Got some old tires and need a road?

[dave1949]

Uh Huh, they do...and then freeze their asses off in cold weather.
Apparently, they build houses out of square hay bales plastered over inside and out after building, with sprayed concrete. Properly framed, it makes some sense, but the building codes..my goodness, the red tape!

Never had the chance to inspect one up close. Most seem to use the tire wall in place of a foundation and masonry wall that is bermed with earth on the outside.

People do try all sorts of construction. Straw bale, cordwood, glass bottles, etc.

 

[forgeblast]

I have to admit the cordwood seems interesting. They are now putting spray foam between the logs to add more insulation.

 

[PILOON]

Add to the list houses made from shipping containers, Ok if you like 8 ft rooms.
As to looks, well they all look like a random pile of over sized Lego.
The insulation being spray foam I question the economy of construction vs standard methods.

 

[NS Gearhead]

I've seen tires used to make retaining walls. Fill them with crushed stone and stack them offset and backset slightly. The stone acts as ballast and the tires contain it. Not pretty, but functional.

I plan to bank the corners of my "track" doing this.

 

[orezok]

I have a lot of doubt that the tires are actually accomplishing anything and think that they will cause more problems then if they just built up the base without them. There are so many of these government funded feel good, save the planet projects out there that cost more to do with poorer results. The worse one I know of right now is a power plant that is being built a couple hours from here that is powered off of wood. The cost to build it is more then a conventional power plant and it costs more to run it then it generates in electricity created. I personally know one of the engineers in charge of water quality and was told it's all a big joke that they expect to last for only so long until it's closed down because of how inefficient it is. Federal Government funding in the billions to create it and no reliable source of wood to keep it running.

Eddie

Actually, there are 222 currently operating bio-mass electric generating plants around the country. It's a proven technology.

 

[dave1949]

Actually, there are 222 currently operating bio-mass electric generating plants around the country. It's a proven technology.

All of my chip harvest last summer went to a paper mill over in Skowhegan, ME. They generate power on-site to operate the mill, sometimes called 'co-generation.' Any excess power can be sold into the grid with renewable energy credits included. They take in 25 to 30 ton semi loads all day long.

The few stand-alone biomass plants here seem to be more marginal in terms of production costs compared to other competing plants on the ISO New England grid.

As with all things energy-related, we need to drive down our fossil fuel carbon footprints. The true costs of not doing that are rarely acknowledged beyond some market mechanisms such as renewable energy credits.

 

[EddieWalker]

Actually, there are 222 currently operating bio-mass electric generating plants around the country. It's a proven technology.

I can't disagree that they exist. Why are we spending tax dollars on them is what I can't figure out.

Eddie

 

[/pine]

Around here there are textile mills (private/publicly owned) that choose to invest in their own wood burning based power plants...evidently they save enough to make them worthwhile...and around here electricity is relatively cheap due to all the inpoundments and hydro-electric plants...