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We believe that hindsight is always 20/20 and that you can learn from everyone else's mistakes. Everyone we have talked to that has built an earthship type home has said that they would have done one thing or another different if they had to do it all over again. As we go forward in our project, we would like to share with you some of the things to look out for and some of the mistakes we have made. |
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1. Check out any contractor that you intend to use and be there when the work is done! We had a contractor grade the driveway, put in the septic, and do a little clearing on the homesite. He put in the septic 3 feet too high causing us to have to raise the house higher than we wanted and with an additional expense we don't need. We asked him to clear out a 100 ft. perimeter around the house and chip the slash. What he did was clear out 60 ft. and take the slash to a pile in the woods creating a fire hazard during an extreme drought. We weren't around when he did the work. We made the mistake of trusting him. Then he had the gall to charge us for the work he didn't do and we were stupid enough to pay him because we lived 280 miles away and couldn't check it out. We now ask neighbors and friends for recommendations. 2. If you intend to build with tire bales, call tire recyclers all around your area and find the closest with a baling machine. Go talk to them and see if they will use the same size tires in the half bales as they do in the full bales. The short bales we are using have 14 inch tires instead of the 15-16 inch tires of the full bales, requiring additional work to raise them up to the same level. The freight hauler we used gave us a break in cost since their trucks were being driven to a nearby city empty (deadheading). Now they had a full load both ways. 3. We moved here permanently in May 2003 and began living in a 17 ft. Casita travel trailer. It's a great little trailer for a week's vacation but it's not meant to be lived in full time. It is not insulated and prone to condensation on the inside which has lead to some mold growing in the wall. We decided it was in our best health interest to put up a little cabin to live in, since the trailer wasn't working out too well. The cabin was completed in February 2004 and we happily moved out of the moldy trailer. 4. As far as cost to build goes, don't think you can build this for pocket change. You can, however, save a lot of money by building it yourself and using contractors minimally, if at all. You can also hunt for used materials, anything bargain basement or destined for the trash (Steve took a job in construction for a while and brought home rebar, metal braces, and assorted other treasures destined for the trash. It's amazing what gets wasted on a construction project). 5. If at all possible, build without a mortgage. Mortgage lenders usually shy away from alternative buildings anyway. We're building strictly out-of-pocket. It makes a project go a lot slower, but we figure we are saving a couple hundred thousand dollars in the process. 6. We took our own advice and asked around for a reputable excavating contractor (see #1 above) to backfill the east end of the house where the garage will be. We also had to have the backfill compacted to at least 95% before the county would let us set the last tire bales. We found a company that really did a wonderful job and the compaction tested 97-100% using 31 loads of Class 6 road base. We thought it would cost an arm and a leg to get this done but it only cost an arm so we had enough money left over to buy a little wine and celebrate. We set the last of the tire bales on 6/3/2007. Yippee!
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Home First
Steps Excavation Plumbing Setting
the Bales Solar Electric |
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