Earthen Bag

Product Description

Earthbag construction is a construction material that is both strong and can promote quickly building. It is a natural building technique that evolved from historic military bunker construction techniques and temporary flood-control dike building methods. The technique requires very basic construction materials: sturdy sacks, filled with inorganic material usually available on site. Standard earthbag fill material has internal stability. Either moist subsoil that contains enough clay to become cohesive when tamped or angular gravel or crushed volcanic rock is used. (Sandbag structures with sand fills are an alternative technology and require very different construction details). Walls are gradually built up by laying the bags in courses — forming a staggered pattern similar to bricklaying.

Market Suggested Retail Price

$16.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Varies. While some organizations have marketed and commercialized earthen bag construction manuals and equipment, others have been developing free construction manuals.

Design Specifications

Earthbag construction is made by filling polymer bags with locally available earth. Even though local earth is used, it's very important to ensure the correct soil mixture to allow the earth to be compacted as it is tamped inside the bags. Stabilizers such as lime or portland cement can also be added to improve the resistance of construction. The bags are generally made from polypropylene because it is a strong, durable, and semi-permeable material. The filled bags are laid in their desired form and each layer is tamped before laying the next layer. Barbed wire is placed between the layers to hold the bags at the proper position, and prevent the wall to get out of plumb. There are several online resources that give very detailed instructions on how to build earthbag constructions.

Technical Support

The building can be maintained by local labour with Earth Building construction experience.

Replacement Components

N/A

Lifecycle

Built and maintained properly, an Earthbag building should stand for centuries.

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

There are many different manufacturers of earthbag constructions in the market. But, in general, earthbag is commonly described as an low-cost and low-impact technology with great thermal insulation and earthquake resistance.

Vetted Performance Status

Tests results available in the studies provided by testing organizations are related to soil mixtures used, this is, there are a wide range of results using different mixtures. As every soil is different from place to place the most important part of construction is to find the correct soil mixture. Besides that, tests concluded that earthbags have a much lower lateral strength than compressive strength, while seismic resistance is to be tested even if it suggests that earthbags have great resistance to earthquakes.

Safety

Builders should wear appropriate protective equipment such as hardhats, gloves and safety glasses while working to protect against physical injury commonly associated with heavy construction. Earth bag construction does not require the operation of any large machinery.

Complementary Technical Systems

On exposed walls, many suggest to use a protective topcoat, embed tile or pebbles in earth plaster, use lime plaster or cement plaster on sandy earthbag fill.