Well, it's always been my dream to have an Earthship, but I read an article last night that explains that they just don't do great in the cold due to the lack of insulation, and that they aren't the most environmentally friendly thing on the market these days. On paper, the Passive Haus design is allegedly much more suited to a cold zone climate.

The thing is, I just think these Passive Hauses are hideous. I think most modern looking homes are hideous. Hard lines, building block houses, they look lifeless and sterile. Now compare that to an Earthship and they just look so phenomenal. Lots of flowing curves, lots of texture, wood that looks like it came from an actual tree, plus all the glass features, ect. I'm kind of thinking that I would be willing to put up with having to put a cardigan on inside the house every now and then, if it means I get to live in a house that looks like the Elves set up shop in Tattooine rather than Rivendell. I feel like architecture should be about more than just make a house, it should be about making a home. And for my tastes, the Earthship design nails that.

I basically want to hear from anyone who has actually lived in a cold zone climate in an earthship. Does it work? Is it worth it to live in something that's so beautiful, even if it's a little less practical? Does the glass house section of the house get too muggy and damage the structural integrity of the property?

Give me the truth, gang. Do I go for a Passive haus, modern design? Or an Earthship?

Has anyone ever looked into melting plastic to seal between bottles in a bottle wall instead of using cement or Cobb?

This is never been used and in the shipping crate. It's free for pick up or delivery. You would have to pay shipping if you didn't pick it up. It cost $500 to ship to me. I'm located in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

https://www.earthed.co/lessons/module-1-building-the-earthship-idea/

Hi!

I was curious if there were any folks on here that are located in Eastern Washington that I could discuss with about their build. Looking to move and build there in the next couple years. Thanks!

So earthships are a brilliant concept, not arguing that at all. Marvels of system planning and self-sustainability.

However. They feel very limited in their capacity? In rural/semi-rural setting they seem to work wonderfully, great for homesteaders and off-grid folks, or lower pop. communities and ecovillages. Perfect family homes or for small groups.

High-density city life isn't going to fade into obscurity, though, and I'm wondering how we can scale the concept up to suit the needs of urban communities? I've seen a couple ideas but they didn't seem to understand the sustainability aspect of the assignment.

Have you heard of any large capacity builds? Projects designed for urban settings? Have any ideas on how to scale the concepts of an earthship living system to hold multiple family units? Think it’s a fool's errand and we should head in a different direction entirely?

Hoping to generate discussion more than get a solid Answer, hope you have a good [timezone-specific salutation]

Recently purchased undeveloped land here, and I'm wondering if the soil and elevation of the area would make it a less-than-ideal region for building an Earthship. Elevation is about 90 ft above sea level, and we are not close about 2 hours from the coast, but there is a river a few miles away. However, the land sits on a hill, and there is no history of flooding. Soil is a bit sandy so I am wondering of this would still work for earthship construction? Thoughts? TIA!

I've been looking at earthships for a long time, and there are two or three earthships here in Arizona but none are fully functional none are totally off grid. Is it possible in the low desert not the high desert, to build a fully functioning off-grid earthship that can handle 120° temperatures in the summer? I have 20 acres and Eloy and I plan on building one but I have not seen Mike Reynolds or anyone else build in Arizona with a proven concept of being able to last in the summer. ?

I purchased a domegaia aircrete form. It's still in it's packing crate. It would need to be picked up or you could set up transportation. It's free. Needs to be gone in September.

domegaia concrete form

I have a hard time believing, especially in areas of the world where radon is even a bigger problem, that this system wouldn't be funneling radon into your house. Has anyone done any radon testing in an earth tube cooling house?

Current code requires a vapor retardant below the slab and a method for pulling the radon from the bottom of the house and ejecting it out the top of the house with a fan. Bypassing the entire house.

For financial and geological reasons, a typical earth tube that feeds straight into the house won’t be a solution for me. My “fix” is to have a few corrugated pipes over a 150’ span that will feed cool air to my outdoor unit and lower energy usage. The main benefit that I see here is that I wouldn’t have to worry about water in the pipes as much as if they came straight into the house. I have an old unit that still runs fine and I feel like tossing it for the sake of energy savings is kind of counter to the goal of sustainability. Please let me know if there are any major flaws in this plan.

ive heard people say earthships like to be lived in its good that someones there to open windows etc , would a tiny house be a better option than a earthship for someone who has to leave their dog at home while they work during the day ? concerned about the heat

HI!! We are working with an owner to purchase their earthship. It was built in 2007 and the current owner consulted with Earthship Biotecture on the design and building plans, and hired labor from the Taos team for the construction and tire packing. The berm is roof height all along the back wall of the house, and the berm is mostly rocks and soil from the property, we believe it has a high concentration of clay.

The issue is on the inside wall in the bedroom, it's the berm wall, and there's a bulge, most likely due to the fact that clay does quite a bit of expansion and retention with temps and water (we think?!). The bulge is about 5 feet in height and 2 wide.

We think the path forward be to remove berm, reposition/repair the exterior tire wall, then rebuild the berm? Then restructure and resurface the adobe and plaster the interior? Has anyone ever seen/repaired this type of issue?

Other than that it is a beautiful and very standard earthship, with 40 feet of greenhouse with grey water, and solid, no cracks or other issues anywhere on the interior. The current owner has only used it less than 10 days a year, so it feels very new. Solar was all updated panels/inverter/battery bank less than a year ago and the sistern is full due to good snowfall this year. So mostly yay!

https://preview.redd.it/o4nvxslzaxad1.png?width=1466&format=png&auto=webp&s=c10f416df12dc4668f8dacc423752f31a70a5273

https://preview.redd.it/ygyj31t7bxad1.png?width=2166&format=png&auto=webp&s=1924f679eac4d4721bfa1cd4e974b3688c19f0eb

Didn't know where else to post this, not exactly core earthship related.

I am building a patio on a sloped sight in Colorado Springs.

I have access to a lot of tires & having an interest in earthships, I thought my retaining walls could be tire walls.

I've spoken with city building dept & as long as my wall is under 48" (it is) I will not need permits & anything under that is considered landscaping & doesn't really have rules. Why tires? cost. The tires are free & I have over 200 linear feet of walls to make.

My site is poor draining clay based soil that gets all mucky when saturated. I will be scraping the top layers off & compacting 1.5" recycled crushed concrete into moistened earth for stabilization. I will dig a shallow trench (18"ish) as a footer, filling with the same crushed concrete & laying the tires on top of this. The footer will continue to the drainage easement & a dry well I have already built to mitigate the neighbors runoff.

The highest wall will be approx 40" from grade. Underneath the patio will be back filled with the same crushed concrete to create a giant dry well. We don't usually see a lot of rain/snow... but get an enormous downpour from time to time. I will lay a traditional paver patio within the tire wall structure.

1 - My primary question is this - Can I fill all courses of tires with the same crushed concrete I'm using elsewhere? I am concerned that I won't have enough fill dirt to pack them with; as well as drainage & movement caused by the swelling of saturated clay.

If you have the time & inclination, some other questions..

2 - Having access to so many tires, would it be prudent to use them on the inside of the wall (similar to geo-grid)? The idea for this comes from the work done by Samuel Bonasso in stabilizing roads - mechanical concrete.

3 - Angle of repose. In researching tire walls it seems that even for very high walls, the angle of repose of the retained material is not considered; as the wall itself is very steep. I am assuming that I should not be concerned with this in my project. A wall with 1.5" setbacks would be ideal for my plans. Thoughts?

4 - finishing/render. Any info/howto's on finishing the exposed tires? I would like to do a stone veneer but would be worried about the mortar failing due to movement. I could parge the walls & carve/stain the look, again.. concerns with failing. Or should I stick with a colored adobe mix?

5 - Should I use concrete in any of the courses? iirc the original earthships had concrete in the top course to act as a bond beam.

Thank you so much for any time given in answering.

I was wondering how the Caribbean Earthship’s are coping with hurricanes? I know they are a brilliant way to help rebuild a community after a hurricane, but how do they do when a new hurricane hits? Also, as Category 5 hurricanes are going to be more frequent are there some design changes required to cover the roof with soil to add protection?

Does anyone know of a mechanical or electric machine that would assist in pounding tires? I don't mind rounding out the edges but I have a wrecked rotator cuff and all of the pounding would never work for me.

Hey, I’m dreaming of an earthship lately and wanted some opinions. I don’t yet know where I’d be able to do this, when, etc. But I thought this group could relate with me.

I’ve been thinking about an earthship, or at least some form of one for awhile. Considering building one myself over some time or even trying to get one of those giant 3d printers and printing one, while that’s not a typical earthship, I could still implement a lot of the sustainability and efficiency practices of one.

Some of the reasons I want an earthship:

Price: Modern houses are becoming ridiculously priced. If I could make something using only out of pocket funds, I would be setting myself up for success long term. Not to mention long term savings of having a more efficient home.

Sustainability: I would plan to be on the electric grid , supplemented by solar, which I can then net meter. It’s more efficient than batteries in my opinion and it leaves some wiggle room in case solar under produces sometimes.

Efficiency: I always wonder why modern homes are built the way they are. For instance my current house is barely insulated and it’s basically designed to rely on pumping heat and AC into it around the clock to be livable. I love that people have found a better way that makes homes more efficient

The 3d print idea may or may not just be a dream, it costs like 600k+ for that, so if I did it would require me to go into quite a bit of debt for it. So maybe not. I do also dream of being able to use it to build out buildings, or eventually even a small eco-village, for promote sustainable and cost efficient housing. In which case it would make things quite a bit more efficient. Just a thought.

I’m currently a full time student. Right now funds are scarce, once I graduate I should make pretty good money, but I’ll also lose a lot of time. Now, in the meantime I could always try to narrow down locations (it’s been hard for me to even think about where I’d want to live long term haha) and if I find one, begin to clear the land, and collect materials. Which would leave the more expensive stuff to be done when I graduate and make some funds.

Some questions: How much did your earthship builds cost? Did you need any financing? What did that include? Did you hire anything done?

How long did your builds take? Did you work during the process?

We have a partially underground house (two walls and the roof are underground - picture attached) in Oklahoma that occasionally leaks during heavy rain events. So we are digging it up to waterproof it, then reburyng it.

Once the house is totally cleaned off, we are planning on using some type of roll on paint/tar, then applying a waterproof liner of some sort.

My questions are

1. What waterproofing material would you recommend for an underground slab house? And where is the best place to get it in large quantities?

2. What liner would you recommend for the exterior, and again, where is the best place to get it?

3. Any other thoughts, tips, advice on waterproofing an underground concrete house?

Let me know if you have any questions about the project that need clarification. Thanks!

What sort of maintenance is required for earthships in the Taos area?

Can you travel for extended periods of time (1 week or more) without damage to the house? Or is maintaining conditions inside the house throughout the day crucial to the life of the house?

Hello everyone,

I've had a life long obsession with Earthships (at least since I was an early teen) and I'm starting to look into the feasibility of building one in my region of coastal Georgia.

A lot of the land I've been looking at is at a higher risk of flood and I wonder if anyone has any resources about this type of architecture and it's integrity if the house should become flooded at some point?

I’m interested in getting experience building earth ships. If you need any volunteers for any upcoming projects, please feel free to reach me directly.

I can bring around 20 volunteers.

Does anyone have access to materials that discusses the maintenance involved in earthships?

My husband and I are going to be building a home in a couple of years and the decision hinges upon maintenance.

I love earthships, but I know next to nothing about the actual maintenance vs the purported levels of maintenance.

Thanks!

Anyone know where the man/myth/legend hangs out lately?

Looking at a possible career change and have been kicking around the idea of going to the earthship academy in the interim. Just curious what types of career paths this academy might open up? Thanks!