May-June 2012

ARCHITECTURE
HOW TO BUILD THE EARTH-BAG BUILDING?
“Every man and woman should be able to build a
home for their family using the earth under their feet,
integrating some features of modern technology to make
their homes resistant to fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane,
and other natural disasters.” says Nader Kahlili.
It has been observed that one person familiar with the
basics of earth-bag building system can easily train
others to assist the execution. This makes the process
more affordable and feasible even in remote areas.
Following is a brief outline of its construction process:
RUBBLE TRENCH FOUNDATIONS:
It is important to create a rubble trench foundation for
the dome as it helps keep moisture from penetrating
into the bag wall. The trench shall be filled with rocks,
gravel or concrete debris. The first layer of bags can
either be placed at ground level or slightly below
ground level, in the trench.
STACKING EARTH-BAGS:
Bags should be filled on-site before they are placed.
As bags are filled, their open ends can be sewed
with string, but sewing can be avoided by folding the
corners of the open end and placing the bag tightly
against the sealed end of the adjoining bag. Using the
trench as guide, the first row of bags shall be placed
over the rubble. Once a course of bag is placed, it
should be thoroughly tamped to make the fill material
as compact as possible.
As the courses proceed, the two strands of 4-point
galvanized barbed wire should be spaced about 4”
inside from the edges of the bag. The barbed wire
helps lock the bags as well as resists the tendency
of the wall to expand outward because of the weight
above. The wire shall be placed between every course
as the wall goes up. To make stronger connections,
courses shall be laid in a brick-like pattern (running
bond) as the wall goes up.
ANCHORING A DOOR FRAME:
One simple method of anchoring a door frame is to
place a piece of threaded rod between the bags, a
chunk of wood fastened with a washer and nut at
the other end. Then the door frame can be attached to
the other end and tightened against the wall. Once
the frame is fixed, the excess threaded rod can be
cut away.
Similarly, standard culvert couplers can be used as
window supports as they are inexpensive and
available in most parts of the world. It is easy to set the
couplers wherever you want, and just stack the bags
around them.
© CALEARTH INSTITUTE
© CALEARTH INSTITUTE
COMPLETING THE DOME:
The bags are gradually stepped in to building the dome. While
working on the conical top of the dome, one can actually climb
around on the outside like you would on a small mountain. As
you close in at the top of the dome, it becomes important to
angle the folded end of the bag to adapt to the angle of the
circular course. This can be easily achieved by arranging the
contents of the bag to make the angled shape.
© CALEARTH INSTITUTE
© CALEARTH INSTITUTE
May - June 2012
25
spacesnepal.com