& Albany County Post - The Altamont Enterprise

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.
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