The Sand Castle, Rum Cay, Bahamas
Designed and built by Steve Kemble & Carol Escott
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After giving our first public presentation on earthbag building, Steve and Carol approached us and invited us to the remote island of Rum Cay to teach them how to build their sand castle dream home with - well, sand!
Steve had designed a six-sided, 24-foot (7.2 meter) wide structure. The first floor was to be built using earthbags upon which a second story, framed house would be constructed and covered with a hip-style roof. The earthbag walls are entirely load-bearing (no posts and beam) built surrounding an internal concrete block cistern designed to collect precious rainwater from the roof.
Always game for adventure and the challenge of a new earthbag building experience, we immediately accepted their offer. We arrived with snorkel gear instead of homemade bag stands and tampers, but soon discovered that the local dump and an abandoned hurricane ravaged dive club provided the materials we would need to construct all of our own site-built tools.
The bags were filled with a mixture of beautiful white sand and crushed coral made available from the dredging operation for a nearby marina.
The foundation consisted of a one foot (30 cm) deep by two feet (60 cm) wide trench that was filled with compacted rubble and coarse sand. The bag work began directly onto this rubble trench foundation.
A concrete bond beam was poured on top of the finished walls anchored to the bags with rebar and poly strapping. The bond beam ties all the walls together and provides a foundation to support and anchor the second story frame structure.
The earthbag walls were finished with two coats of a cement/lime base plaster applied over heavy gauge stucco mesh (chicken wire). The remote location and availability of locally harvested crushed coral sands made earthbag construction the ecological and economical choice that best suited Steve and Carol's ideals for sustainable building methods in the Bahamas. To date, this building has so far endured several hurricanes without any structural damage!
