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| Path tackles a tire. |
I am happy (no, ELATED is a
better word!) to report that the "pounded tire foundation", which is
by far the most grueling and time-consuming part of building the dwelling, is
now complete. Yes — all 64 tires of
it! Thanks so much to Justin,
Kristine, Tracie, Kris, Path, Catherine, Cindy, and Lydia for their help in
this arduous work! Now the aching
tendon in my arm can rest awhile, and my flagging knees and back can take a
break! Even the woods is taking
time to celebrate with oceans of leaves, thrown like red and yellow confetti, streaming profusely from trees. I've often felt in a rush with this
project, as if I am behind schedule, and yet the seasonal coming of the rains
has made the pounding go more easily, helping the earth to better compact. So, perhaps I am right on time.
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| Tracy: Master tamper! |
What IS a pounded tire foundation, anyway? Just as it sounds — it is a foundation made of used and discarded
tires that are pounded tightly with soil. It is an effort to build
something of recyclable materials, diminishing their flow into area landfills,
and to reduce the cost of building by using freely available materials (any
tire servicing center will gladly provide the tires for free in order to avoid
their disposal fee). Furthermore,
the tremendous thermal mass of the pounded tires (each becomes a 300- to
400-pound "brick" once thoroughly packed with soil) provides
excellent stability and insulating properties. Annie and Jay Warmke, my mentors in the building techniques
I am using, report that their home, Blue RockStation, which is made entirely
of pounded tires (called an "Earthship"),
maintains a temperature between 60 and 70 degrees throughout the year, and that
is in frosty Ohio!
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| Kris handles the sledge with ease! |
But what about the environmental
and health impacts of using old tires in a foundation? You're probably familiar with the foul
and acrid odor of used tires — not something you want in a
dwelling! That "old tire smell"
is from the photo-degradation of tires, meaning they degrade when exposed to
light. Tires in the pounded tire
foundation, however, are fully covered with cob or mud-slip, and not exposed to
light at all. Tires not exposed to light never degrade (fortunately or
otherwise). In fact, tires buried
in the soil have been found to ABSORB
pollutants and, for that reason, are now being used in landfills to curb
the flow of toxins, and in golf courses to absorb nitrate run-off from the
manicured greenways (see articles "ChippingIn" and "The OffgassingNon-Issue", for example).
As I and my hardy friends have
all experienced of late, building a pounded tire foundation is extremely labor
intensive as it requires wielding a sledge hammer to pack the soil tightly into
the rims of the tires. Once
complete, however, it makes an excellent foundation for straw bale walls, which
can be raised very quickly once the foundation is complete. Stay tuned for straw bale wall
construction in the coming weeks, and for opportunities to help with applying
the cub (mud-slip), a job that is a lot more fun and easier on the joints and
tendons!
