Small Permittable Starter Structure

[kalakoa]

Rod ... has boring equipment for post holes in lava

No kidding? How deep? Carl (?) bored 10' deep for the ground rods.

[randomq]

Don't know how deep, but I was setting the pointy posts they sell at Tractor Supply, so I assume at least capable of a couple feet or he wouldn't have mentioned it

I wonder if any of them can do telephone poles?

[Ccat]

I wonder if the “earthship” concept makes any sense for Puna.

This concept should be owner buildable and long lasting.

The structure would be made with stacked used tires filled with volcanic pumice (I suppose).

There are a few thousand worldwide, centered in New Mexico.

They can be quite artistic or genuinely ugly...according to your taste and the particular earthship build.

Probably wouldn’t survive an architectural review committee of a subdivision.

Now, as to permittable, in Hawaii, duh...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

Sincerely,

Ccat

[dobanion]

Naw, Earthships require a few things that make Puna less than ideal.

#1 is LOTS of fill. Usually dirt, but it could be pumice/cinder. The original idea is you build on a site with a gradual hill, dig out a section for the house, and use what you dig to fill the tires. But the amounts required if you are trucking it in instead of just digging it up on site, would shock you. Ball park 50 truck loads at $1000/load.

#2 is tires. Know a place on the island where you can reliability get ~3000 used tires?

#3 is it doesn't work very well when you get lots of rain. Note the location of the original Earthship community, Taos, New Mexico, in the middle of the desert. The back filled part of the structure would tend to get water accumulation in heavy rains, which will seep into the home. If the back fill is pumice, AND you put a water barrier, maybe those torrential Puna rains won't cause water to start running across the living room floor, but then again, maybe not.

#4 The massive amount of "thermal mass" built into the house is designed to endure very cold winters and crazy hot and dry summers. Neither of which is present in Puna. Not to say a very high thermal mass approach wouldn't work with some adjustments, it's just waaay outside what a Earthship was designed to address. My feeling is you would tend to have cooler internal temperatures than outside, which in Puna's humidity means interior condensation and rampant problems of mold/fungus.

#5 Earthships have cheap material costs (when available), BUT require a massive amount of very tough manual labor. Hundreds upon hundreds of man hours of filling and stacking tires.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but I have gone through lots of alternative building approaches before I got to Monolithic Ecoshells.

I'll grant you there may be some places on the island where a Earthship could work, but they aren't in Puna. Ocean View comes to mind. You'd still need a excavator to break into the lava, and a rock crusher to turn it to fill. Probably want a skid steer to move it around afterwards.

I had a concept similar to above, expressly for the Ocean View area (ie, endless supply of lava rock). Look up "Gabion houses" or "rubble houses."