Comments on: Affordable and still Green: Sandbag Houses by MMA Architects

By: EnergyEvolutions

EnergyEvolutions — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:33:50 +0000

Sand is actually a great insulator! Inside an earthdome building, which also uses sand, the temperatures stay moderate in the heat or cold, depending on the time of year.

And you can make natural plasters to seal the dwelling… no chemicals or synthetic materials are needed. AT ALL.

I can see more people adopting this design since people are use to square and rectangular houses.

However, earthdomes are very strong, not to mention very cool in design in my opinion.

By: vega

vega — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:55:04 +0000

i need more info,

By: Lightbringer

Lightbringer — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:08:18 +0000

I only see one problem, sand transmits heat very well. These houses would need some good insulation which would make the walls even thicker. Other than that, nice houses. And who doesn’t want a house made of the same things we use to stop floods and bullets.

By: janieliza

janieliza — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:49:09 +0000

I can see the need to provide a wind and water barrier like dryvit to the construction. I agree that you can’t just use plywood and sand. Weather conditions in desert areas would be the first to damage that kind of construction. You simply MUST have a means to control the sand… and the air and water that will infiltrate the outer wall. I suppose without that layer you could call this the ultimate of dirt to dirt housing… because that is what would happen. Water vapor from inside and outside and wind infiltration would make short work of a sand only wall.

I think too that it would help to include a sticky/tar layer to prevent nail/screw holes from puncturing all the bags with nothing to prevent the bags from leaking back into the interior when a nail or screw was removed. There must be some product that would seal those bags with repeated punctures that will occur over the life of the building… or simply make a rule that all wall hangings have to be dropped from a trim board near the ceiling. The exterior is much the same. You need a system to seal the exterior wall that does not damage the bags or provides for resealing the bags automatically when a siding nail hits one. Without protection from the wind which can easily rip things like vinyl off the building, your sand bags would begin to leak and would fill the remainder of the lower air space in the cavity rather than provide insulation and sound barriers to the outside at high as they were when originally put in place. Perhaps that would best be accomplished by using a urea based expanding foam… but then you get formaldehyde.

By: Cathy Clemens

Cathy Clemens — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:14:48 +0000

Incredible! I don’t see a downfall at all.
@Chrisp68- That would A. Require more plywood in the construction and B. not possible to build.

By: chrisp68

chrisp68 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:05:52 +0000

interesting building method by why use bags? just fill the walls with sand and use ply wood for the forms

By: chrisp68

chrisp68 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:04:43 +0000

interesting way of building but why bags? Use just use a closed wall to hold the sand.

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Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:39:16 +0000

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By: daveg

daveg — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:11:51 +0000

Great to see sandbag construction getting some press. In a country like South Africa, with an abundance of sand, it makes good sense. These guys have opted for the EcoBeam solution, where it is essentially a timber frame house with sandbags as the filler for the walls.

Eternally Solar (http://www.eternallysolar.com) are punting a sandbag only construction method using an simple yet innovative adaptation of a standard polyprop bag.

We’ve almost completed a set of stables using this method and sand from our own property.
An as yet incomplete record of the construction can be found here, although the pictures on Flickr are up to date:
http://digitalpilgrim.typepad.com/stables/

The problem is getting people who have been historically disenfranchised and now desperate for “proper housing” to see that this sort of construction is vastly superior in terms of quality of life, energy efficiency and sustainability than a shoddy brick and mortar home. And it costs a lot less too.