Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Links and discussion to broaden our horizons

Moderator: matt walker

Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:01 pm

I like the idea of recycling things for a better purpose. Old used tires, empty beer cans, plastic bottles broken tiles can all be used as building matterials. Most of these you can get for free. Here is a video from the guy who designed the 1st Earth Ship House. He has a good attitude about life I think, he sees things that are wrong and tries to change them. There is alot of Bad Language on the video, they talk plane and do not worry about curse words. If you are easily offended maybe you should not watch. :shock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrMJwIed ... re=related

Here is another video about earth ships with a little less swearing, :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9a5AVd9IA


I am sure that others can add videos or information about building with re-cycled junk and making something of beauty out of what others tosed out as trash. We can also talk about other alternative building methods here like earth bags, round timber houses, Cob buildings, waddle and dob, anything that can be built using what ever you have locally at a very low cost. The problems associated with local Zoning Boards and State regulations with these alternative buildings can also be discussed here. Any time you think outside the Box you potentialy run into road blocks with narrow minded officials that not only think inside the box, they Live there too. Logic is not enough when you have people who feel that Rules is Rules, and will not listen to reason.
Last edited by pa_friendly_guy on Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
User avatar
pa_friendly_guy
 
Posts: 1502
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:24 pm
Location: SW Pa They changed me to zone 6a what ever that is. I still figure zone 5

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby GrahamB » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:27 am

Thanks for posting the link Guy. I've just sat and watched it and all I can say is thank goodness there are still people like him in this world. People with vision and imagination to look at a problem and try and solve it. At school, I co-teach a media class that puts out a TV program each month on our local access channel. This semester we are running an environmental theme and some of the kids are really getting into it. I would love to show this video in class, but I might have to spend an hour or two taking out all the bad language.
I think the most powerful image was the house they built among the devastation on the Andaman Island, and the open-minded attitude of the islanders.
No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.
User avatar
GrahamB
 
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:48 am
Location: SW Missouri

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:37 am

I am glad that you enjoyed the link Graham, and I can see why you would need to clean up the laungage befor showing it to kids. That is why I felt the need to post the disclaimer about the cursing when I posted the link. I felt it was a good informative video, but was a bit concerned about all the swearing. Nothing I have not heard befor, and quite frankly nothing that has not popped out of my mouth from time to time. I didn't think it needed to be the only way for people to speak though, :o I am sure that there are other videos about building good cheap affordable housing with local stuff, and disguarded junk. I have seen some pallet building designs that I liked, but they have always been along the minimalist lines with very small square footage of living space. The Earth Ships are normally more of a size home that we are used to living in as Americans. The fact that the design is totally self contained and requires no outside energy imputs for water, heat or electric is what has always amazed me. Building a house in the desert of New Mexico that can use the 8" of annual rain fall to not only survive, but create a rain forest inside their green house is truely unbelievable to me. I think I would still want a Rocket Mass heater in there some place to keep these old bones toasty warm though, lol.
Last edited by pa_friendly_guy on Wed Nov 21, 2012 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
User avatar
pa_friendly_guy
 
Posts: 1502
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:24 pm
Location: SW Pa They changed me to zone 6a what ever that is. I still figure zone 5

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:54 am

Here is a school building built from plastic bottles filled with sand. The finished product looks Great to me, and they reused 600,000 plastic bottles that would have been clogging a land fill. I am sure they are very proud of their new school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPxXH7rCSHQ
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
User avatar
pa_friendly_guy
 
Posts: 1502
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:24 pm
Location: SW Pa They changed me to zone 6a what ever that is. I still figure zone 5

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby GrahamB » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:05 am

I found another earthship documentary featuring an hero of mine, Dennis Weaver. He actually builds his own earthship house. [youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ROjEFAdhu38[/youtube]

[youtube] http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b23JUH4uEzM[/youtube]

I agree with you about the RMH. It would be the perfect heating with all that adobe, and it wouldn't be a bad thing to have some kind of heating for the really cold times.
No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.
User avatar
GrahamB
 
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:48 am
Location: SW Missouri

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:12 am

Here is another guy who feels that EVERYONE can have a house, all they have to do is build it themselves. His Homes are not self sufficent like the earth ships, but they use what ever can be gathered locally for little or no money. The work ethic of the people involved is what seems to make the difference to me. Many people just seem to look at them selves as victoms and expect someone else to take care of them. The ones who want to build themselves a home with their own 2 hands and create sweat equity are the ones that I respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Std5taGT ... re=related

If you like this 1st video, there are 2 more to go with it. The 3rd one is just the guy talking about what to do, how to do it, and where you can find recourses. They will come up when you watch the 1st one.
Last edited by pa_friendly_guy on Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
User avatar
pa_friendly_guy
 
Posts: 1502
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:24 pm
Location: SW Pa They changed me to zone 6a what ever that is. I still figure zone 5

Re: Earth Ship Homes and Building with Garbage

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:05 pm

This video shows a single Mom who built her own straw bale house from scratch. She talks about the step by step how to, and she was careful to do things right and meet all local codes and get every local inspection that was needed. It took her several years to make it livable. She continued to work on the interior while she was living there until she got the house to where she wanted it. I thought she had some very good advise and some good insights into the process. She did ask for and get people to pitch in and help.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgbORHvveTY
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
User avatar
pa_friendly_guy
 
Posts: 1502
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:24 pm
Location: SW Pa They changed me to zone 6a what ever that is. I still figure zone 5


Return to Educational Resources

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron