An earthbag crew needs only a few simple tools: shovels and buckets for moving soil, a bottomless bucket or short pipe section as a filling funnel, a hand tamper such as plywood nailed to a broom handle, a string line and level, and wire cutters with heavy gloves. Every item can be improvised, which is why the method works with unskilled labour and minimal tools.
Part of Earthbag Building
The toolkit for an earthbag wall is a handful of digging, filling, tamping and levelling tools plus protective gear for wire and lime.
Most Of The Kit Is For Moving Dirt
The building is mostly moving soil from where it is dug to where it is tamped. The tools below cover digging, filling, compacting, levelling and wire handling. The tamper and the filling funnel are the two earthbag-specific items, and both are easily made.
What You Need
- Shovels and a wheelbarrow or buckets for digging and carrying fill.
- A filling funnel: a bucket with its bottom cut out, or a short section of pipe, to hold the bag mouth open while one person scoops.
- A hand tamper: a flat plate on a handle. A piece of plywood nailed to a broom handle works.
- A string line and a level to keep each course flat and straight. See Levels and Plumb Bobs.
- Wire cutters, pliers and heavy gloves for barbed wire.
- A sieve or screen to remove stones and clods from the fill, if the soil is stony.
- A water source and a sprayer or watering can to dampen the fill to the right consistency and to mist plaster.
- Trowels and a plaster hawk for the finish; see Plaster Systems.
- Eye protection and gloves for lime plaster work.
For general building hand tools, see Hand Tools and Hardware.
Method: Assemble Before The First Bag
Step 1: Make the tamper. Nail or bolt a flat plate to a handle long enough to use without stooping. A plate larger than your intended bag top is more effective but heavier to swing.
Step 2: Make the filling funnel. Cut the bottom out of a bucket, rub down any sharp edge, and test that a bag mouth fits over the rim.
Step 3: Set up a filling station near the wall, with soil, water and the funnel in reach, so bags travel only a few steps.
Step 4: Keep spare tools. A broken tamper stops the whole crew; make two.
Common Mistakes
- A tamper that is too light. It bounces on the fill rather than compacting it.
- No level. An uneven course carries up through every course above it.
- Sharp bucket edges. They cut hands and cut the bags.
Safety
Cut edges, barbs and caustic lime
Rub down any cut metal edge before use. Wear heavy gloves around barbed wire, and wear goggles and gloves for any lime plaster, because lime burns skin and can cause lasting eye damage.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Bag Filling and Placement — using the funnel and tamper
- Combine with: Earthbag Materials and Sourcing — the material side of the kit