The Earthbag House Work Continues!
We’re now in year 4 of building the earthbag house! We only work on the house while we’re in Pennsylvania, which is 6 months per year, so we’re actually about 20 months in. This is a big summer for the project as we approach the midway point. We like to think of it as climbing a tall mountain and we’re almost at the summit, ready for a dazzling view and the start of the long trek back down. Work so far this year has focused on the roof. The rafters began last fall, and have now been finished. There are various other small tasks that need to be done before the layers of the living roof begin to go on, but we’re close.
Wait, did I say living roof? Yes I did! This was the plan way back in 2016 when we began, but we temporarily shifted our thinking and we’re headed toward a metal roof. For various reasons, we did a 180 and are back to our first thoughts once again. The metal roof never felt right, but a living roof sure does! Not much had to change with the structure as it was except that we had to double up the longest rafters to make sure they could withstand our potential central-PA snow load and also now the various layers of the living roof lasagna, some of which can be quite heavy. I think another post following the completion of the roof will be in order, but here are the layers of the roof that will need to go on:
1) Plywood sheathing 2) Roof Underlayment 3) Pond Liner 4) 1” layer of rounded gravel 5) Filter Fabric 6) 2” layer of soil mix 7) Plants!
We’re planning on edging the entire thing with aluminum as a light, inexpensive and strong material. It’s also an homage to our beloved Silver Bus House and new guest room/studio space: Avi-Edna (a 1960 Avion T20 Travel Trailer). We also have to accommodate for the chimney and plan to install a couple of skylights as well. Unless things break perfectly I don’t think we’ll seed the roof until the spring, but that’s okay. We plan to use a variety of Sedum, which are perfect for moody climates and shallow soil. They self seed and create a really nice and beautiful mat. They are very common plants for living roofs.
Overall the project is slow going, but that helps us troubleshoot and keeps us grounded here at our land, focused on the present. That is an unplanned gift and truly a blessing in disguise.
Take a look at the photos as the captions with good details.
Zak
