Yes lots of labor. I am getting my property certified organic this spring. I do residential and commercial construction. I do masonry work too. Earth ships have always interested me. I have some special factors where I am building at. Which means no tires and no berm. Decided on cmu block north wall and mineral wool with insulated floor and masonry veneer. I have frost depths of 6 feet. The eco way would be to use stone walls but tie stones loose a lot of heat by thermal radiation. Such a heavy weight house I dug down through the sand 6 feet to the hard pack. My piers and post have to hold 70 psf snow load. With post spreading the weight it ends up around 8000 lbs per post for snow weights. Doing a timber frame allows saving on framing materials. Having a 6/12 pitch for snow the cmu north wall will brace structure too. Which is something must don't think about with the berm. It's structural if a good pitch on the roof. Plus snow loads. Lots of snow coming off the roof. I can get 6 feet of snow in a weekend. But Micheal Reynolds always says to adapt design to climate. Masonry and timbers are local sourced materials where I am at. Plus I don't have heavy machinery or man power besides truck to stand the bents for timber frame. Plus pounding tires takes a while. I can build a block wall and do the work to buy the materials quicker than tire walls. A buddy is thinking about using poured north wall but similar design. I also have masonry appliances going on north wall a masonry stove, white oven and 2 masonry heaters with warming benches going into bedrooms. Because codes. Need a heat source besides solar gain. Modern passive house as little as one air change an hour. I need an air change a minute if seriously growing stuff. Concrete floors needs vent to daylight here. So using cooling tube with HRV on it in a pit. Slight taper on floor to bring cold air there by masonry appliances. For heavier than air gasses too. Indoor air quality is best between 50-60% humidity. Less bad stuff grows at those humidity.
Great idea 💡
Thanks! Yeah with Earthships being so labor intensive with the tire pounding it makes sense!
Wow!..we have come along way...and still much work to be done...thanks for putting that together
Yeah brings back memories! Thanks for letting us use the pics!
Cool to see images of your place when it was just starting out Thomas. Keep going man. You might make it over that mountain yet!
Yes lots of labor. I am getting my property certified organic this spring. I do residential and commercial construction. I do masonry work too. Earth ships have always interested me. I have some special factors where I am building at. Which means no tires and no berm. Decided on cmu block north wall and mineral wool with insulated floor and masonry veneer. I have frost depths of 6 feet. The eco way would be to use stone walls but tie stones loose a lot of heat by thermal radiation. Such a heavy weight house I dug down through the sand 6 feet to the hard pack. My piers and post have to hold 70 psf snow load. With post spreading the weight it ends up around 8000 lbs per post for snow weights. Doing a timber frame allows saving on framing materials. Having a 6/12 pitch for snow the cmu north wall will brace structure too. Which is something must don't think about with the berm. It's structural if a good pitch on the roof. Plus snow loads. Lots of snow coming off the roof. I can get 6 feet of snow in a weekend. But Micheal Reynolds always says to adapt design to climate. Masonry and timbers are local sourced materials where I am at. Plus I don't have heavy machinery or man power besides truck to stand the bents for timber frame. Plus pounding tires takes a while. I can build a block wall and do the work to buy the materials quicker than tire walls. A buddy is thinking about using poured north wall but similar design. I also have masonry appliances going on north wall a masonry stove, white oven and 2 masonry heaters with warming benches going into bedrooms. Because codes. Need a heat source besides solar gain. Modern passive house as little as one air change an hour. I need an air change a minute if seriously growing stuff. Concrete floors needs vent to daylight here. So using cooling tube with HRV on it in a pit. Slight taper on floor to bring cold air there by masonry appliances. For heavier than air gasses too. Indoor air quality is best between 50-60% humidity. Less bad stuff grows at those humidity.