Anyone else considered Green Building?

Since we have property and have decided to expand our business the need for a building came up....We started looking at the different pole barn systems that can be erected but the costs were just so prohibitive....So we have decided to move on to a green building system.

We have gone with the tire building system because of the strength of the finished product and the benefits from the standpoint of heating and cooling.

For those that do not know what this is I will try to explain....

The basis of using tires for building is simple. You lay out a foundation line of tires in the outline of the building that you want to build and then fill them with dirt and ram pack them tight. Then you start the next level where you stagger stack the tires and once again fill them with dirt (you will in the spaces with partial tires or concrete if you want)

Once you have the walls as high as you want you then cover them with an adobe like substance inside and out and let it harden.

For a roof you can do just about anything that you want. we have gone with the flat roof, slightly pitched for run off....

The thickness of the walls means that once the building is heated up it will stay that way and the same with the cooling.



The costs associated with this kind of building are minimal to say the least....We are getting all the tires for free, delivered right to us, and most of them have rims, which means cash....About half of them that were delivered yesterday have aluminum rims on them! We are goign to use the money from scrapping out the rims to pay for the roof and the garage doors that are necessary.

I got lucky in the fact that the guy that works for me is skilled with electrical so I can get the placed wired for just the cost of wire and so on.

Just thought I would share....

Sounds like a good idea, I just can't picture it too well. Won't there be a lot of critters gettin in through the cracks? I have no problem with critters, just a thought.

You'll have to post some pictures of it through out the building process. I am curious to see how it goes.

Originally Posted by rca987

Sounds like a good idea, I just can't picture it too well. Won't there be a lot of critters gettin in through the cracks? I have no problem with critters, just a thought.

You'll have to post some pictures of it through out the building process. I am curious to see how it goes.

Good question....However, there are no cracks. The exterior is completely covered in adobe or quickcrete, forming a solid wall. We are taking pictures as we move along and I plan to post a good and plenty of them.

I was the same way when I first started researching this....The best way to get an idea of how this kind of thing works is to hit up Google and search for "Earthship" or "tire building" There are many pictures and sites dedicated to this kind of construction.

Originally Posted by KZBell

These have been around for several decades...Dennis Weaver being one of the more famous people to build one. I think they are called Earthships and once completed they are sealed up just like any other house, so the ocasional critter yes, but no more then any other house.

Edit: beat me to it sorry for the duplicate info.

No worries KZ.....Earthships is the term that they use to describe the homes that are built from tires....I believe that they use that term because this is meant to be an "off the grid" form of living...Many that build these use cisterns, gray water toliet systems and solar panels....I don't think that I going to go quite that far....I am more than happy with my septic tank and standard electrical hookup :-)

The electrical runs in conduit on the inside of the building....Those that are building homes with this system usually bury the conduit in the interior adobe mixture to hide them...For the shop we are running it on the outside of the adobe.....I thought that would be better just in case there happens to be any kind of electrical problem that needs to be solved.

I was thinking of getting two 20 Ft connex boxes Put them like 30 ft apart then Build a Roof over it. then build a back wall

connex boxes

What is a connex box? I know what a connex radio is but the other confuses me,, are you talking about a shipping container??Maybe I'm too old to know what that is,,,lol

Ok I Admit I am 50 lolol. And yes Mick is correct its shipping container

That sounds like a good idea Dew.....We had considered the shipping containers when we were first starting out but we could not get a good deal on one to save our lives....

We are hoping to have the building finished by the end of June at the latest but we have to have decent weather to do it....It has been 2 whole days since it rained here...I think it might be some kind of record!