Stabilized Earth Brick

[Aaron]

5) The simplest way to get off the grid is to build a house using Stabilized Earth Brick technology, painted with the NASA insulating paint. This will give you a home with an insulation rating in the R-60 range for less than $30 per square foot. Next, install a solar-assisted hot water heater with a storage tank insulated to R-100. Finally, install skylights or light pipes in all interior rooms so no electricity is needed to light the house during daylight hours. With these three features, you have just lowered your need for electricity by 80%.

Soil Stabilization - global soil stabilization product specialists - Home

Learn more energy solutions here:
Save On Home Energy | #1 Home Energy Savings Manual

[jeanna]

cob cottage architecture.

Great stuff.
Substitute bedini chargers for the solar panels and you should be set.
But you need to educate a group of folks. It is satisfying but long and hard work to build these. And, yes, they are more comfortable than most buildings I have been inside.

jeanna

[Aaron]

sustainable building material

I'd like to build my next house with this. The rocks are harder than concrete
and dirt cheap. They look nice and natural colored and are fireproof.
To my understanding they can be 3 stories high and survive most earthquakes
because of the way they're joined WITHOUT MORTAR. That triple tongue groove deal.

Anyway, the foundations collecting money for Haiti should buy this equipment
and build buildings out of this and add rebar and mortar if they want.
Would be superior in every way in quality and economy.

If anyone has connections to stuff going on there, bring this to their
attention, PLEASE!

It is a real solution and the locals could have a new industry with just this
one technology. They could export the bricks and make a fortune and still
give a good deal.

Their land is used by you know who to grow biofuel crops - they can't
grow their own food that they need on that good land because of it.
They're forced by you know who to take cheap American corn and force
their farmers out of work that can't compete.

This could be one good thing that can be done for the Haitians. Some of
that money that is destined for shelter should invest in this long term
sustainable solution that is here and now.

Anyway, the compound does something to the molecular bonds
that turns the clay into something that is hydrophobic instead of
hydrophillic. In 48 hours of drying time, they are extra hard building
blocks ready for use.

[sucahyo]

I'd like to build my next house with this. The rocks are harder than concrete and dirt cheap. They look nice and natural colored and are fireproof.

If you talk about real rock, some granite give radiation. I don't know if it's dangerous.

[Aaron]

made of dirt

It is made out of DIRT with that has at least a certain % of clay content.
It becomes hard as rock.

[sucahyo]

Ok.

Peter Lindemann post some good link about this and DavidE give some insight of R-Value in :
http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...interview.html

[RoadPackerGroup]

Stabilised Earth Bricks As Against Compacted Earth Bricks

You may want to read a posting on the RoadPacker Group Blog for some useful information.

[Aaron]

@Roadpacker Group

Hi,

If you are the Road Packer Group - go ahead and post a link to the blog
or put it in your signature - no problem - I know it won't be spam.

From what we researched, you have the #1 stabilization chemical for
the process.

[Aaron]

Bionic Soil

Someone coming up with something that is great - but doesn't seem to be anything new.

Bionic Soil | A & P Electronic Media – Digital Publishing by Aaron Murakami & Peter Lindemann

[Aprentice]

Alternative?

Just wondering if there is an alternative that could be made locally in 3rd world countries that wouldn't require shipping barrels of chemicals.


Very interesting though.
Ronnie

[ewizard]

Someone coming up with something that is great - but doesn't seem to be anything new.

Bionic Soil | A & P Electronic Media – Digital Publishing by Aaron Murakami & Peter Lindemann

Interesting info. Having watched the video and using the 'hazardous placard' numbers on the 'Secret Sauce' in the video it appears their secret sauce is nothing more than Potassium Hydroxide liquid. Cool. Might have to try some myself for some projects.

[Aaron]

Stabilized Earth Bricks

Just wondering if there is an alternative that could be made locally in 3rd world countries that wouldn't require shipping barrels of chemicals.


Very interesting though.
Ronnie

Last I checked it is actually inexpensive from the Road Packer Group. It's worth shipping it. It was about $5500 per barrel I believe, which is CHEAP! Why? It only takes 1 cup to treat 1 cubic meter of dirt! You just need at least 15% clay.

There are 880 cups in a 55 gallon drum.

So a 55 gallon drum treats 880 cubic meters of dirt.

That is about 9.58 meters x 9.58 meters x 9.58 meters.

That is $6.50 per cubic meter (not including shipping or labor). You can't make concrete for that price!

Don't quote me on this price... $5500 is the best I can remember when inquiring into this years ago.

The earth bricks started in Columbia with a "Civna Ram Press" - invented in the 50's to mix dirt and a bit of Portland cement to make cheap blocks for building low cost homes.

You could still do that.

Earthbrick Construction: C.E.B. or Compressed Earth Block Construction. Cinva Ram Plans and more to build you own dirt-cheap house! that shows one of these manual one at a time presses.

Then it evolved to eventually using the chemical that was used by Road Packer Group to make the earth bricks stronger.

Soil Stabilisation | Ground Stabilisation | Soil Stabilisation Specialists

And their Low Cost Housing site:

Low Cost Housing - Clay Brick - Earth Construction - Home

From what I remember, the chemical was something like magnesium chloride or chlorate or something like that. Was organic and non-toxic.

[Aaron]

Bionic Soil Solutions

Interesting info. Having watched the video and using the 'hazardous placard' numbers on the 'Secret Sauce' in the video it appears their secret sauce is nothing more than Potassium Hydroxide liquid. Cool. Might have to try some myself for some projects.

From what I remember, the Road Packer chemical was something like magnesium chloride or chlorate or something like that.

If it is potassium hydroxide, then even easier. If that is what it is, then damn... have to try that too.

Just found this...

» About- History of ionic soil stabilization and the RoadPacker Group’s natural ionic soil stabilization » Bionic Soil Solutions & Bionic Roads for America!

Ok, they give RoadPacker credit and claim to have improved upon it. Didn't seem right that they mysteriously created this concept, which is what they are making it look like in the media.

History

History of Modern Soil Stabilization

The beginning of modern soil stabilization started in the United States in the 1920’s, a time in which regulations were being imposed on many businesses during the expanding industrial era. Paper mills that once discarded their by-products into their neighborhood rivers had to discover a creative way of disposing of their highly toxic, liquid waste. One solution was to promote the use of their waste as a dust palliative on dirt roads. Surprisingly, some of the treated roads developed a hardened surface. Other roads did not. It was only decades later after significant private and government research, and the development of better technology during the 1940′s-1960′s that the reason for this change had begun to be understood as being caused by a chemical reaction between the waste solution and the clay particles within the soil.
History of RoadPacker International

RoadPacker was first founded in 1990 in Brisbane, Queensland Australia. In 1996 they opened a second manufacturing facility in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, under the name of RoadPacker International. The original ionic soil stabilizers are known as RoadPacker Plus, RoadBond and Clay Block Stabilizer. These formulas have been used to build roads, subgrades, liners for ponds and canals and stabilized earth blocks in over 40 Countries worldwide for the last 22 years.


Bionic Soil Solutions International
Advancements in soil research and soil testing have lead to the development of our new and improved soil stabilization formula. Built on the same platform as our original formulas however we have doubled the concentration of these formulas and added other ingredients that are designed to perform in higher pH soils and in a much wider range of soil types. Our advanced formula represent over 22 years of research and development and we are happy to announce that they are now Made in the USA! Bionic Soil Solutions International is the exclusive distributor for this formula sold in the USA, Central America, South America and Asia.

[Aaron]

RoadPacker & Bionic Soil Solutions MSDS

RoadPacker MSDS

http://bionicsoilsolutions.com/wp-co...-Plus-MSDS.pdf

--------------------

Bionic Soil Solutions MSDS

http://www.mecfieldservices.com/wp-c...-1.21.2014.pdf

Potassium Hydroxide, water and "other ingredients"

[SilverToGold]

Thanks Aaron,

It's interesting in that the 1st item (bionicsoilsolutions), uses "Calcium Lignosulphonate" which appears to be quite acidic and the 2nd one is 35% Potassium Hydroxide, a base. Perhaps they are using quite different means to achieve similar results.

Here are some uses for Calcium Lignosulphonate:

* Could work as plasticizer in making concrete n making concrete to maintain the ability of concrete flow with less water.Also used during the production of cement, where they act as grinding aids in the cement mill and as a rawmix slurry deflocculant (that reduces the viscosity of the slurry).

* Could be used in lead batteries to acts on crystallization of the lead sulfate thus increase the battery to get a much longer life-time.

* Could used as a filler and binder in ceramic tiles, resins to fiber boards, casting sand and in fodder pellets.

* Work as dust-suppression roads as well as in dusty processes within industry. Lignosulfonate is used as a dispersant in products like fodder, disperse pesticides, dyes,carbon black, and other insoluble solids and liquids into water.

* Could reduce the viscosity of mineral slurries is used to advantage in oil drilling mud, where it replaced tannic acids from quebracho (a tropical tree).

* Could be used for the production of plasterboard to reduce the amount of water required to make the stucco flow and form the layer between two sheets of paper. The reduction in water content allows lower kiln temperatures to dry the plasterboard, saving energy.

* Lignosulphonates could work as a binder of powder and granular materials: for iron ore powder, lead and zinc powder, pulverized coal, coke Toner pressure on the ball; extrusion of cast iron, cast steel sand repression; mud-brick wall and floor tiles molding; mineral aggregate into a ball and provides high strength, good stability, lubrication and mold good results.

RoadPacker MSDS

http://bionicsoilsolutions.com/wp-co...-Plus-MSDS.pdf

--------------------

Bionic Soil Solutions MSDS

http://www.mecfieldservices.com/wp-c...-1.21.2014.pdf

Potassium Hydroxide, water and "other ingredients"