Alternative Housing

House Building with Cob: Videos to Inspire You

We've talked about building houses with cob before (see: Advantages of Building with Cob).  It's earth-friendly and you can save money by doing a lot of the work yourself.  If you're looking for books and how-to information, you can check out Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide or The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage

If you just want a little inspiration, these videos can give you some ideas about what can be done with cob:

Cobb Guest House in Seattle

Pictures from a Cob-Building Workshop in North Carolina

Examples of Completed Cob Houses

Buying Land--How Much Do You Need to Grow Your Own Food?

Are you looking to leave the city lifestyle, buy your own land, and build your own home?  Do you want to have a more self-sufficient lifestyle and grow most of your family's food?  Do you want room to have chickens, pigs, goats, something else?  If this sounds like your dream, then how much land do you need?

If you're like most folks, you probably want as much as possible.  You want room to roam, and you don't want to feel fenced in by your neighbors, right?  The only problem is that land isn't all that cheap, especially not in areas that are still relatively close to the city (hey, even if you can make do without Starbucks and Mcdonalds on a regular basis, it's nice to be close to medical facilities and the like) and in an area where it's easy to grow food.  Assuming you don't have unlimited money, you may be asking if you can afford enough to do all the things you want to do, raise livestock, grow food, have a workshop, hobbies, etc.

The good news is that you probably need less than you think.  There are people who grow 80% of the food their whole family needs on an urban lot (for inspiration, check out the Dervaes family--they live next to the freeway in Pasadena and grow enough food to sell to restaurants on top of feeding the family).

By using space-intensive gardening methods, you can grow a lot of food in a totally organic and healthy way.  Check into permaculture, micro eco-farming, biodynamic farming, and square foot gardening for starters. 

Ultimately, how much land you need to buy will depend on the size of the family you want to feed, whether you hope to start a business and sell extra produce, whether you want to plant an orchard, how much livestock you want to have, etc. etc. etc.  But, you'll probably find that you need less than you think you do.  You can do an awful lot with just an acre (and it's easily to maintain than a huge farm!).

Cost of Yurt Homes?

 There are several companies that make all-season yurts that can be turned into permanent homes.  Yurts cost less than stick-built homes, and even with "all the fixins," they are often less money than even manufactured homes.  They can also be assembled quickly in comparison to stick built and even modular homes.  And while you might think of a yurt as something small and temporary, some of the larger models are quite spacious.  With many you can opt for "tall walls," which leave space to build a full or partial loft above.  Overall, a yurt can feel large and open, making it a lovely choice for an affordable housing alternative.

So how much do those yurts cost, anyway?

Basic yurts are quite affordable, starting at $5,000-$10,000 new (though you'll probably want some add-ons, especially if this is going to be your permanent home, and there are additional expenses involved with installing one in an area that gets high winds and/or a heavy snow load each year). 

Typical sizes range from 12' in diameter to 30' (and a 30-foot yurt is very spacious!), with prices increasing proportionately. 

The cool thing about the yurt industry is that many of the major companies are very good about publishing their prices online.

For a manufacturer that lets you put your yurt together online and see how much all the nuts and bolts cost, visit Pacific Yurts. Make sure to check their picture gallery for lots of cool ideas (the pictures in this post are from there). 

Keep in mind that interior finishings (such as flooring, cabinets, countertops, etc.) and plumbing for bathrooms and kitchens are not included with your yurt, so you'll have to hire a contractor or do the work yourself (places like Ikea have full kitchen setups these days, so this can be more affordable than you might think). 

Saving Money with Used Yurt Homes

 Can't afford a new yurt?  It's possible to get used yurts that have only seen a few seasons.  Some have even spent much of their time in dry storage.

You can check on ebay, but I had best results on Craigslist.  Even as I write this, there are four for sale in the Seattle area.  You can search beyond your local area, too, as some owners may be willing to ship.

To check for used yurts, do a domain-only search on Google for "yurt" on "Craigslist.org".  Sometimes the old owners will even help with the installation!

Rammed Earth Construction Pros & Cons

Rammed earth construction is once again gaining in popularity for home builders looking for eco-friendly options.  With rammed earth, you're using the dirt under your feet (or from a local quarry) to build a house.  This is certainly a "green" practice since it usually makes use of local materials (local dirt!) and you don't need lumber, quarried stone, brick, etc. to be transported from long distances.

Rammed earth construction has its pros and cons of course.  Let's take a look at the positives and negatives.

Pros of Building with Rammed Earth

• A properly sited and designed rammed earth home is ideal for passive solar strategies, so it can be great for an off-the-grid house.  The thick, dense walls absorb the warmth from the sun all day and slowly release the heat into the interior of the house at night.  This helps keep heating bills low in the winter, and these homes tend to stay cool in the summer as well. 
• Dirt is an easy-to-acquire material and while there are some requirements (not all dirt is going to have the right mix of sand and clay), you ought to be able to get it locally, so this tends to be an eco-friendly building material.
• And let's not forget the coolness factor of having a house that is built out of something unique.  In many cases, homeowners wanting to save money help with the building process, and there are even DIY sites out there that will tell you how to make a house on the cheap using rammed earth construction.

Cons of Rammed Earth Construction

• Soil selection needs to be done carefully, and if you are able to use dirt from the building site, you'll end up with some big holes you need to figure out how to work into the landscape.
• Though it might seem that a house made out of dirt would be cheap, rammed earth construction actually tends to cost 5 to 15% more than conventional construction (due to the labor-intensive process of creating the rammed earth forms).
• It's difficult to impossible to create rounded or sculpturally shaped walls the way you can with other materials.  Homes made with rammed earth construction are going to be boxy in nature. 
• In colder climates, you'll probably need extra insulation (it's typical to add foam insulation to exterior walls and then cover it up with stucco).

Source: Living Homes: Sustainable Architecture and Design

Rammed Earth Homes--Eco-friendly, Long-lasting, and Just Plain Cool

 An alternative house building material that we haven't talked about before is rammed earth.  And, yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.  The walls are made from earth that is smashed into forms. 

Rammed earth has a long history around the world and was popular in the United States before railroads made the transportation of lumber and other building materials commonplace.  In recent years, the material has been seeing a resurgence as an eco-friendly option for home building.  It doesn't get much more natural than building a home right out of the ground around it!

How Building a Rammed Earth House Works

The building process starts out with a concrete foundation that protrudes above grade six to eight inches as a "stem wall."  The rammed earth wall will stick to the stem wall via gravity and pressure.

Mineral-laden soil (not topsoil--save that for the garden) is used for the walls.  A mixture of mostly sand with some clay works well.  On sight soil often isn't of the right consistency, so you may have to get it from a local quarry (this saves the problem of correcting gaping holes in your landscape anyway). 

Typically 3-10% portland cement is mixed into the soil for stabilization.  The mixture is then moistened to lubricate the soil particles and help with compaction. 

The earth is placed into box-like ramming forms (similar to forms used for creating concrete panels), which are attached to the stem walls.  The wall depths will be anywhere from 18 to 36 inches (in a two-story building the first-story walls are typically wider).  Plumbing and electrical are usually run within the forms, and windows and doors are framed out before the earth is rammed home.

In the end, the rammed earth walls will have a slightly textured surface and striations left from the ramming process.  Wall color depends on soil mixture.  You can, of course, paint but many homeowners want to be able to see and admire their natural rammed earth walls and will simply apply a clear sealant to interior walls to prevent flaking.  In cold climates, foam insulation is often added to exterior walls, which are then covered with stucco.

Rammed earth houses are a unique and eco-friendly way to build a home.

Source: Living Homes: Sustainable Architecture and Design