Open weave fruit/vegetable bag (Hiperadobe) on polypropylene gravel-bag foundation.
Close-up view of raschel mesh bags used for Hiperadobe.
My initial impressions are very favorable: extremely tough, no ‘give’ or stretch when pulled by hand and no sign of tearing during tamping. It has ideal working properties for earthbag walls in virtually every regard. In addition, the material looks almost identical to shade cloth that’s used to shade plants in nurseries and plant stores except it lacks the glossy coating. More testing is needed to determine its ultraviolet (UV) resistance.
So now we have another standard, commercially available product that works perfectly either by itself or in conjunction with poly bags. This to me is a game-changer, folks. Anyone sitting on the sidelines can now use this improved system to reduce costs and labor, and speed construction. I encourage everyone to buy a few bags and test this out. Your results may vary. We’ve already had one report of very weak vegetable bags.
– The bags are probably less expensive, because the merchant at the farmer’s market sold me the bags at less cost than poly bags, even though they were in perfect condition. I’ll report on the cost once I find the supplier.
Both Kelly Hart and I see this as a major development for earthbag building. The only drawback we can think of is some loose fill material like sand, rice hulls or crusher fines will fall out of the openings.
I never thought I would be so excited about new developments in soil filled bags.
Though I would probably still use the poly bags if using rice hulls/volcanic materials for an outer layer of insulation.
Perhaps the Supplier could be asked to make a run of bags with slightly tighter weave and maybe even denser strands specifically for earthbag building??
Anything is possible, but I’m sure that would raise the cost.
Here is an American manufacturer. This product is only 9 1/2 inches wide, but as they make raschel bags, perhaps they can supply wider tubes as well, if they know there is a market for it.
Here is the manufacturer in Brazil that has the mesh tube that was specially developed for hyperadobe.
The only thing is that now they said they will only produce this again if there is a big order….
Thanks, Paula. But it’s okay, there are lots of other suppliers.
How well do you think this would work with crushed cinders/ scoria? Have you found a US source?