here's the write up I received with the photos. I must say I agree 100% on the FQSS criteria!

Pat

The Honey House - Moab, Utah

After a one day workshop with Nader Khalili at the Geltaftan Foundation, we returned home inspired to build our first earth bag project. We started with simple, linear, buttressed exterior walls, graduated to serpentine garden walls, progressed to a small dome and are now finishing a larger dome with a vaulted entry way and big sunny arched windows. This last project turned into a casual workshop inviting people to come "Learn Earth Bag construction with us!"

And learn we did! Our real education began when we adopted the FQSS stamp of approval. FQSS stands for Fun, Quick, Simple and solid. By following this criteria, we made the ease of the construction our priority. As long as the work was fun and simple, it went quickly and the results were solid.

When the work became in anyway awkward, FQSS turned into Frustrating, Quarrelsome, Slow and Stupid, prompting us to stop, change actics or blow the whole thing off and have lunch. (Returning refreshed often spontaneously solved the problem, resuming FQSS approval.)

Earth Bag construction is a free form version of rammed earth. Since the bags act as a flexible form, it allows the architectural design of curvaceous, sensual, monolithic structures. We have the ability to mold, bend, writhe and swoop scultural forms inspired by nature's artistic freedom of expression, while providing profound structural integrity. hence a whole house from foundation to walls to roof can be built using the Earth Bag technique.

The proceedure is simple. The bags are filled with moistened dirt right on the wall being built, laid in a mason style "running bond." We use #10 coffee cans for scooping and filling. This eliminates any heavy lifting. After a row of bags is laid, the row is rammed with hand tampers. Between every course is laid 2 strands of 4 point barbed wire that acts as a velcro mortar cinching the bags in place. This allows for the rows to be stepped in to create self supporting corbelled domes and other unusual shapes. Arched window and doorways are built with the removable plywood form until the keystone bags are tamped in place. Voila.

The bags we used for our construction are woven polypropylene "misprints." The companies that manufacture these bags sometimes have imperfections or mistakes in the printing prcess that render them unsuitable to their clients.

Rather than throw these bags away, the manufacturers will sell them at a reduced cost. A comprehensive list of bag manufacturers can be found in the Thomas Register at your local library.

The material we filled our bags with was "reject sand," obtainable from any gravel yard. Reject sand is the by-product of the process that separates sand and "clay fines" from the gravel being produced at these facilities.

This reject material often has the best ratio of clay to sand for rammed earth construction. And..it is dirt cheap! We paid $1.00 per ton but some places will give it away for free.

To comply with FQSS standards, we adopted techniques and developed a few specialized tools that enhanced the precision and quality of the construction. Equipped with the latest tools of the dirt bag trade a new jargon of bag talk was born: bag stands, sliders, diddling, tube chutes, full pounders, quarter pounders, sliding compass, fans, halos, chicken wire cradles, can tossing, contouring, hard ass bags, and a huge break through in bag technology, scooching. These simple additions to the repertoire of earth bag construction turned as awsome job into a friendly task.

During the construction of the Honey House (a 16 ft corbelled dome), an average of four people working 5-6 hours per day moved 40 tons of earth with coffee cans to complete the bag work of the structure in 19 days. In another 7 days, we moved 7 tons more in the form of "cob" or "sculpted adobe" onto the roof to provide a 6 inch base for bermuda grass to be planted on.

Living in a climate with annual average rainfall, we intend to experiment with what we call a "living thatch" roof. Our idea is to keep the earth alive rather than stabilized. Since the dome is very steep, and bermuda grass is dense and droppy, it is likely to shed water very nicely. Of course, we'll have to irrigate.

Although building codes in our areas have yet to accept earth bag construction, we are able to inspire and educate an awareness of this alternative architecture by building structures that do no require a permit. Having people be able to see it, feet it and understand it is the first step towards acceptance.

Our cost to date for the Honey House (to the nearest $5):

professional backhoe excavation(2ft deep x 16ft diam) $150

40 tons reject sand delivered $150

1000 bags delivered $250

homemade tools (compass, stands, pounders,etc) $ 75

4-point barbed wire (2 rolls) $ 90

plywood arch forms (reusable) $150

straw for plaster/cob (20 bales) $ 35

chicken wire $ 20

_____ total $920