No exp with old tires being used for walls. sounds like a good idea especially if they could be filled with concrete.



On a side note I found someones pot garden at my grandmothers one time. They had old tires laying on thier side with the pot plants growing from the middle. I guess they used the inside of the tire to hold in moisture and fertalizer. They were pretty big 8 to 9ft tall so I guess it worked. Would have loved to see thier face when they came back and all the plants were gone! :

 

Military has used tires quite a bit in structure building and fortifications.

 

That is a training compound. They DO NOT use tires for defensive shelters. At least not that I've ever seen. I have seen connex boxes used for defensive barriers though.

 

I worked on a project one time with tires and rammed earth...VERY labor intensive but it is a great shelter...Very good on sound proofing....Google rammed earth homes ect alot were made in the south western states......In South Dakota the refuse site is now charging $4.00 per car tire and $6.00 per skid steer tire to dispose of them....Go to tire stores and ask for them free then get all the friends you can it will take a few weeks to put up walls....:thumb:There was a woman on the forum here that was building a home with them...I don't know if it was under DIY or what thread..

 

I can't imagine these types of homes (rammed only with no additional structural protection) withstanding firepower. Maybe .45 or 9mm, but I would thing anything bigger (.308, 50cal) would just blast holes through and deteriorate the structure. I think I'll do some research on this.

 

Do a search for earthships. Michael Reynolds an architect has done 35 years of research and building these buildings. Very labour intensive but wonderful structures for self sufficiency.

http://www.earthship.com/

 

owning a tire store I know for a fact that if you wanted to go take them off there hands they would be more then happy to let you have them.

 

owning a tire store I know for a fact that if you wanted to go take them off there hands they would be more then happy to let you have them.

I know this is off topic, but since it's an old thread, hopefully no one will mind.
Kenny, I had a question for you about your tire store. I live in a small town and there is a tire distribution center here and I'm considering applying for a delivery job.

My question is about the dangers, if any, from exposure to VOC's from the new tires. If you have any input I'd be grateful. I'm posting here because I don't have enough posts to PM you.

Thanks,
Coyote

 

I really like the concept. If I had the land + time I would do it. The nice thing about it is, if you put a metal roof on it and stucco it, it looks pretty un-noteworthy and conventional.

It also makes a good cheap garden wall and heat sink for tender plants, if that's a concern.

Not much gets cheaper than old tires and dirt, but it does take a lot of labour and time.

 

Yes earthship is where I found the original info and I Googled it from there.
It does look very labor intensive but cheap materials. I am looking at buying 10+ acres and want to build and this looks like it could be parts of my plan. I like the barricade and mass benifits (rice doesn't hurt either ). Slap a solid wall/door and a metal roof and your talking! The wiring and plumbing (how thick a tire/dirt wall to insulate -20 winters) would be interesting to know.

Thanks for the ideas and encouragement!

 

I would do an earthship if I had a group of survivalist buddies who all want one so we were building each one in teams, you know, six or ten people putting up each one then going on to the next. Sort of Earthship Amish Barn-Raising, if you will. In the end everyone gets a cheap strong house, everyone wins!

Seems sorta backbreak-y to try with just 1 or 2 people, though.

 

I like that approach RB.
I've been trying to get some of my prepping buddies to buy in on a bigger piece of property but some seem of them seem to think bugging in is the way to go.
Gotta keep trying to convince them. Maybe the Amish approach will inspire them.

 

Hilarious. They charge a fee to dispose of the tire and then resell it to someone else.

 

Another idea instead of earth in the tires...Lay out your bottom row of tires have the concrete pumper truck back the chute up and fill each row one at a time...As people are stacking the chute would be guided over the tire to pour concrete in.....I wonder how high a wall could be built before compromising it....

 

It would depend on the size of the tires/width of the wall.

You could improve the strength by sinking rods through the centers of the tires, making it into a reinforced concrete wall.


Any ideas here for a similarly cheap and durable roof?
All the sudden, I'm seriously considering building my next house from scratch. ^.^

 

I've heard they use them in the military and that they work pretty well.
I'd like to see some live fire tests though.

 

That's a really great idea. Maybe figure out a way to work the tires into my landscaping. Fill em with sand or dirt and cover with dirt and shrubs to disguise them.

 

It would look nice with the tops covered over in mulch or gravel, with plantings. Could do a foundation planting around the house.

 

A few years back when I owned my gas station I had a customer come in once a week a pick up all the tires I had. He was doing the same thing on the edge of his property with a retaining wall. One Saturday I finally made it out to take a look at it. He had filled in a slope on the edge of his property running along the driveway. Some spots were at least 8 or 9 feet high. Didn't look all that bad. I'm sure by now it is all grown over with probably blackberries and poison oak and completely hidden.

 

I think I'd swallow the cost of giving the tires a concrete cover. Both for looks, and for reducing fire hazard issues. A stucco wall is attractive, IMO. Especially with something like a nice THORNY set of rosebushes in front of it.

 

Once you have everythng in place you'll only have to protect from the toxic chemicals coming from the tires themselves.

 

Recent Studies



There was a study done that provided some info on tires used in an earthship are not harmful. http://earthship.org/offgassing here it explains in more detail about an extensive study done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison stating that offgassing of tires isn't an issue when it comes to earthhip homse. Basically because the tires are pretty much encased in concrete and it has barriors around the tires that help with insulation and offgassing.

 

I have actually lived in a home with walsl built entirely of earth packed tires. With vegas and a roof, the entire wall facing south was windows and indoor garden along the window wall. Very very effecient structure. The owner of the home has had a heating bill of less than $1000 over the last 15 years...no kidding. With ceiling fans and a very small propane heater I found it amazing how constant the indoor temerature stayed. All walls were stucco-ed inside and out. He has been offered over $200,000 for the house. Took 5 years to build.

 

I actually have an earthship shelter (rammened earth tire walls home) It IS VERY solid. It retains thermal mass and stays a rather consistant temperature inside year round. Saves ALOT on heating and cooling. If you do a search for earthships, you will find classes on building them as well as homes for sale. They have thier own ecosystem inside them. 3 foot walls are damn near indestructable too. You have to do the roofing and draining correctly in order to avoid water problems if you live in a high rain area but in the desert they are GREAT. You just ram the tires with you on sight earth wether soil or sand. Its labor intensive, but will last forever. Putting concrete in them wouldnt work out so well and costs ALOT,. The earth is just as good if not better.

 

If youre building a home or structure with ramned earth tires you do not want to use the syle in the picture with soldiers. You stack them the same as you would bricks filling and sledgehammering earth into tires and layering as you go. Check out some classes on it. Its very simple just labor intensive.

 

you can make good sandals with a tire

 

Seems like a project even I could try.

 

I'm not very knowledgeable about radiation but from what I've seen and heard, lead is about the only thing that stops that stuff ,like when they put a lead shield over your groin when getting x-rays,and the lead shield built around the chernobyl nuclear reactor in russia.It seems like radiation passes through pretty much anything it want's to.

 

Density stops radiation (along with time and distance). Technically speaking, air alone will "stop" radiation, if there is enough of it between the source and you.

Radiation is basically particles coming off of substance (that is obviously radioactive). As they fly through the air they hit other atoms. Sometimes they make the atom they hit radioactive itself, other times it gets deflected or absorbed. Lead is nice because it is cheap and dense. Water, dirt and concrete are all also fairly common in barriers for various applications.

Just for point of reference, your smoke detector contains Americum (sp?), which is radioactive.

This is a pretty basic way to put things, but if you really want to delve deeper, look up alpha, beta, gamma and neutron radiation.

 

Anyone heard of the radioactive boy scout? made his own nuclear reactor out of old smoke detectors. I kid you not. Saw a documentary on him. Fantastic. :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

 

Yeah many states consider tires hazmat, they are not but I would not build a tire house in a city where busybody code enforcement nazis might years later decide that you have to demolish your house and it does happen. Outside city limits where BOLs would be should be fine.

The outside and inside needs to be stuccoed for fire reasons, chemically a tire is the same as solid rocket fuel. No it does not burn that hot but it can burn for a long long time. Note: after the stucco nobody can see what it is made of anyway.

Tires do out-gas, that is why NEW tire stores smell the way they do but, used tires have already had years outdoors to air out.

 

They make great walls but it would take some serious engineering to make a roof out of them. Two walls staggered so there were no thin sections between tires would be best.