Our house plan has undergone numerous revisions over the course of the last year and a half. Weather has played a role, as have unexpected life events and altered schedules, a broken well set us back seriously, power outages have had an impact… I’m glad that we are generally laid back people, able to roll with the punches and open to change, because it’s certainly helped our ability to be positive and even see opportunity through some rather challenging times.
Our most recent challenge came with the realization that we could not possibly complete our two-story plan with the limited amount of building time that we have left in the year. Not with Shane’s very busy new career and me as the primary person on-site, with days ranging between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius. Uck. So- we decided to build a castle. I sh*t you not.
The decision was a combination of practical and aesthetics. We need to get a roof up- no two ways around it- with minimal materials (and cost) and little ‘real’ skill. It also has to hold up under extreme wind conditions. A lot of houses in this region have damaged roofs and missing shingles. It needs to hold all of our solar panels. And I don’t want to live in something that doesn’t appeal to me visually. Believe it or not, the easiest way to serve all of these goals was to settle on a castle.
The design is extremely simple- the roof is flat, south facing with a 5% slope. Each roof has it’s own drain. We’ll use the rainwater for the wrap around gardens. The beams (10 x 2s) are locked securely between bags. The roof is ¾” OSB, which will be covered with waterproofing membrane. Flat tin will be secured over top of the membrane. The roof extends into the building with a final locking ring over top. Finally, the merlons will be added for visual appeal.
When we came up with the idea, we thought for sure that we’d be the only ones thinking along these lines. I should have known that if anyone else could come up with such an outlandish earthbag design, it would be Owen Geiger. There are not one but two recent references to earthbag fortresses, the latest being a tower design very similar to the plan we have for our bathroom/bedroom (which we’ll add to our structure next year, focusing on the 3 main rooms this year).
That addition will give us 3 different heights, adding to the castle-feel of the place. We haven’t fully decided whether to go with yet another flat roof or a round peaked roof on the next building. Like many of our plans, it will no doubt depend on available time and inclination. I don’t have the personality for sticking with one idea at a time and, really, it’s amazing to me that I’ve stuck with this one for as long as I have. It’s probably at least in part due to the fact that the house has been much too big to pass as a lawn ornament for some time now.
As some of you may have noticed, there have not been many posts this summer. I’d say “I’ll try harder” but I’d be lying from the outset. Between building, plastering, food gardening, tending to the over 200 trees we planted this year, and regular life- including cooking, baking, laundry, and unexpectedly caring for 6 new kittens- it is pretty busy around here. There’s not a lot of downtime and when there is, I’m not generally inclined to sit down at a computer. I will, however, try to put up some shorter posts in the next while detailing some of the finer points of our building, as well as updates on the garden and trees. Bear with me, my schedule should slow down some time in the next few months like so many of the farmers in our area.
In the meantime, here are a few photos of our progress. I hope they inspire you, or at least make you smile at our audacity. 🙂
I love your flat roof and had considered it myself but the price of the wood was to much for me and I already have the bags, Looks Great!
We’d hoped to avoid buying wood too- none too cheap on the prairie. Our building season is just so short we finally had to give. Have you started building?
This is so awesome. I can’t wait to see what it ends up looking like.
We’re going to be buying a home in Charlotte, NC but I’m going to build a “man-cave” out of earthbags, as well as a root cellar.
It ended up being the best option for us for right now, for some pretty complex reasons.
I love how the best option for you was a castle. Seems backwards, but that’s the beauty of earthbags, right? They’re not like everything else.
Now all you have to do is dig a moat. But you can use it like a swale, or something, haha.
Not sure how aligators will do in Canada though.
It’s crazy, right? It literally came down to that being our best option. Hey- congratulations on your home and land! That’s fantastic news!
P.S. I would freaking LOVE to get alligators! 😉
Love, love, love the castle idea. Whats the plan when it snows, with the flat roof?
We don’t normally get much snow- save for 2010 which was a record year for precipitation. We’re thinking of putting down those whatchamacallits though… (They’re strips that heat up, can’t remember the name of them.) Put those down and power them with a couple of small dedicated solar panels.
That looks awesome. I am about to begin my roof using either 2×10’s or 4×10’s and have been stuck on how to connect them–I’ve put in poly strapping on one side to secure them but then have been unable to find the metal brackets that I wanted AND they can be expensive. I’m very interested in your method. Could you tell me more about it? I think merlons are what I call parapets–essentially a wall that goes higher than the roof along the edges–which I’m doing probably on 3 sides. Do you have concerns about the security of the bags? From what I can see the beams are just wedged between wood and nailed in? Would really love to hear some more details. Thankx.
I have to admit- I’m a little new to castle architecture and all the names of ‘parts’. The merlons are the straight up decorative pieces though- those little ‘cubes’ that stick up along the top row. I believe what I’m referring to as our ‘locking row’ would be the parapet. The wood beams have anchors that sit just underneath the sides of the bags once they’re tamped down. The bags are super-stuffed and tamped solid (we used a little extra cement to set them like rock, quickly) and there is no movement or give at all. The locking row will secure the bags underneath for that little extra, and will hide the roof which was one of my concerns from an aesthetic point of view. I’m going to pass your message on to my husband who may be better at explaining some of the technical details. I tend to get a little long winded sometimes while not quite addressing the crux of the problem- should have been a politician I suppose. 😉
I like it! Now you need some four pounder cannon on top : )
I think loading the rifles would be faster. 🙂
That looks great so far, and it will certainly be quicker (and in a lot ways simpler) than doing domes. Thanks for the detailed shots of the flooring installation – they will be very helpful when we get to that point on our earthbag water tower!
It sounds silly, but we seriously considered building a castle sort of thing on our land in Georgia, using earthbags to build the towers and ISO shipping containers as the core of the curtain walls. We’re still tempted bu the notion occasionally (who doesn’t want their own castle?), but have pretty much settled on a low partially bermed design that suits our site better.
Doug
Wow- that’s a really neat idea! I love the shipping containers as curtain walls- how original!
thanx! will look forward to some more info. Specifically wondering what you’ve done to tame your concerns of wind lift, since you seem to have high winds like I do, but would love lots of details about all of it. I think you’re right about parapets being the locking row. I’ll check back soon
Hubby’s still crazy busy but I’ve emailed you- hopefully it helps! 🙂
Just looked through your entire blog, loved it. Hopefully buying a property soon and you’ve inspired me to have a go at the earth bag building process. Probably start off with a solid fence first and then tool shed and so on. Currently looking at a lot that is just over one and a half acres. House already at the front but would love to attempt to build a decent size structure at the back one day as it would have a lake view.
Where did you acquire your poly bags from?
That’s awesome! A wall with that much mass will give you a different zone for planting. If you’re as far north as we are that can be very useful. We got our bags from Super Poly Partnership out of Edmonton. We bought misprint bags at a greatly reduced cost. Super Poly has locations in Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Winnipeg- and they will ship them to you. Call around though- we were quoted different prices on the same bags between two locations. Can’t wait to hear what you get up to! 🙂
Is there a place here that has information about zoning and building permits? Can you just build whatever you want or do you need permission from ‘higher authorities’?
LOVE LOVE LOVE what you’re doing. Thanks for keepin’ on and paving the way for the rest of us that share the same dreams.
❤
No, I don’t have any posts on codes. Most of the people in Canada that I know who are building ‘alternative’ homes are doing so in areas that are remote, so don’t have the same regulations (or neighbours, or nearby towns for that matter). It’s a trade off. Someone who has written about codes is Owen Geiger, and I believe he has a post or two about areas that don’t have any codes. His blog is the Earthbag Building Blog and I believe there is a category called “codes” which you can search. Hope that helps! 🙂
just had to re-post to get an email to further replies 🙂
I found this post after I left that other comment. Great details!