How To Get Earthbags On Walls

I was going to build a two-level round earthbags dome house, but I was alone and ran out of gas. So it is a one-story, mostly because I was dreading humping the soil up more than seven or eight feet.

Fill the bags and drag them to the bottom of the wall below where it was to be placed. Pick them up and place them on the wall. Use one lift of staging and four platforms. Lift bags to the first platform, then the second, then to the top of the wall. Two-story require two more staging lifts and four platforms.

Air helped me with some of the bags. Others I did myself, but I am fairly strong in my old age as I often did weight training and even about three years in competitive powerlifting.

Walking Earthbags Up Ramp

This works for a while if you have your dirt close to one of the walls. In my case, I had to order in six truckloads of soil because I already used up a lot of the farm space with these two buildings and the future straw bale house.

I figured I had enough space within the house foundation for two loads of soil. So the first two loads were dumped in the middle. Unfortunately, I should have been driving the second truck as he dumped a lot of the load as he drove away.

That meant a shit ton of shoveling for me to install the tire footing!

Walking Earthbags Up Ramp

I had the trucks dump the soil as close to the wall as possible, actually, a little too close as one load hit the wall pretty hard. It was a good test for the wall, which was about 3′ high at the time and no problem. House 1, Dump Truck 0.

I used the height of the soil piled up against a wall to make it easier at different elevations for me to:

  • Fill the bags half full on top of the wall while standing on the mound of soil. Then fill a couple of 5-gallon buckets (or as much as needed to fill the earthbag) and place them on the wall. Then walk the wall with the bag and buckets and fill in place.
  • Place the half-full bag on top of the previously laid bag at the edge where it will be placed.
  • Fill to 90% using the soil in the buckets while standing on the previously laid bag.
  • Tie it.
  • Carefully move to the opposite side.
  • Carefully pull the top towards you and allow it to slide into place.
  • Tamp with feet or an actual hand tamper.
  • After the wall is too high for this method then shovel more soil onto the ramp to make it higher and repeat.
  • Continue for as high as possible. Near the top of the wall, you may need to use less soil per trip, but it still works. This is how I did it all the way to the top of the wall.
Earthbags

I forgot to take videos of me working and walking the walls, but I found the below video on YouTube. It is decent and if you have a LOT of time you can do it this way. My way is much faster using larger buckets and only compressing the soil once it is in place.

My tamping method was stomping with my bare feet, flat at the start. Then using my heel to really compress it well. Yes, it leaves divots and this is a good thing as it reduces slipping.

If you want to use a tamper like he is I used a 2×6 and smash it on top of the bags on the 6” side and make sure it lands flat on the bag.

You can hear the sharp crisp sound when it is packed tight. I would still walk the top and smash them with my heel to create small divots.

Yes, two rows of barbed wire help greatly, and maybe I should have left them flat on top, but the wall is holding up very well.

Utilizing Staging And Manpower

I am in rural Thailand and don’t have access to staging and lumber is scarce and crazy expensive. If you have staging and a helper your life is going to be much easier. Rent several lifts and many platforms to take steps about 2.5′ high each.

  • Once the wall gets to about 2.5′ then set the lift of staging against the wall where the next bags are required. Face the “ladder” side of the staging against the wall.
  • Place one or two platforms on the bottom rail.
  • Place one or two platforms on the ladder side at a height that works best for you and your helper.
  • Fill the earthbags and hump them onto the lower platforms.
  • Get on the lower platform and lift it to the second set of platforms.
  • Stand on the top and set it in place.
  • Move the staging as required to add as many rows as you can comfortably reach.
  • You can add a third level by separating two top platforms so that you have one at about 2.5′ and the inside one on the top rung.
  • If you are building a two-level house you can use this same system by moving this section of staging 5′ out from the wall. Then add two sections, one on top of the other, between this one and the wall.

    This is a pain in the butt to move around, but if you are half-monkey and have good insurance you can try lifting the mud onto the walls in this one location and walking it to where it is needed like in the first method above.

Climbing a Ladder

This method is basically the same as the first one except that instead of a soil ramp, you are using a ladder.

Climbing a Ladder

TIP: Put a little lean on the ladder as possible and place them against the middle of a bag on the OUTSIDE of the wall, especially with round houses as the wall is much stronger to forces from the outside to the inside.

Square or rectangular buildings are stronger in the corners from forces from the outside to the inside.

Rent a Forklift

If your building site is wide open and the terrain decent then this is a back saver. Rent an outdoor forklift and place a pallet on the forks for a sturdy and strong base.

TIP: Fill and seal all the bags and scatter around the construction site in a manner that allows a forklift to pick them up and get to all areas of the walls. Rent the forklift on a weekend for a discount rate and let them know that you can receive the forklift anytime Friday if that is convent for them.

You might get lucky with a return coming back to the shop Friday afternoon. It would be cheaper to just go straight to your location rather than to the shop, unload it, and load it or another one on Saturday morning to deliver to you.

This way you can use it on Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Now the most important part: invite as many strong friends over for weekend beers, BBQ, and a workout.

Homemade Crane/Pulley System

You can build a homemade crane if you have the time and lumber. This makes life much easier and you, but I did not build one so I have no insight into this method.

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