The Dirt Cheap Builder

New books on straw bale building:
The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes
by Bill and Athena Steen...a gorgeous color photo book detailing the results of beautiful bale building; along with explanations on the practical aspects of thermal mass, solar gain, heating, cooling and materials. SHows earth floors, earthen built i furniture, interior wall details, creative problem solving, and personal touches to straw bale homes. No matter what you want to build this book is inspiration taken from reality. 8"x8",113 pages #3016...$23.00

" This is a superior resource, covering so much ground that no other straw-bale book does. It offers a startling amount of information that complements and updates such classics as The Straw Bale House and Build It With Bales. With clarity and wit it thoroughly addresses dozens of frequently misunderstood and overlooked concepts, details and concerns from a perspective steeped in equal parts building science and field experience. This book is an excellent, vital addition to the thinking person's literature of strawbale."
Read the rest of this Book Review by Mark here.

Inventor Sean Sands shows off a lightweight brick.All Photos courtesy Gordon Solberg, Earth Quarterly

If you don't know anything about this material... this is an all-inclusive resource.
(click on theDirt Cheap Houses link to see more books on ultra low cost building.)

Modern Pise Building:House building with compressed or rammed earth - A revelation for the Farmer and Settler-1923 : by Karl & Inez Ellington, 105 page booklet, 5"x7" size, xerographic. It is amazing to realize that Ellington traveled all over Europe and the USA promoting the rammed earth method. He stipulates that each man or "settler" should take advantage of the soil beneath his feet and build a "cozy little home". He describes the foundation, selecting soil; mixing, formworks and a varitey of lime washes. (This is the earliest reference to cooked wheat paste described.) Dozens of photos of houses in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, New Mexico & English cob. Covers walls with cross section diagrams showing construction methods, roof design, attachment. Gives recipes for finish coating walls - limewash and plasters. Black and white diagrams throughout. You also get a real sense of life in the 1920s, a most charming booklet. (There is a photo of an odd earth block ram press which can only be described as a 'contraption'-levers and gears everywhere)#2015..$12.00.

#277...$12.00

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Building with Adobe& Stabilized-Earth Blocks- 1964 : Leaflet #535, USDA . 8 page booklet, 5"x7" size, xerographic. Describes selecting soil; mixing, molding and curing adobe bricks with a form mold and with a Cinva Ram block press (ram photo shown). Explains building walls with cross section diagrams showing construction methods, roof design and attachment. Gives recipes for finish coating walls (plasters)- a casein & TSP wash, limewash and lime plasters. Black and white diagrams throughout. #535..$2.00

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Adobe Construction Methods: Manual 19 : by LW Neubauer. 35 page booklet, 5"x7" size, xerographic. A very thorough primer for Adobe! Explains how to make and build with adobe bricks. Soil selection, stabilization and waterproofing with cement, emulsified asphalt, lime are detailed. Describes how to build and mortar walls, place lintels, windows, doors, and build roofs. Shows diagrams of construction details from foundation to roof, with correct measurments given. Covers finishing, painting, limewashing, fireplaces and chimneys,. Even describes other tamped earth methods such as English Cob, rammed earth, poured adobe; with photos and diagrams of formworks used. Black and white photos throughout, produced by UC California Agricultural Sciences Dept ,1964. #19...$10.00

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Adobe& Sun Dried Brick for Farm Buildings-1934 : Farmers' Bulletin #1720, USDA . 18 page booklet, 5"x7" size, xerographic. This wonderful little booklet has photos of 1930s adobe buildings and laborers constructing them; to teach rural farmers this very low cost, fireproof building method. Describes mixing, molding and curing adobe bricks. Explains mud and lime mortars, coal-tar paints, when and how to apply finish plasters. Covers windows, doors, roofs, footings, foundations and chimneys with dimensions given. Shows photo of a very low cost roof of cottonwood logs/willow twig and straw, coated with adobe mud/sod. Black and white photos throughout #1720...$5.00.

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Applied Artistry #1025... SALE $39.00...ORDER HERE

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Unusual, Imported, Books
All books are New, have color covers with b&w photos inside. Order by Title of the book

Discovering Archaeology...shows tombs, barrow, houses of primitive man in British Isles, great photos and drawings..128 pgs ...$10.00
Prehistoric Houses in Britain..shows history and designs of stone, sod, roundhouses and building features..72 pgs, $10.00
Deserted Villages...shows photos of village communities and how they functioned in ancient times..72 pgs, $10.
Villages in Roman Britain..shows locations, describes ironage and lowland, small and large sites, photos of locations, how they functioned...64 pgs, $9.00
Hillforts of England and Wales..shows how they were designed, defences, building styles, phots of ancient sites, 64 pages, $9.00
Megalithic Tombs and Long Barrows, in Britain..photos of sites and designs, history of these stone and earthen structures..72 pgs, $9.00
Roman Villas..Designs and layouts of villas in Britain during Roman times, shows simple houses to estates, aisled barns and structures, 64 pgs, $9.00
Pottery in Roman Britain..photos and designs of dozens of styles created, good information and ideas for patterns for modern pottery making (especially Tufastone users)..72 pgs, $10.00

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New Edition, expanded to 100 pages, color photos! Building Your Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer. Learn how easy and practical an outdoor baking oven is to build and use. The design is a two layer retained heat oven, and can be built with onsite materials such as earth and sand, and uses a brick base-floor, or even an earthen floor. These ovens burn a small amount of wood, get very hot, and allow you to bake breads and meals slowly after the coals have been raked out. Kiko sculpts his ovens with wonderful animal and nature shapes. Imagine a huge Phoenix bird, its belly the oven, the flue its throat, with smoke escaping from the upturned beak! Children can help build these ovens, and play with earth at the same time. Complete instructions, 100 pages, 8.5x7, line drawings, and wonderful COLOR oven photographs of frog, squirrel, and Phoenix bird oven-bench, plus B&W of a snail and other fanciful ovens. #1003... $15.00 see the Cob page for a photo of a snail oven.

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The Art & Science Of Dumpster Diving ..How to get anything free! Furniture, clothing, building materials, tools, good food, even luxury items for free; handing run-ins with police; converting trash to treasures; selling found goods. The author gives an excellent rendition of how he does it, and the best ways to find virtually anything you want for free! Best Seller among the frugal crowd. 8.5x11, 152 pgs, methods you didn't know of ! #9012...$15.00

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Adobe &Cinva Ram Earth Block Information ON CD-ROM If you aren't ready to build a Cinva Ram brick maker yourself but want extensive information... then this is for you. This is over 1,000 pages of just about every word written on Cinva Rams and adobe block making, wall building and more. Includes complete books in PDF format. Some materials are from the 1930s-40s and many photos are shown of a ram and its operation to make soil blocks. Information describes soil testing, mixing, additives, curing , plus adobe construction codes, and building with soil blocks. Included are Booklet #535 Building with Adobe & Stabilized-Earth Blocks, from 1964 is included. Item #2013...$12.00.. ORDER HERE

The Mississippi State School of Architecture bought this planset in Feb 2000, and conducted a class to build one. See lots of photos and excellent test brick performance data online at: http://www.sarc.msstate.edu/gore/cinvablocks/cinva.html
Although the professor wasn't complimentary about all the extra information I had gathered for him : ( (there were 3 complete sets of cinva ram designs provided to the school- they WERE able to accomplish their task and build a Cinva Ram fairly easily.)

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A CEB press made from these plans is now offered by Warren Fernsler (shown above at 505-354-7102 (toll free 877-369-1699) at Fernco Metal, price is $650. plus S&H, makes a 4"x6"x8" block, online information at the website:
http://www.ferncometal. com/

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