I did polypropylene bags as my foundation. I dug down 24". I filled the bags with 1 1/2 pumice up to about 8" above grade and did my papercrete walls on top of that. The pumice was tamped very well and the foundation has stood up fine after 4 years except that the bags depetiorated where they were exposed to the sun, but that took about 3 years to happen. When the inspector came out to shut down my project for lack of a permit he said the only thing he thought would be a problem was the earth bag foundation. I could have gotten a structural engineer to come out and OK it but didn't want to spend the money. As I say the walls are up about 9 feet and are fine on top of the earthbag foundation. It's just that code people don't really understand any of this stuff and don't want to have to learn about anything they don't already know.
If you design an house and apply for a permit you have to have an architect or structural engineer stamp the plans and then get it OK'd by someone at the permit office. If you do this please let us know what happens. I am thinking of following this route myself some day.
Sincerely, Judith
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To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
From: glenneth@TheFINE-ARTcafe.org
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:20:19 +0000
Subject: [papercreters] foundation question
I have NO clue as to code or laws regarding .. this seems to vary per state / county / area.
Good Luck ! Glenneth
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