Earth Garden Building Book, Robert Rich and Keith Smith, 9780670028634

Earth Garden Building Book

Design and Build Your Own House

Updated Edition

Robert Rich
Keith Smith

Illustrations, Bibliography, Glossary, Index
328 pages
Publisher: Viking

Paperback - 2005
ISBN: 9780670028634 - AU $ 49.95

At a time when housing costs and interest rates have put the Australian dream of owning a house beyond the reach of many people, Bob Rich and Keith Smith show how even the most impractical person can learn to build their own home.

The authors were not originally skilled craftsmen and they use their personal experiences, successes and failures to explain the building and design processes to beginners. Their approach is practical and analytical, but their language is straightforward and dynamic. The book covers a wide range of topics including:

how to be your own architect and create energy efficient housing designs
safeguarding the house from bushfires, cyclones and floods
footings, floors, roofs, doors and windows
mudbrick, rammed earth, stone and weatherboard walls
building skills such as measuring, sawing, hammering, bricklaying and glass cutting
information, advice and personal experiences from a variety of other builders.

Planning your home

Why build?

Building blues
Design

Be your own architect

The design process

Finding three dimensions in two

Design games

Models help you to design

Solar efficient design

Living in an Alistair Knox house

Bushfire defensive house

Flood defensive house

Cyclone defensive house

Navigating in the Timber Framing Code

Earth Walls

Good design saves on plumbing

Kitchen design
On site

Safety on site

Site access and layout

Setting out the site

Setting out the building outline
Setting up

Bracing

Scaffolding

Homemade ladders
Strong foundations

Footings and floors

Concrete slab

Vertical concreting

Organising a concrete pour

Pouring and finishing concrete

Earth floors

Slate jigsaw floor

Ant bed floors
From the earth

Any soil will do

Quick and easy mudbrick moulds

Dropping a mudbrick

What is a good earth wall?

Rammed earth

Ramming tools

Forts in the desert

Mudbrick

Mudbrick laying

Mixing mortar

Mudbrick arches

Formwork cob (poured earth)

Earth brick presses
Strawbale: Low cost sustainable building with strawbale

Footings

Loadbearing strawbale walls

Earth/lime render for strawbale walls

Designing for a strawbale home
More about mud

Rendering earth walls

Fixing things to an earth wall

Many ways to mix mud

Puddled mudbricks

Mud mixing by trailer

How the Muddies built a monastery

Bottle mosaics
Stone endures

Types of building stone

Slipform stonework

Tonnes of granite

Fourteen slipforms

Splitting bush sandstone

Building with bluestone

Building stone arches

Two faced stonework

Our granite house
Woodworking skills

Measuring

Sawing

Hammering

Using an adze

Adzing tips
Timber

Post and beam design

Lift that pole

Basic pole shelter

Pole frame house

Sumatran pole house

Laying a timber floor

Building a stud-frame wall

Building adventures

Nailing on weatherboards
A roof overhead

Roof framing

Flat or cathedral ceiling

Constructing a skillion roof

Constructing a gable roof

Constructing a hip roof

Roof trusses

Putting on roof battens

Finishing gable ends

Fascia spouting

Nailing on roof metal

Sequence of roofing operations

The Pink Palace
Doors and windows

Hanging a door

Windows

Cutting glass

Puttying
Creative recycling

Creative recycling

Denailing

Car cases

Apple box shingles

Paper mudbricks
Appendices

Access directory

Bibliography

Glossary

Index

Related Titles

Foundation Maintenance and Footing Performance: A Homeowner's Guide

Sustainable Retrofitting of Commercial Buildings