Best Construction Types For The Desert | Which Ones We Considered | Episode 15 #Offgid #Homesteading

Hi - We are Douglas and Keri…follow us as we make the move from our urban home near Denver, Colorado to our off grid property in Southeast Arizona.Show more

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We considered 3 different types of construction for our desert homestead and here is a list of the pros and cons for each.

TRADITIONAL CONSTRUCTION: This type of construction we are most familiar with. We would include tiny house and shed to home conversations in this category.
PROS: Hold their value, better for resale, easier to find supplies for build, easier to find blueprints/plans, most widespread appeal.
CONS: The desert climate can be tough on wood because of the sun and wind, supplies to build are expensive (especially at this time due to the supply chain constraints), not very natural disaster proof, some building supplies can be very toxic and it’s not as environmentally friendly of a construction type.

RAMMED EARTH CONSTRUCTION: We LOVE the look of rammed earth and it’s what we started out thinking we would do.
PROS: Anyone can learn this type of construction, durable and holds up
well in the desert elements, can be inexpensive if your property has the
right type of soil, fire and moisture resistant, non-toxic, versatile, great pest
protection.
CONS: Needs additional insulation to be efficient, unforgiving construction (so if you mess up a wall it’s difficult to fix!), limited to single story and flat walls, very long cure times when compared to earth bag construction, can be difficult to get a construction loan, and this type of construction can get very expensive to build.

EARTH BAG/HYPER ADOBE BAG CONSTRUCTION: We chose this type of construction for our off grid homestead property in SE Arizona.
PROS: Inexpensive to build, easy to learn to build, convenient because we can use our own soil, natural disaster resistant including fire, wind, moisture, bullet proof, durable, versatile in that you can have curved or flat walls, nontoxic.
CONS: Your soil must be just right for this type of build, it’s labor intensive and time consuming, you are limited on size for structural reasons, you may have trouble with flat furnishings fitting up against your walls like you may be used to.

THE BAGS WE CHOSE: We priced out individual earth bags versus hyper adobe style continuous bags and decided to go with the continuous bags. The two main reasons for that are that they appear to be “quicker” to build with and also they tend to be more structurally supportive for cisterns and that will be one of our first projects.

Because of the supply chain crisis, we decided to go ahead and purchase 2 rolls of Volm Companies Red Adobe Tube Netting. Shout out to Tiny Shiny Home on YouTube who recommended them and it was a solid recommendation!

At the time we purchased these 2 rolls in Feb of 2022, an 18 inch wide roll that is 1,640 feet long cost us $378 each (including shipping). Each roll is 18 inches wide and 25 inches in diameter and weighs about 46 pounds, so not difficult to move around or store. When we ordered the rolls, they shipped from Wisconsin and they arrived at our house near Denver just 2 days later! We cannot recommend Volm Companies enough and if you are interested in buying from them, you can contact Dustin at Volm Companies, dustin.quinn@volmcompanies.com or give him a call at 715-627-3753.

Please leave us your comments/advice on our cistern/utility shed project. We are trying to figure out if having the cistern inside the shed will give it more protection from freezing temps or if we should have it outside the shed so that we have more useable floor space in the shed. The county guidelines on floor space in order to build without a permit is 200 square feet. We appreciate your input!

Thanks for watching today…see you soon!

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Music by: Tunepocket
Video Editing by: iMovie for Windows
All the artwork for this channel are original creations by Douglas