How to Build a Dirt House

If you think that your interior design and remodeling project is messy, trying building a house with dirt.

My cousin and his family are in the process of building a house from home-made earthen bricks. Really. This is a seriously old-school - building technique that has been around for thousands of years. In addition to "dirt cheap" building materials (I tried, but couldn't resist...), these homes are incredibly well insulated: cool in the summer, and warm in the winter.

To practice our earthen brick-laying and plastering techniques, we built a well-house. Our rock foundation, about 5 x 7 feet on the inside, rests on top of a concrete foundation that we dug by hand. The first layer of earthen block is always the hardest to lay, because you have to line up and level each block. It’s not so easy to do when your foundation was made by amateur stone masons.

We prevailed in the end, and built the walls up to the point where we wanted an arch-shaped opening. Shaping and then laying blocks around the arch was a challenge. But again we prevailed. We put up the first of several plaster layers. Next week my cousin Jerry will pour a bond-beam (reinforced concrete) on top of the walls, and then he’ll build the well-house a roof.

You can follow the progress of building an earthen home here.