battles he overcame in the last 40 years. After absorbing all this great information, I felt that the next logical step was to help build a The Enterprise — Forest Byrd There can never be enough tires and they’re all free. Taken from across the Capital Region, about 400 tires of all sizes are unloaded from a box truck, ready to be sorted. Many people locally make good money delivering free tires. The Enterprise — Forest Byrd The class begins: Brian Premarlani at Garden of One in Rensselaerville demonstrates cutting the sidewall of a tire. The top of the tire had to be opened up so that the dirt could be compressed in. The Enterprise — Forest Byrd Work is never done. The two-room structure that will serve as a root cellar and ice and cheese cave is taking shape, but there is still a long way to go. Largest Inventory of Flagstone in the Capital District! Rt. 443, East Berne, NY Phone: 872-0242 www.heldeberg.com Bluestone Pattern Flag 2” x 6” Bluestone Sills Air Gun Ammo Inside Storage *Most cars Starting at $50.00 per month* 765-4313 Big and Small We Store it all. Bikes to Boats Cars to Campers Jet Skis to ATV’s Motorcycles to Motorhomes Year Round Storage Available Prepaid Discounts Swasey Rentals Voorheesville I N D I A A M M O B A D T U R N S S E I N E A H A B L O C K B U S T E R C O D E L P A S O S T A R S K Y S O W S T O M B U R B F L O S S L O U S C H I C S N E E S C R I P L O L L O W N K N E E A D L I B M U I R S E N T A B E L A P O E M R A E A N U T R H O S N I T R A T E A S I A N S G A L B R E A D B A S K E T P I E S P A R E I T I S A S L Y S S N S C A N T Y
The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, September 27, 2012 Fall Home, Garden and Car Care 3B … I believe you can create beautiful homes free of utility bills tire house. So, when I saw a newsletter at the Buddhist center in Berne looking for volunteers to build a tire structure in Rensselaerville to be used as a root cellar and ice and cheese cave, naturally, I was all in. The project was to take place at a 90-acre retreat site owned and run by Rachel Ginther. Her Garden of One is located at The Garden at Thunder Hill on Thunder Hill Road above the hamlet in Rensselaerville. An aromatherapist and herbalist, Ginther started out as massage therapist and has also studied reiki, a traditional Japanese method of healing through touch. And she has made nearly 400 different flower essences, which, she told The Enterprise in 2007, “release mental and emotional patterns that we carry,” and work on an energy level, much like homeopathy. I drove to Rensselaerville not really knowing what I was in for. All the YouTube information in the world is useless unless you apply it. This was an experiment. I wanted to see how practical it was to use a sledgehammer to pack 400 tires with dirt. I also wanted to see how many volunteers would show up for the weekend of work, and meet the brave people who had decided to try something new. As I drove to the site, passing a grass-roofed hut full of goats and a large retreat house, chickens and dogs scattered in my wake. Above the door, a sign read “Garden of One” and all around were nothing but gardens and trees with a large pond in the distance. Swarms of flies filled my truck and a pile of tires beckoned ahead. This must be the right place. Because I was the first one there I got a preview of the upcoming lesson on cutting tires. We were going to cut the sidewall off one side, allowing us to fill and tamp the dirt into the tire straight down instead of filling the small groove in between sidewalls. It seemed faster in one way but the technique of the original earthship did not cut the sidewall and those builders filled thousands of tires in a month, so I’m not sure which is better. One way or another, it is quite easy to cut with a Sawzall and a metal blade. Saturday, a few volunteers meandered in as the day started with a full lesson, a demonstration of tire cutting and filling. We started sorting the tires and later more people showed up and we were off. Most had read about The Enterprise — Forest Byrd A new kind of dance: Coordinating footwork with sledgehammers, volunteers from Troy to Massachusetts and Vermont pound dirt to expand each tire, creating a 200-pound brick that does not move and makes a strong foundation for the rest of the wall. What do you mean, a tire house Is it stable Does it catch fire Is it sanitary Are you crazy the project on the Garden Of One website; some came from as far as Vermont or Massachusetts. Everyone was in high spirits and very excited to be part of this adventure. Unfortunately, we had to start with clearing a rather large pile of shale that would later become the floor. The actual task of the day became clearing the ground so that it was level and so that the foundation would sit flat. This was a very time-consuming process that no one had anticipated. In the middle of the day, there was a delivery of tires — 400 in a box truck, all of them free — and the rhythm of the group really hummed. We had people sorting, measuring, and taking tires off the truck. We were able to get it unloaded in record time. A lot of progress was made on the sub floor and we felt pretty good. We even started filling a few tires in the front. Sunday was disappointing as few volunteers showed up. It turned out most of the volunteers had been in it for a day trip. It’s really hard to work with just two people and, although we had done a lot of work, it was nowhere near complete. I came back two weeks later to work with the crew manager, Brian Premerlani, and we’ve continued to make progress although more volunteers are needed. The final structure will be two rooms in an 11-by-24-foot space. The seven-foot walls will be topped with a shed roof. Since the walls are 25 inches thick — tires filled with dirt — they are dense, similar to concrete, and will hold temperature well. I hope this project will inspire others to build with tires. It breaks many rules of traditional building but it can supply shelter for little or no cost. When it comes to building a new traditional house, a lot of different materials come to mind. The most prevalent are wood, metal, plastic, and asphalt. All these materials have to be new so that it will increase our carbon footprint. Using tires not only saves on costs but can be a reliable and very strong way to build a beautiful house that can be completely free of utillity bills. That kind of creative use of scraps may help save our planet from ourselves. Editor’s note: Forest Byrd, the illustrator for The Enterprise, is also a builder. He can be reached at forest.byrd@gmail.com. Auto & Truck Parts 20 Grove St. Voorheesville 765-2125 Open Monday - Saturday 4979 Rt. 81 Greenville 966-5344 Open 7 Days a week Subscribe.
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