Bristol Green House 2007	Car Tyre Retaining Wall
	How to ram a tyre wall...
• blog • plans • links • home To express an interest or book your place, email: build@bristol greenhouse.co.uk • Foundations • Tyre walls • Straw bale walls • I-beam roof • Living roof • Clay/Lime render • Insulation • Earthbags • Map
	Over 40 million tyres are disposed of every year in the UK. That's a lot of swings in chimp enclosures. Now that they can't be put in landfill something has to be done with them and we are demonstrating one jolly practical suggestion. We plan to save 180 tyres from being burned to power a cement factory (and save your lungs from their toxic pong) and use them to build retaining walls. Since they won't biodegrade any time during then next few hundred millennia, they make an excellent free building material. The tyres get their strength from the process of being stuffed full of earth. This consolidates the material. In conventional building this is done by adding concrete – which literally makes the material solid. Rammed earth tyres use human energy rather than hydrocarbon energy. The Earthship Brighton (below) is built using 870 used tyres, so who better to run our tyre ramming course than some of the guys from the Low Carbon Network.
	Earthship Brighton
	Our more modest garden workshop (below) is being built on a hillside and so we must cut into the hill, dig out the earth and build retaining walls. Due to limits on space we have made the retaining walls part of the building itself. The design is an exciting hybrid of straw bale and earthship construction. All the better for anyone wanting to learn both skills.
	What you will learn: • You will be given a briefing about site safety. • You will learn how to build a retaining wall out of rammed earth tyres. • You will get in there and take part in the build. • Each day the guys from the Low Carbon Network will give talks about how the Brighton Earthship came about and how you can plan and execute your own tyre based building. These guys are the leading practitioners of tyre wall construction in England, so take this opportunity to learn how to do it. Be aware that it is tough and physically demanding work and not for the faint hearted.
	Cost: Free Dates: Saturday and Sunday 8th and 9th July 2006 and Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th July 2006
	What you need to bring: Steel toe-capped boots and clothes you don't mind getting wrecked. We'll provide the rest, including lunch and refreshments.