Tire House Construction

Home Sweet Home - Touch the Earth Ranch

Touch the Earth Ranch-House

THE dirt cheapest house built with used tires & cans.

Energy Efficient - Off the "grid" - Comfortable

Our Tire-house Story:

We started in 1989, by wanting to build an earth-friendly house in which to retire. We had inherited the property, now we needed the house. I had started the drawings for a one-fifth sphere geodesic dome with a bermed wall on the north side, very similar in function to an "Earthship", and when the tire idea came by way of a friend who loaned us the "Earthship" book, we both loved it.

We bought the book, and went to a Michael Reynolds DIY seminar. We put the house in town up for sale, it sold in a week. We moved our 23 ft. travel trailer onto the property, and forty-five days later we moved out there ourselves. I started drawing the plans for the "Tire-House" on my PC-CAD system, now housed in the trailer.

My first set of tire-house plans was on five sheets. With them in hand and the books and some The Layout From Above pictures, along with the Engineering Report created for the Dennis Weaver house in Ridgeway, Colorado, we made our way to the El Paso County Regional Building Department Plans Examiner's office for our first handshake and presentation of our plans. He hated the idea, just sat and shook his head. His first comment was; "No way you'll build that house in this county!"

Lucky for me, having an engineering background (aerospace; for 25 years), I knew that he couldn't just "not like" the concept. I asked, why and he said, "I don't like those walls". So, I showed him the Dennis Weaver House Engineering Study done by Tom Griepentrog of Buckhorn Geotech in Montrose, CO. He hated that, .. it was too good.

The truth was, he really didn’t have the time to digest all the necessary new concepts to really evaluate the drawings. So, he stalled, picked out one thing he didn’t like and sent Mikey Starts Pounding me off to correct it. Only to come back and find another thing he didn’t like. This took six months in total, culminated by the examiner throwing my plan set (now 10 sheets, into the air) and me out of his office, in front of eight or ten local slack-jawed contractors, ouch. This all over the final barrier, his interpretation of the calculations on the "earth-cliff". What a scene! With some added ink by Tom Griepentrog, the "earth-cliff" finally proved out structurally (on paper), and he had to approve the plan set for permitting.

Turns out, we were the first people in our area to get a building permit for one of these houses. Our house was built as seen in the book, so we made the mistakes inherent therein. Of course, we didn't know that then.

People started coming down our driveway to see the "strange house". Eventually, someone asked me to draw them a set of plans, and off we went. Touch the Earth Construction was born, providing site evaluation, consulting, and plan sets. Since then, I have been involved as the "Architectural Designer" (your personal Architectural Draftsman and Tire-building Consultant), in over forty projects, using tire-wall construction. The last ten of twelve being tire-bale residences.

We spent many hours in the trailer "construction office" for 4 1/2 years. Through four winters in Colorado at 7,500' altitude. We learned a lot about just plain survival. While I pounded tires (never with frozen dirt, though, cuz it won't compact), cut & peeled trees from our over-forested property, framed and roofed, etc. We also learned an Tomatoes in February appreciation for space to move, fresh air to breathe, condensation, and warmth (or lack of it, in the trailer). The things we would have the most of when we would move into our tire-house.

Yes, that's a tomato, and yes, that's snow outside. Tomatoes in February in Colorado?!?!?!

Ventilation Problems!!

In the houses themselves, we see "automatic" ventilation from the bottom front awning windows to the skylights open above in the rear. However, this isn't enough.

We began to realize a serious problem the first spring we lived in our house. The first warm day after a solid freeze (<20º) the night before, brought enough water drips for me to suspect a leak in the roof, as if it had rained (no water on roof). Without ventilation built-into the cavities between the top of the insulation, and the bottom of the roof sheathing, there WILL be a problem. This air must be ventilated with outside air for the "rain" to stop. This is easy to do in advance, and is common in the building industry, save for at Solar Survival Architecture. Oh well!

In all following home designs we've built-in a ventilation system. Easy when you're framing, and adds no more expense or complexity. In some houses we've also made the roof all one plane, sloping to the South or North (click to see), whichever works better for the particular design geometry. This takes the pressure off the crease caused by the "kick-up", common in M.R. designs, and also precludes the need for complicated crickets. All roofing and most of the framing is exactly like normal techniques and hardware (like half a common normal house). Overhanging eves take pressure off the window drainage and can be engineered to reduce summer sun when necessary. They also provide standard soffet vents, completely shield the top of the window mullions and are capable of collecting run-off with standard gutters and downspouts.

An easy fix for M.R. designs and the condensation caused by the lack of ventilation in the old greenhouse roofing structure is the following (I did this on our house): add by gluing/tarring 4" of dense EPS foam insulation to the outside of the "greenhouse" roof (sheathing), and add roofing and flashings over. This insulation precludes the roof sheathing, now interior to the structure, from ever getting cold enough to attract condensation.

Windows Leak?

We've also discovered off-the-shelf window mullion systems that not only make a beautiful window array, but will preclude condensation drips or ANY window leaks into the house. This accomplished by sensible and ingenious design using proper materials. Seals are made with extruded EPDM instead of butyl caulk, as recommended by Michael Reynolds. Extruded Aluminum Mullions

Warning: The Michael Reynolds' window mullion design as seen in the book "Earthship", WILL lead to leaks and condensation drips around windows in solar window arrays. DO NOT use butyl caulk under mullions, or wooden mullions, as recommended in the "Earthship" books. Unless, of course, you don't mind leaks, ..many leaks. If you use formed steel mullions as seen there, use full width .06 thick EPDM strips under mullions.

The only manufacturer (I've found) of REAL greenhouse window systems for slanted windows is Abundant Energy, Inc. and their Pro-Seal line.

Approximately $9.00 per running foot of window border. This design may also be formed out of sheet metal and costs are considerably less, but the product won't be nearly as attractive nor as reliably consistent. Surface finish durability becomes an issue using galvanized sheet steel, whereas the products above are anodized aluminum in many colors and are practically impervious to any environment for many years of service.

In our lower window array, we installed three vertical awning windows in 3' x 2-1/2' wide dormers. We found Champion Window, in Colorado Springs, had fine products, reasonable pricing, and were easy to work with on our custom requirements.

Overall Performance:

The house works better than we had imagined, in spite of M.R.'s oversights in detail. The concept is excellent, in our opinions. On the coldest of winter days the temperature inside never goes below 63ºF, even when it's been very cold (-27ºF our coldest night) and with no additional heat in the house, it was still 60ºF. On the hottest of summer days (95ºF outside) inside temperatures don't go over 80ºF in the shade. It's always quite warm under the solar array windows, when the sun is shining.

To read more on this concept (less the tires), see the book "Natural Solar Architecture, a Passive Primer", David Wright, AIA, circa: 1972. Mr. Wright puts forth considerably more useful information on passive solar homebuilding. This book is out of print but can be obtained 'used', if not at your local library.

To see our goat shed, a much less difficult and non-standard (no-building-permit-possible) method of rammed-earth tire-construction click here.

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