Customer Reviews

Building with Bags: How We Made Our Experimental Earthbag / Papercrete House

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

No stars on this one. Don't be duped by this cynical production designed to prey on your wallet with no expertise to justify the making. The makers of this DVD have no training or expertise on how to build with dirt bags and the production is nothing but a home video type of demonstration of their lack of knowledge and training. Not a how-to production, it chronicles this couple's moving from one building disaster of their own creation to another as they attempt to figure out how to build themselves a house made of dirt filled bags. With so much information put out by Nader Khalili on this topic, why this couple didn't bother to educate themselves on the basic principles of this building style before they started is a mystery. The product they end up with looks like an artless, lopsided, unattractive and possibly dangerous conglomeration. What a shame that the wrong people made a much needed DVD on this topic.

Having house sat in the Hart house for 2 weeks in the middle of a Colorado winter, my wife and I can attest to how well the house functions. The key word is in the title, "Experimental". Kelly's honest approach to sharing his story takes the viewer on a journey through the thought process and application of a brilliant idea. His successes and failures are real life and in the end shows that dedication to environmentally sound ideas are worth the efforts. I highly recommend this DVD program to any owner/builder embarking on the major journey of building a home even if the home is not earthbag. In the end the experimental home is a series of trials and errors which the Harts saw to its successful completion in a way that made me smile and admire. Their homes' integrity is way beyond the demands of any building department anywhere!

Finally, we were so inspired by his concepts that we designed and built our home with earthbags as well.

Producers Kelly and Rosana Hart have come up with another winner. They've already given us the definitive video on alternative architecture, "A Sampler of Alternative Homes," but this is their personal story. From a base of sand, cactus and brush in Colorado's San Luis Valley arose a beautiful home made almost exclusively out of crushed rock and old copies of the local newspaper. There were mishaps along the way, true, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so there's no need to impose stricter standards on earthbag houses. As the cost of conventional construction materials and the levels of carbon in the atmosphere continue their disturbing rise, this visionary DVD points to a future where buildings (one of the largest contributors to global warming) don't hurt the very Earth they stand on and the new worth of those who just want a little shelter.

How come there is not a "no-star" option? The house they built looks dangerous, in fact, they had some collapses while building. This is simply not a good example of earthbag building. There are so many good sources available for information, for example, Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer's wonderully written and informative book, Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques (Natural Building Series), and anythiung from CALEARTH/Nader Khalili, that this movie serves no purpose other than to show how not to build with earth bags.

Earthbag Building, an excellent book, shows a very concise, step by step way to build that is solid and safe, and is a fantastic resource..

My advice would be to save your money, and buy the movies by Mr. Khalili, or buy Kaki and Donis book. Getting a movie to watch the fumbling steps leading to an unsafe and esthetically challenged building is a waste of money.