A step by step on how to make bottle bricks to use in the walls of your Earthship. Bottle bricks allow light to shine through a wall, and color the light the color of the glass used in the brick.
I know this video is years old, but I want to bring up a point. For those wondering what to do with the bottle necks, it is actually very viable to crush them up and actually use the broken glass to reinforce the cement going between each brick. You can compare this to adding stones to reinforce cement and since glass is very strong it will add additional structural support. This lets you use the entire bottle for the construction of the wall AND it also adds a very nice crushed mosaic look to the finished cement. A quick google image search for "glass for concrete" will provide examples of what i am talking about. As always, be careful handling the glass cement!
Kevin Ste-Marie agreed. It is very dangerous to inhale and a respirator or at the very least a mask should be worn when cutting glass as well as the proper goggles. Gloves should obviously be worn while handling.
Though I was reared to be corporate, my life is very simple. While I don't have many possessions, I've been given the opportunity to learn to be self-sustaining and a love for Nature. What you're doing is resourceful, caring and good for Mother Earth. Great work & inspirational. Thanks for posting.
The bottle brick held up in the early moments of this video was a combo of clear+color. In my experience, that combo will let more light thru and show more vibrant color vs. the color+color combo. Also worth noting: doing a quick wash/rinse of the bottles + ensuring a good tape seal will prevent moisture clouding and other "funkiness" in the future!
Before I cut my bottles, I score the bottle all the way around and I get fewer broken bottles. And here's a novel idea I came up with: on the bottom half of the inside of the bottle brick, I put a sheet of mylar inside. This allows the brick to reflect more light. Charlie the earthship builder in Hawaii
John the duck tape is only there to keep it in place until it's cemented in after that it dosnt matter. I use a hand grinder with a diamond blade. It was cheaper and I can cut 5 bottles in 30 sec. I made a jig to cut against so they are the same size.
They have these on the walls of both the Howard Finster Art project as well as on the Funky Chicken Art Project. I love the idea of re-using resources you make use of and it makes for a lovely tile method too.
Nice, hey you are into building with bottles i think that is awesome. I got an ideal from watching you tape those bottles together using duct tape, since you have to pay for tape, could try aluminum or reflective tape on some to help with the sunlight making its way through the dark wall better in places you want more light. I don't know how good it will last, but if it don't hurt the lime mixture or the bottle itself could be worth a try on a sunny wall, or any wall.
Just saw you vid and read some of the responses. First I am a 46 yr old man with a lot of experience and I thought your vid was great. Keep up the good work. Second to all those negitve people who posted, you are all duchbags. This guy is doing you a favor by posting this and you act like jealous children. Oh, FYI sunglasses are rated as safety glasses. So why don't we all try to encourage others instead of picking out some small fault that really doesn't matter. GREAT VID KEEP IT UP!! MW
Cheers, fellow earthship sailor. I believe this method is from the Hut video where there is no insulation in the wall. There are other types of bottle walls. Mike almost always says can walls. The above method is good for visual purposes, but wastes the top. A bottle can be substituted for a can by cutting the top off so it's the same size as a can for the insulated walls. The guy in France didn't cut his and just made whole wider walls.
Is there another video that shows the application of this "bottle brick"? It may be familiar to other people, but I don't know anything about earth shops and how to use this glass brick. Just as the video was ending I noticed in the back a very low wall that looks like it was made of a mud colored concrete with these bottle bricks embedded throughout. It looked very cool, and I'm sure it is pretty when the sunlight shines through, but what exactly is the advantage of embedding these glass bricks? Could one just not make a concrete wall without the glass bricks??!!
How do you size your bottle brick? At what stage turns out how long a brick should be? Or have these a standard size, so that one can make a lot of them in advance?
You should also reuse the bottle tops, make them into bricks and use to build a concrete glass bottle studded compost bin. The tops will allow air to circulate throughout the compost while allowing easy access to clean them out should they get clogged.
how well do they hold up long term? as the ground settles wont they crack? since their hollow, they'd cool at a different rate than the rest of the structure and the contracting and expanding would break the glass, right?
Do you know how much strength you lose by cutting the bottles like that? Have any of your bottle bricks ever broken inside the wall? If so how do you replace them?? Thanks for the video and very good one.
You can do that, but you won't get nearly as much light through them. They do help limit how much concrete you are using but are almost totally just an asthetic feature. Also, you don't want an open end because water can get in, possibly freeze, and break your bottle. Also, they won't hold your heat in very well.
Why can't you take one bottle and remove the neck and place a full bottle into the cut off section of the other? I know that makes them longer but is there problem with that idea?
heavy yarn wrapped around the bottle soaked in a little bit of gasoline. light it evenly on the string and dip it in ice water after a few second. it breaks off and then you sand it.
Great job on the bottle bricks. We are planning on building a Timbrel Vault roof on a small earthship here in Kyrgyzstan and were wondering if you think these could be used in that system as well, basically in place of a tile every now and then? Would have to be cut much shorter though. Thanks for your thoughts.
This is cool, I was really curious how this is done. When done right on some of these Earthships it makes a room look really magical. If not it looks kind of cheap. When these have been in the wall for a while does water condense in them? Also wondering how many bottles can that blade cut before it needs replaced. Really appreciate you documenting this, thanks.
Thank you so much for this project. My girlfriend and I will soon be moving to Ecuador to start our dream of an Eco-Lodge. I am slowly making my way through all your videos for ideas, education, and inspiration. Question: Are there any other purposes for the use of bottle bricks besides aesthetics and minimizing the main building material? Your time and response is much appreciated. Cory
light a match head and cut it off while it is still going, with scissors and then put them together with hot wax and then seal it, creates a crude vacuum.?
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain telling you about saving electricity and using a "glass cutter" that takes a lot of time and usually does a crumby job compared to your tile saw.
I also love this video and enjoy seeing these amazing and creative building materials being made from our throw-aways. However, I must agree with those people who are right to encourage him to protect his eyesight. If you ask an eye doctor, they would tell you how many injuries that ruin this most essential sense for life could have been prevented. Wouldn't it really suck to lose eyesight when an inexpensive tool could have prevented it?
@Devilock79 The “discarded” bottles are used in the same way glass blocks are used in a comparable non-structural wall. They are decorative and allow light through to spaces beyond. The point of the “glass bricks” is simply to reuse an otherwise discarded object. Second point is to minimize the amount of mortar needed to build the wall. And the thermal mass of a fiber reinforced mortar wall is superior to that of a comparable stick frame wall, as well as less expensive.
Good evening, please don't use rubber gloves with a cutter, rubber gloves might get caught in the blade dragging your hands: better use skin gloves ! Amazing video, thanks for sharing.
just curious y even cut the bottles at all. arent u supposed to just put the opening toward the inside so captured heat releases into house once the sun goes down. ??
@GreensongOakheart the only time i've ever seen a bottle break in a wall is when it a person broke it by accident. i've seen entire walls of cracked and crumbing can wall cement mortar with all the bottles intact.
I like this video. You did well letting us know that the blade is a special (diamond tip) blade for cutting ceramic. The costs of the saw is pretty decent. You took your time instead of rushing through. You seem to be fairly safety conscious. It is a neat project. Thanks. Does the duct tape hold well? I would think even duct tape would lose grip if it got wet much.
So, the edges don't have to match exactly? Labels don't have to be removed...regular glass cutters say labels dull the blade. I need to get a werlt time saw. I am in the "collecting bottles" stage.
@adgreen007 Where are bottle walls? on the sides of the greenhouse near the doors or internal divider walls or at the top of the tire walls under the roof. If it's an external wall, you need insulation in the middle, so you can't see through insulation. That is just for decorative purposes above doorways.
No breather mask I see,is the blade wet enough that no particulates are airborn? I would imagine nasty things could happen if that stuff got in your throat and lungs.
Yeah, its called silicosis and it's a killer...literally. I saw fine particles spraying off the blade into the air. A little over a long period of time equals a lot. Mask definitely recommended.
@troybrownrigg Kickback occurs when a tooth on a saw blade digs too deeply into whatever is being cut and thus forces to object back towards the operator. A typical tile saw has no teeth as it abrades the tile/bottle away with fine diamond particles embedded along the rim of the blade. The water bath washes away the fine particles of glass as well as cooling the blade and the area being cut. Bottle fragmentation is a possible hazard and I agree that some form of face shield should be used.
@GreensongOakheart losing strength? The bottles won't carry strength when the concrete is dry. I made stairs out of bottle walls. I was worried that a nail under a wood stair was touching the bottle would crack a bottle under pressure when I walked on it. The concrete is so hard and permanent, that probably no bottles will break at all. Even if it did crack, maybe it would crack in a creative way or you could stuff it or cover it with bottle caps or something.
I would cut them long as possible then tape or mask the actual bottom from the inside then use silvering solution like in Christmas ornaments. THen i would spin the bottles thousand of rpmin oppsoite directions and then use friction pushing them together to make them red hot and permaneantly sealed making them 10 times stronger building material and allow for the bottles with color to light up almost anytime since the mirror inside will bounce light all the way down and in the house. you cold actually manufacture these and sell them as building materials.
Thanks for the great video. One question. Other videos showing the making of the bottle bricks say you have to remove the labels......I'm not sure why. I can't think why the labels encased in the mortar are bad. Any ideas?
You absolutely should remove the labels and duck tape is also a bad idea. Maybe a piece of tape on either side, a small amount of epoxy between the bottles and after it dries, remove the tape. You should also clean the bottles from grease or fingerprints so that the cement gets a good bind. If done this way, and no major settling of the wall, these 'bricks' could last for decades if not centuries.
you can put aluminum foil over them and then shrink a 2 liter bottle to connect both. What about a breathing mask. cutting glass could be dangerous. How many cuts per blade? why not just cut one deeper and stick in the other one. So the small end is stuck in the cut off one???
That actually sounds like a pretty cool idea :) I was thinking perhaps tossing them in a rock polisher and using them as small tiles for floors, counter tops and back splashes.
I am quite sure that with the money I save on electricity duck tape (both very dear over here in Italy) and the time it takes to cut the bottle, I can make twice as many cement bricks. There's a guy here on youtube, he makes one every 60 seconds. And they are big.
I have a quick question, leaving the labels in the bottles is not counterproductive in any way? just wondering... because I have read in this article: www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Bottle-Building/ that a woman built a house in Nevada out of bottles and she did not remove the labels when summer came the mortar contracted and the labels stayed with the mortar and her house ended up looking like Swiss cheese. It had to be destroyed. What is your opinion about this? Thank you
worthy notes: 1. clean bottles 2. remove label where cutting [this particular blade is designed for glass & alike, and will actually give you more trouble to cut thru than the glass, can potentially even be compromising to the cut] 3. rotate bottle with BOTTOM side away from you and TOP side towards you 4. Cut some glass yr not using a few times to break in a new blade 5. That ain't duct tape, thats some motha fuckin Gorilla tape! Trust, it makes all the difference. Is almost like glue, so if you mess up and take it off, it may leave behind a residue 6. gloves are optional, i find they actually get in the way, (sure rubber lined helps with grip, but it also just as much helps the blade grip to them too) since the blade is a continuous non-serrated, it cant cut you, and unless yr being reckless, any mess ups to the bottle will occur far from yr hands 7. ALWAYS wear safety glasses! You WILL get flying glass shards when water is not in contact with the cut (try adjusting where yr point of contact cutting and direction of water tube 8. Have fun doing it, making glass bottle wall an bricks require ALOT of bottles, unless yr taking shifts, after so many cuts you WILL get lazy and cut corners to save time which is always a safety hazard 9. lastly make sure the blade cutter is on a sturdy foundation, if its on an old wooden table or something, the blade motor will cause vibration, and this vibration essentially renders the cuts impossible, you won't be able to keep the bottle steady and unless yr cutting at a speed of 1 bottle/10 mins, you will destroy yr bottles,
Sunglasses are not safety glasses. There is space for a propelled shard of glass to get in under the lense and destroy eyesight in a split second. From the Federal Occupantional Health site: "..........you (or anyone who is watching you work) should always wear properly fitted eye protective gear, such as safety glasses with side protection/shields, when: Doing work that may produce particles, slivers, or dust from materials like wood, metal, plastic, cement, and drywall..........."
"Live free and sustainably", but you bought a tile saw at the hardware store and you're using duct-tape, not to mention where you're getting the electricity. These things cost real money and are not synonymous with sustainable.
Tht's a lot of electricity to cut a bottle. You can do the same thing with a glass cutter. There even used to be a bottle cutter on the market just for cutting bottles that way. No electricity is much closer to "off-the-grid'. And what's wrong with just using the whole bottle, as it has been done for over 100 years?
Don't you remember that thing on TV that was for making glasses out of bottles. It had a rod that secured in the mouth of the bottle, and hinged down to scribe the glass. All adjustable and consistent. A 70's thing. Made matched sets of tea glasses. Just as fast as that machine. Less noise. No power required.
Being "Off the grid" has nothing to do with electricity usage. It simply means you're not tied into grid electric companies offer us, of course I have no idea what this guy is using to exactly power that saw. You can us all the electricity you want and still be considered living off the grid.
And wasting power, doing things in the way of "on grid" living is so totally missing the point. Cutting bottles in half to make them into bricks is foolish in the first place. Threy work fine as it. Try seeing simplicity. Building a Private Grid is not a solution to the problem. You think it has "nothing to do with electricity usage"? The grid is nothing but about electricity! OFF GRID, in the radical (root) sense is electricity free. I'm not advocating that, just pointing out there is a less wasteful, More EFFICIENT way to do this job. Less dangerous too. How Off Grid are you going to be when that saw takes off your finger, of puts a shard of glass in your flesh???
Bahb Woolley Off the grid means exactly what it says...Off-the-grid is a term to describe housing not connected to public utilities (wikipedia). What you are referring to is a different sort of living style...for lack of a better term I'd call it Living off the land.
+koreyokeenelove Duct tape is now made in all colors Even here in the Philippines, Gray,Yellow,Black & even Orange i have found. So who is the Dork now. I know coz i first imported it from the UK with my gear & used it for my events.
the was gorilla tape you nub! look ant the core of the tape roll it is clearly orange and black only gorilla tape has that as there as there colors and duck tape has white, green, yellow,and gray on the insides of the core's and if i have to make a video to your that your wrong so help im god i will get your facts right before you make an ass of your self!!!!!1
So you use two bottles to make one "bottle brick"? Why not just use the whole bottle? Cutting them in half just seems like a complete waste of time, energy, and bottles.
