You are both wonderful people, unfortunately you chose to listen to the garbage man. Go to Ritchie Auctions, get a skid steer mixing bucket. You need to buy a skid steer, get David Eastons books on rammed earth and follow his designs on form work. You can build forms for the rammed earth pretty cheap, you will need a lot of pipe clamps. But easy to do. This will save you years of work. Don't use the tires, it's super labor intensive. And a small excavator would be nice also, you can pick one up at the auctions also. Spend your money on these tools and you will save time and money and when your finished you can sell them.
Old tires cause cancer, leach petrochemicals, rubber compounds and all kinds of heavy metals (including mercury and lead) into surrounding soil and groundwater. A tire, even partially, submerged in water will kill most aquatic life within weeks. Plants will absorb these pollutants, so eating anything grown next to an old tire is literal poison. Don't even use the plants for composting for the same reason. Just like re-using old yoghurt/butter/milk/... plastic pots will leach BPA and micro-plastics after a year of exposure to water, oxygen and especially sunlight. Re-using/saving money is great. But keep in mind there is more to consider than saving money or waste. Some people might even think it's not that big of a deal, but for anyone who is still debating whether to use them or not: DO NOT.
I'm looking forward to following along with you on this construction journey. Glad I found you early, with you only just beginning the process. Good luck and let's get started!
Woohoo! So happy for you! I’m building an earthship of similar size in CO. What an adventure! You can find me at Open Wing Earthship - I’m working on interior now. Another great channel is Owner Builders Unite. Carry on!!
I always see people using passenger tire, but you never see people using semi truck tires. They are relatively standard in size and they hold a lot more dirt.
I used several semi truck tires on the bottom 2 courses of tires, then mostly pickup truck tires above that. The top course of tires i used was 235 width, which is a larger width than what they are using on their bottom course. By using such small tires, they are going to have to use a lot more tires than if they had started with a l larger tire.
You can screw the tires together to prevent them from moving while pounding them. Also it's recommended to use your largest size of tires on the bottom and gradually get smaller as you get higher up the wall. And now that you have completed your first row of tires, you'll want 2 or 3 layers of cardboard in each tire to cover the gap in the tire below it. I've also seen people use feed sacks as the bottom layer and cardboard on top of that, then the dirt above that. you can also put rocks in the tires when you are compacting them, it helps. and tamp the dirt in the middle of the tire once the side walls are all compacted. I used 275's in the first course of tires on my building, then 3 courses of 265's above those, 1 course of 255's, 3 courses of 245's, and 1 course of 235's on the top. My front stem wall, which isn't done yet will be using the smaller 225 and 215 tires. I poured buttresses instead of using geo mesh, but I still back filled behind each course of tires before laying the next course. I compacted the dirt behind the tires with each course to prevent settling of the berm of dirt. Are you trying to complete the tire wall before winter? I would suggest trying to get it done and the vapor barrier on before winter snow sets in, if not, at least cover it with plastic when not working on it if your expecting snow or rain. Last summer when I was working on my tire wall, I was able to complete 4 - 12 tires per day, some days were better than others. I was working on it solo. It's really nice that you have help on yours.
@@jensenfamilyhomestead4278 Wow, thanks for all the helpful tips! Yeah, by the time we realized that we should’ve started with a larger size on the bottom, we were halfway through our first layer 🤣 So we’re planning to use 215s for the next few rows, then use the 205s and 195s closer to the top! Yes, we’d really like to finish the tire wall by winter! We have been so glad for so much help, that is really impressive that you’ve been building solo! Good luck finishing yours.
@@WholeintheGroundwould be worth it to redo the smaller ones. I have my smallest tires - 215 only at the top on the corners and they are structurally weaker for sure than the 225 courses below. You will regret it forever if you put bigger tires over smaller ones. - Thomas
Earthships are awesome! Great decision you two! My wife and I are also planning to build one. But i have one question. Why are you guys bothering with permits, essentially asking permission to build your home?
@@matthewtanksley8458 How exciting for you two! It’s all just about the county that we live in. Certain counties have less permitting regulations, and so sometimes building Earthships there can be more straightforward! We’re just trying to spread the Earthship joy to new places! 😊
Hi, I just found your channel, and I'm watching all your posts from the beginning. I am very impressed with your excellent content. The sage advice about working with the local housing authorities will be very helpful to people who want to do this but don't know where to start. I am in love with the earthship concept, and I'm excited to go on this journey with you!❤
Ours was an earlier model before the cooling tubes and before the metal roofing. I look forward to seeing the newer design being built! Will you going with the vertical glass with no slope?
@@georgettewallace4808 Oh, how cool! Yes, for simplicity of building, we are going with vertical glass. The Earthship builder from Montana that we spoke with recommended just doing vertical glass!
Hi, I'm new to Earthships, what I know is straw bale round houses, where there's no wood frame to support the roof. This insulates, then we put cob (earth, straw, water) on it to add thermal mass. Do you think it could work for your needs, instead of a rammed-earth tire wall? I think some Earthships used this, like those in this village: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2PT8o5S_kfc.htmlsi=CH2of76uRd4UJyLS
Straw/cob homes are really neat! It seems to be a really viable option for an energy efficient dwelling, and is probably a lot quicker to build than a tirewall-based earthship too haha. We're going to stick with our plan, but if we end up building like an ADU or something in the future, we'll definitely be considering the straw/cob system. Thanks for letting us know about it!
I've seen a couple of videos where they use a tool that resembles a jackhammer with a blunt attachment to pound dirt into the tires instead of the sledgehammer, could be faster/less tiring. One of them even had it hanging in the air from a pole with, a rope that was fairly springy, it looked effortless. I found one of them, they used a pneumatic tamper. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y8LwovQ4DCk.html
