Spiral Earthbag House Plan This unique, almost Hobbit like earth sheltered spiral design includes a large grow bed, exposed timber ceiling and living roof. Ample light is provided by the window wall next to the grow bed, windows, skylight and suntubes. My main goal has been to reduce the cost of housing, while also making the designs sustainable, easy to build and livable. Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' title='Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' />Contrary to its fully glazed counterpart, a passive solar greenhouse is designed to retain as much warmth as possible. Shaping Buildings for the Humid Tropics Cultures, Climate, and Materials by Patti Stouter, 2008, is a 28 page PDF document that describes how to use ventilation. Papercrete is a construction material which consists of repulped paper fiber with Portland cement or clay andor other soil added. First patented in 1928, it was. How to Grow More Vegetables, 9th Edition Bibliography. Click here to download a PDF of the complete bibliography 1. MB Click a section below to view. Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' title='Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' />Owen Geigers Spiral Earthbag House plan is featured here. Presents new and experimental solar energy concepts of interest to do it yourselfers. Alternative natural materials are natural materials like rock or adobe that are not as commonly in use as materials such as wood or iron. Alternative natural. The easiest way to cut costs is to build small, so almost every plan I design is less than 1,0. Ive tried to return to the sizes prevalent 5. People didnt feel deprived or poor in these houses. In fact, 8. 00 sq. Our current attitude of larger is better needs to change to meet the reality of dwindling resources, lack of affordable housing and global climate change. Not only are small houses less expensive to build, theyre also easier to clean, and have lower utility and maintenance costs. Cost How much do alternative houses costWell, it depends on the size, features, construction details and how much work you are willing to do versus paying contractors. The short answer is it can cost as much or as little as you want. A small, simple house made of natural building materials could be built by a DIY builder for about 1. This assumes doing most everything yourself and using the low tech building ideas that I advocate. Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' title='Building With Papercrete Pdf Free' />And just to be clear, 1. Note its much easier to build this way in rural areas with minimal building codes. A typical 3. 00 8. DIY builder for about 3,0. R 4. 5 roof insulation cellulose, wool, cotton, rice hulls small diameter, sustainably harvested wood non toxic finishes and materials for cabinets, etc. Kitchens A great deal of thought has gone into the kitchens I design. Years ago I was a National Kitchen and Bath Association certified designer, and have applied this training toward all of my projects. The key to good kitchen design is an efficient work triangle, which all of my plans have. Even though these are small, affordable homes all of the kitchens are quite spacious and very efficient. All cabinets shown are standard sizes 2. Most designs consolidate the plumbing on one 26 plumbing wall to reduce plumbing runs and save on materials and labor. Baths Most baths are standard 5 feet wide. This enables a standard bathtub recycled or new to fit without modification. I like bathtubs because you can soak or take a quick shower. An efficient on demand water heater can be added above the bathtub. Tile is ideal for the tub surround, floor and countertop. Its easy to find good prices on small quantities of tile just ask for closeouts or go to yard sales. Also, invest in a good, quiet bathroom fan to vent humidity to the exterior not the attic. Floors I recommend floors made of earth, stone or recycled brick. You can save a lot of money and resources this way in comparison to wood framed floors. Tamped earth floors are my favorite. Heres a good article on tamped earth floors by Frank Meyers. Plaster Most people use earth or lime plaster on earthbag houses. Some use cement plaster, but its best to use plaster that allows moisture vapor to pass through the wall. Use wide roof overhangs if you live in a rainy climate. Heat Wood stoves serve as the heating system in virtually all my designs. A few designs have space for installation of radiant floor heat another excellent choice. Many of the plans feature passive solar heat. Because these houses are small, most can be heated with a smaller than average wood stove. Windows All windows are standard sizes. Most windows are 2. Be careful using recycled windows. Most older windows are not energy efficient and could cost you more in the long run. Youll notice window and door openings are curved. This creates beautiful openings that enhance views and allow maximum light to enter. Square openings are easier to build, but they result in primitive tunnel openings that look crude in comparison. Doors Exterior doors are all 3. Most interior doors are 2. Its easy to adjust these sizes slightly to meet standard metric sizes. Some plans show curtains rather than doors. Game Unreal Tournament 2004 there. This is another way to save money and resources, and speed the construction process. If you do use curtains, I encourage people to build standard sized openings to make it easy to add wood doors at a later date. Also note, always use wood doors on closets with water heaters to reduce risk of fire and meet code, of course. Closets Closets have been carefully placed between private and public spaces to buffer noise. In some cases they are placed between bedrooms for added privacy. Furniture The furniture layouts are merely suggestions. Ive added furniture to make it easier to visualize the final home. Showing the furniture is important in small homes to make sure everything fits as planned. With the proliferation of the Internet, I have tried to add at least one desk in every home. Some furniture, such as benches, can be built in to save money. For example, instead of buying a sofa and end tables, you could build these out of earthbags and earthen plaster. Add pillows and youll have comfortable furniture for hundreds of dollars less than store bought, and it wont offgas chemicals and fall apart in a few years. Solar equipment Many features such as solar panels, solar water heaters are not shown and can be added according to individual needs.