Earth House 1
The Project
While visiting family in Waiheke Island, Montgomery wound up stumbling across a construction site where earth/clay bricks were being used. When he observed how the construction was being done, he said to himself, “Hey, I could do that!” His desire was thus kindled to begin the process of building his own earth home.
After being trained in the “ins and outs” of making earth blocks, he found a piece of property, had some test blocks made up, and “never looked back.” The house was built by Montgomery for himself about 20 years ago and while most costs have changed significantly in that time the cost of taking earth from a building site has basically remained unchanged. It therefore seemed like an appropriate example to include on the website.
The house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a double garage. It is a U-shaped house with a courtyard through the middle. The kitchen runs through the back of the house with the living room on one side and the dining room on the other. Large windows surround the house letting natural light into every room. A wide fold-away door system opens from the kitchen to a courtyard. The courtyard is also accessible through bi-folding doors from two of the bedrooms. Overhead throughout the home are raked timber ceilings with exposed macrocarpa beams. The roof cladding is corrugated iron.
Low Cost
The main factor that contributed to keeping down the cost of this house was the use of earthen construction paired with the labour being done by the owner. The materials for the bricks were taken from the site on which the home stands. Although a time intensive process, Montgomery was able to draw on the assistance of four friends and some farming machinery. Over the course of less than a week, the group made 8,500 earth blocks on site (on their most productive day, they were able to make 1,186 blocks). Montgomery estimated that the material cost of each block was $1.12 when taking into account some of the other things such as sand that were mixed with the earth to create the blocks. Based on this estimate, the total cost of the walls for the home came to approximately $9,500. The use of adobe blocks meant that there was no need to purchase certain materials typically used in modern homes, such as outer or interior cladding and insulation.
About Jason Montgomery
Montgomery has remained in the earth construction business as well as the general construction business for about 27 years and enjoys working with earth when the opportunity arises.
Contact
If you would like to get in touch with Jason Montgomery you can reach him at montyscontracting@hotmail.com
