I suspect the flat plate will collect water in my climate where we have snow and rain. Another idea: It is very common where I live to put cabins and small houses on cement piers that look like large fat disks about .5 meters wide and .2 meters thick. Initially they will setttle a lot, and unevenly. Each year for several years, you must re-level the building, by adding shims, or perhaps removing shims and replacing it with anohter support disk if the space has become large enough. Eventually the firmness of the soil and the weight of the building reach equilibrium with the contraction and expansion of the seasonal weather changes, and the changes are small and seasonal only. The bolts are useful in the case of typhoons, tornados, and hurricanes, but in areas where these are rare, gravity alone may be enough.
Great Video! thank you for sharing! we, as a younger generation have the responsibility to find new, more environment-friendly and affordable solutions :) keep going guys! what you are doing is inspiring!
We made these foundations with compressed earth and just filled the area for the columns with concrete. We placed our columns to hold the roof. No problems at all after 6 years!
I intend to do this, but ... i'm concerned about hurricane uplift, and this solution relies solely on gravity and friction; so my thinking is to get rid of your footing steel parts and drive stainless 1 meter bolts glued in to bedrock at odd angles through the column timbers... "toe nailing to the bedrock through your tyre system approach" but without a welder or any significant steel... using epoxy to anchor to the bedrock after drilling through the tyre... the tyre itself has steel belts, it already *is* as strong as anything you're going to fix to it... best use the tyres alone as the brackets... that's how i've done it and will keep doing it... tyres are cheap; welded steel is expensive; stainless steel 20mm threaded rod is ubiquitous (3/4in)... to the video makers: "uplift" in a 120mph storm when the wind gust sucks that flat roof up in the air and reverses the static loads, how much can we rely on this system to keep the building from lifting out its footings besides being "heavy".
Hi Davide! You're right to be concerned about hurricane uplift with this type of foundations. All foundations do not respond well to all type of geography specificity. I'd always advise to consult a local civil engineer to fool-proof any kind of solution proposed. Good luck with your projects!
You basically created concrete with the sand/gravel mix. Between that, the steel, and the anti corrosive paint, I’m struggling to see any real advantages to using concrete. Nice work overall. 👏 the effort. Good job. Looks solid.
I agree that the first prototype was comparable in carbon footprint to concrete, because of the steel plate. We didn't use it anymore after that first prototype.
Thanks for showing a way to use old tires, tires and concrete has its purposes, I see big problems with burying steel. Note Mike Reynolds builds with tires and concrete!
sorry ive been reserching and i think the Holy Trinity Church london only used them as a retaining wall not as a foundation but wish we could use this method in the uk for our self biuld
Stay critical I like that..........Ok your idea....my thoughts........metal plate bad idea will rust hook rebar to the steel in the tyres they will not pull out
Hey! Thanks Brian, it's really something we've been debating about. Our engineer advised us to put this metal plate and for the first prototype we decided to follow on that, but it's something that we want to optimise. We're currently looking for collaboration with engineering students to improve this model! The anchoring is crucial and also not fully satisfying as is for now, in our opinion :)
@@CriticalConcrete I am a retired engineer and have time .......I am at the moment trying to work on third world construction methods using little steel and cement and a lot of tyres empty plastic bottles paper crete aircrete adoby and mud IMO concrete should only be used as little as possible
Hi, great video guys and very interesting. We are building a shipping container home, using two 40' shipping containers in an L shape. We would like the containers to sit 60cm above ground level. Could we use tyre foundations to achieve this? Thanks for all your help, Victoria and John ✌️
Hi Victoria and John! Yes that sounds like a fine idea. To have them higher from the ground, put a car sized tyre on top of a bigger one (tractor or truck). They need to be very well compacted.
Yes! We clarified in the article on the website that wasn't also our favorite option and never used a steel plate under a tyre foundation after this first prototype.
Thinking of using this on a design project but am wondering: What sort of impact is there on the surrounding soil? Do any heavy metals escape into the soil, and if so what kind of protection is needed to prevent this?
Hey Matt! this is a great question here. We're planning on monitoring our soil with time to see how it evolves. It's too early to experimentally give you a result, as rubber of tyres are very durable material, especially underground. This is still something to evaluate in the coming years. If you have any ideas towards this topic, feel free to share, also if you find any recommendation or research studying the degradation of rubber underground.
Really great actually :) We did it in multiple projects, without the bottom plates. Use a geotextile under the tyres. No updates on the specs though! Read the article on our site for more.
I have been wondering if an earth battery would work with compressed dirt inside tyres running alongside air rated tubing coming from a solar air heater, layered with gravel and tyres inside an insulated hole.
Why not just bury the tubing, in the fashion of a ground-coupled heat exchanger? I'm not sure to understand what goal you aim to reach :) If you want to make a heat battery, I reckon dense stone like granite would work better than earth.
The way we do it is about 20 minutes per tyre I reckon, which is not that bad all in all for a single-step footing! But we're going to try this summer a faster technique, where we cut the rim first (idea of Jean-Philippe Valla). Best!
The rubber of car and truck tires are very sturdy and last very long time when not exposed to sunlight/UV. Michael Reynold's earthships use this technique for more than 40 years.
Hmmm. All that sand and aggregate being beaten around inside tyres, when just a smaller hole, perhaps reinforcing mesh, and cement added to the aggregate - to make concrete foundations. Quick and simple.
Of course, it's easier to use concrete. But for the reasons we mention in the video we avoid using it and look for alternatives. Sometimes the easiest way is not the best. At least from an ecological point of view.
