Placing earth bags

[pengyou]

I am getting ready to develop a piece of my land for my retirement home. I have been interested in alternative construction materials for more than a decade, so would like to build the utility building, home and outer wall out of earth bags. I am looking at using bags that weight 200 pounds or so, instead of the 60 pounds normally used. Because I am not as buff as I was 40 years ago, I am looking for a way to place the bags. The top of each layer of bags will have barbed wire placed on it, so there is not much room to wiggle a bag around once it has been put in place. Bags are 36" x 18" x 9" and will weigh around 250 pounds. I am looking for an attachment for a backhoe that will help me place these bags accurately. The foundation and wall will be 9' tall, so the machine will have to raise the bags to at least 9.5' above the ground. Can a skilled operator do this with only a forklift attachment? Is there some other device that will do it?

 

[WranglerX]

Seem to me a backhoe or excavator with a thumb would work, may have to extend width of bucket and thumb with some steel plate to get full grip, but mostly it may just be up to skill of operator ....

 

[mikester]

Look up supersack, these bulk material handling bags are made to be lifted using forklift forks.

If you are trying to invent a machine to handle bags automatically it will be cheaper to hire a bunch of labourers for a small job like a house.

 

[pengyou]

Look up supersack, these bulk material handling bags are made to be lifted using forklift forks.

If you are trying to invent a machine to handle bags automatically it will be cheaper to hire a bunch of labourers for a small job like a house.

Thanks! Usually people use 50-60 pound bags, so having people do the labor is possible, but with 250 pounds....not so easy.

 

[jmc]

Pengyou, Do you have a link to this type of construction?

 

[Egon]

Look for one of these.

Jekko | Mini Crane Designed to Overcome any Challenge

Explore Jekko's mini cranes, articulated crane and mini pickers, designed to work efficiently in various sector, especially in confined spaces

www.jekko-cranes.com

 

[pengyou]

Pengyou, Do you have a link to this type of construction?

Earthbag Building Blog

Sharing information and promoting earthbag building

earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com

 

[pengyou]

Look up supersack, these bulk material handling bags are made to be lifted using forklift forks.

If you are trying to invent a machine to handle bags automatically it will be cheaper to hire a bunch of labourers for a small job like a house.

If luck holds out, it would be a house, a small cabin, a utility building, a greenhouse and a wall.

 

[pengyou]

Look for one of these.

Jekko | Mini Crane Designed to Overcome any Challenge

Explore Jekko's mini cranes, articulated crane and mini pickers, designed to work efficiently in various sector, especially in confined spaces

www.jekko-cranes.com

Yes! The attachment that has the vacuum operated materials handling tool would be perfect! Notice that they didn't list a price...that is always suspicious

 

[pengyou]

This kind of attachment looks like it would be pretty ideal (with a couple of simple mods) without breaking the bank. The claw can be attached to an excavator or possibly a backhoe.

 

[Cat385B]

Do you have an Avant tractor dealer anywhere close? They have several different attachments that would do the job. The boom extends, and the mid and large models would reach.

Avant's attachments

Avant attachments. Choose your tool from over 200 different attachments. Avant will provide an attachment to any job on any industry. Get yours today!

www.avanttecno.com

I have never priced out a rental or lease on one of those compared to a telescoping forklift.

 

[Cat385B]

Oops, I missed the backhoe attachment part in your post.
Depending on the durability of the earth bag material, you could use a barrier clamp.

 

[pengyou]

Thank you all for your input! It is looking more and more feasible, but I still have a lot of homework to do. The common size is a 60 pound earth bags - I think 24" x 14" x 4" and would require using 28K bags. Using 36" by 18" x9" means about 7,000 bags in total, but it also requires heavy equipment (machine to place each bag and a pugmill mixer to mix the fill) - each bag weighs in at 250 pounds. These bigs are 15% bigger than the largest bags that have been used before. Why am I doing this? Earth bag buildings are fire proof, earthquake resistant (if designed properly) insect and mold resistant, quiet and MIGHT be cheap. I did not have time to do a proper soil test 2 years ago when I bought the property, but using info from properties around it, I might only have to add about 10 pounds of Portland cement to each bag to stabilize it...actual numbers will come when I can get home and do the test.