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The Dirt Cheap Builder

Taylor Publishing

New Books for Alternative Building

New title: Making Concrete Garden Ornaments
This book changed title, went to softcover, and has a new, lower price. by Sherri Hunter.

This new book is NOW in stock, and looks better than ever. The conversion to softcover, with a new Cover design and layout makes the book easier to read, and actually has some new informaiton on tools for mixing (the OdJob cannister) , and ideas for creative projects. This is a teriffic book for anyone wanting to experiment with cement! The photos of life size Peace Garden statures are breathtaking, and other full size sculpture are inspiring to see ( most use a wire armature similar to using paper mache for design work.)
Tufastone, hyper tufa, and cement sculpture- all similar ideas are well described in theis full color book.
Strong, versatile, and amazingly easy to work with, concrete is the ideal medium for outdoor art and long-lasting garden projects. And it doesn't cost a lot or require special equipment; everything you need is right at the local home improvement center
A celebrated teacher has gathered the tried-and-true techniques used by sculptors and folk artists, and tailored them perfectly for low-tech surroundings and personal expression. Work with molds; form over armatures; model or carve with concrete; take advantage of technical advances to develop lighter, stronger structures; and treat concrete surfaces with mosaics, embedded objects, incising, and coloring. For dazzling outdoor embellishments, craft Garden Critter Stepping Stones, a Birdbath, Little Lady Fountain, and a jazzy border. Every project will open up new creative horizons!
Inexpensive, and easy to work with, concrete is ideal for outdoor art and long-lasting, practical garden projects.
For dazzling outdoors embellishments you can craft Pottery, Garden Critter Stepping Stones, a Birdbath ,a Little Lady Fountain, and much much more. 25 projects in all.
8 1/2 X 10. all in color
#1078N...$19.00

Building With Bags- How We Built Our Experimental Earthbag/Papercrete Home. VIDEO

- by Kelly Hart. 90+ minutes of complete earth bag building information. Using misprinted polypropelene rice bags, and filling them with earth and pumice the Harts created a unique twin dome home, complete with solar/PV and indoor garden. The video shows building methods using long and short bags, tips and tricks, materials for windows and air vents, failures and problems encountered, plastering with lime and papercrete, plus mixing papercrete in both a drum and tow mixer. Plus he covers electrical installation, plumbing, and a natural rock wall shower they built. Interviews with shirly Tassencourt who built her earthbag dome after training with Superadobe teacher Nader Khalili, and a young couple building room-by- room with bags. A poured in place adobe (earthen) floor is shown being built, as well as the Harts tamped soil/scoria (no) foundation construction. Kelly offers an honest evaluation of the work, problems and joys involved in constructing, an earthbag structure, and he details costs for all materials. 90+minutes, printed resource list included. #9013...$30.00 <(video rental $10. for 2 weeks-see Video Rentalpage.)

Earthbuilders Encyclopedia on CD ROM

- This classic 1980s adobe/earth information sourcebook contains 303 pages, with hundreds of new photos in color, plus drawings throughout. Updated with resources, includes Acrobat 4.0 to open it, easy to print out pages to read. #1058...$39.00 (works on Mac or PC)Order Here

Stone House: A Guide to Self-Building with Slipforms BY Tomm Stanley SInce "Build Your Stone House- the slipform way", by Schwenke went out of print a few years ago there has been nothing to fill the void. This book does, from an author with solid experience.

NOTE: for a great companion VIDEO see Art of Slipform Stone Masonry on the Videos page...description below too.

You wonšt need to be an expert stonemason or even have much construction experience to build your own house with one of the worldšs most traditional building materials--stone. Stone House: A Guide to Self-Building with Slipforms contains all the information youšll need to successfully build a stone home for yourself, from clearing the building site to topping the stone walls in preparation for roof framing. While providing a wealth of information on a range of relevant subjects, Tomm Stanley uses an instructional narrative to lead readers through the process of building with stone and slipforms. This is the first book dedicated to slipform stone masonry in many years. Topics include: Traditional stonemasonry and slipforming, Basic geology and where to source suitable stone, Passive solar principles, Concrete making and techniques for molding and casting concrete, and Methods for restoring recycled wooden windows and doors. Therešs even a section on the usage of metric measurement written especially for Americans from the view of an American now living in a metric country. Photography in the book is supported by an on-line series of full color photo galleries: www.heartbeatnursery.co.nz/stonehouse/

Publisher's Book overview: łLike the marriage of stone and masonry, this book mixes lively narrative with practical how-to information to create something strong and beautiful. Slipform construction combines natural on-site materials with adaptable, innovative methods, and Tomm Stanley takes the state of the art one step further, offering some new techniques based on his own experience in building his home. Stone House will inspire and encourage prospective stone builders all over the world!˛ --Ben Watson, Senior Editor, Chelsea Green Publishing

About the author Tomm Stanley was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since 1991 he has been working overseas and is now a corporate trainer and management consultant. Tomm has worked as a home and commercial buildings maintenance contractor and was a materials supervisor with the U.S. Antarctic program at both McMurdo and South Pole Stations. He now resides near Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand with his partner, Sabrina. They live in their self-built, solar- and wind-powered, off-the-grid stone home. designs for masonry stove building.

The

NEW! Art of Slipform Stone Masonry: Video Companion to Living Homes:

Thomas Elpel
Want to build a stone house? It's easier than you might think! The Art of Slipform Stone Masonry brings to life the nuts-and-bolts of the slipforming process [ combine with the BOOK above for complete information.] .
Slipforming is the process of using forms on both sides of the wall as a guide for the stonework. The forms are filled with stone and concrete, then "slipped" up the walls to form the subsequent levels. Slipforming makes stone work easy even for the novice.
In this unique video, Thomas J. Elpel and Robert Taylor build an insulated workshop out of stone, demonstrating the building process from site excavation right through to putting the roof on and finishing the inside. Working through the month of June in Montana, they brave the rain and snow, gusting winds, searing heat and stunning rainbows to bring this project to fruition.
In this video you will see just one application of those principles, but in vivid detail from start to finish. With both the book and the video you too will be able to design and build in a way that is completely unique to your own Vision. The Art of Slipform Stone Masonry is recorded on certified quality recycled VHS tapes for an environmentally friendly video! November 2001. ISBN: 1-892784-10-6. 1 hr. 50 min.

NEW!... Introduction to Fibercrete with Mike McCain

90+ minutes of complete information by the inventor himself! How to make and mix papercrete, the barrel mixer construction details, and shows many simple wood forms for blocks and bricks; then pouring and pumping slurry, plus structures he built, tips, and a burn test. Papercrete plasters, roofing, panels, laying up a wall, and lots more. There is nothing like seeing Mike make this stuff to really understand the potential of papercrete mixes for ultra low cost building. Mike has an easy, comfortable way of showing fiber/papercrete to its best advantage; he made this video a couple years ago and never got around to promoting it! It shows everything you need to know about papercrete/fiber mixes but not the newest scissor mixer. Recommended as the best video to begin with. #9015...$30.00 ...Rental- $9.00

Build a Ferro Cement Water Tank

This UK imported book was designed for Third world and rural water catchment and storage. Details how to build large and small cement-wire reinforced, and non reinforced tanks with cement and sand. Some ingenious designs are shown, with construction techniques, materials calculations; how to on curing tanks, pumps, systems; and info could be used to make large pottery too, or other storage vessels. B&w photos, drawings, 100+ pgs, #7566...$18.00...ORDER HERE

NEW Cordwood Homes video available for purchase or RENTAL:

Cordwood Homes-presented by Rob Roy

This is a great companion video for folks who want to see several completed cordwood homes inside and out. Shows round, 16-sided, stackwall corners( with special edge techniques), post and beam infill, and dozens of creative details on artful use of cordwood while building. [Shelving, bottles to admit light, clever use of wood end pieces, masonry stove designs, building small, and more] Rob Roy visits with friends and neighbors all over, who built with this technique. 70 wonderful minutes #9016...$30.00

Sean Inventor Sean Sands shows off a lightweight brick.All Photos courtesy Gordon Solberg, Earth Quarterly

If you don't know anything about this material... this is an all-inclusive resource.
(click on theDirt Cheap Houses link to see more books on ultra low cost building.)

A newly published book on bamboo building

" Grow Your Own Home", $42.00

, Written in German and English, with incredible building information. Color photos, design details, fittings and attachment styles are shown for creating anything from simple roofs to enormous, sophisticated structures ( like the open conference-exposition hall built in Hanover, Gr.). in stock now.ORDER HERE

New !

The Natural House

A Complete Guide to Healthy, Energy -Efficient, Environmental Homes...by Daniel Chiras. A really big primer on all forms of natural building from Adobe to Rammed Earth, Papercrete to Cast Earth Strawbale and Cob, with greywater systems and construction methods covered in good detail. Quotes and comments from leaders in alternative building throughout the book, with hundreds of photos and drawings. 300+ pages, Color cover, softbound, 8.5"x8.11" #1075..$35.00

New Edition, expanded to 100 pages, color photos! Building Your Earth Oven

by Kiko Denzer. Learn how easy and practical an outdoor baking oven is to build and use. The design is a two layer retained heat oven, and can be built with onsite materials such as earth and sand, and uses a brick base-floor, or even an earthen floor. These ovens burn a small amount of wood, get very hot, and allow you to bake breads and meals slowly after the coals have been raked out. Kiko sculpts his ovens with wonderful animal and nature shapes. Imagine a huge Phoenix bird, its belly the oven, the flue its throat, with smoke escaping from the upturned beak! Children can help build these ovens, and play with earth at the same time. Complete instructions, 100 pages, 8.5x7, line drawings, and wonderful COLOR oven photographs of frog, squirrel, and Phoenix bird oven-bench, plus B&W of a snail and other fanciful ovens. #1003... $15.00 Order Here

Adobe & Cinva Ram Earth Block information Kit

If you aren't ready to build a Cinva Ram brick maker yourself but want extensive information on manual adobe making with slop molds, forms, and rams... then this is for you. This is over 30 pages of information on adobes and on Cinva Rams. Some materials are from the 1930s-40s and many photos are shown of a ram and its operation to make soil blocks. Information describes soil testing, mixing, additives, curing , plus adobe construction codes, and building with soil blocks. Booklet #535 Building with Adobe & Stabilized-Earth Blocks, and #1720 Adobe & Sun Dried Bricks booklet ($5.00 value) are included. All materials are xerographic. Item #2013...$18.00

The Mississippi State School of Architecture bought this planset in feb 2000, and conducted a class to build one. See lots of photos and excellent test brick performance data online- the site was moved to Kansas Univ.:
http://www.saud.ku.edu/ngore/nilsweb/cinvablocks/index.html

A CEB press made from these plans is now offered by Warren Fernsler (shown above toll free 877-369-1699 at Fernco Metal, price is $650. plus S&H, makes a 4"x6"x8" block, online information at the website:
http://www.ferncometal.com/