Tired of typical materials, Buckhannon man builds his home

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (AP) - Rob Barbor picked the spot.

In a wooded, hilly section surrounded by his parent’s property near Buckhannon, he broke ground. After leveling 2,300 square feet of land and laying the concrete sub-floor, Barbor began collecting his building materials.

A few White Pine trees that his father planted in the ’70s were cut. Old beer and kombucha bottles were saved. And many collection runs to nearby tire stores were made.

Barbor hasn’t spent much time in a Home Depot or Lowes. He hasn’t needed to because he isn’t building what most think of as a traditional home. Instead, the 28-year-old is using used-automobile tires filled with rammed earth, or packed dirt, as the primary building block for his rammed earth passive solar home.

For the last four years, Barbor has used mainly recycled materials - tires and glass bottles - as well as natural materials - rocks and harvested timber from cut and fallen trees - to build his home.

“It’s all about proper design,” Barbor said.

After studying about rammed earth homes - a structure more commonly built out west thanks to the dry, arid climate there - Barbor started laying the foundation for his home.

He lined out the exterior walls with horizontally-laid tires one row at a time. Using dirt that he excavated from his home site, he poured the earth into the tire’s center and then used a sledge hammer to pack it into the round, rubber walls. He just kept pouring and pounding until he had a well-packed tire brick.

It “makes a 300-400-pound brick that is rubber encased and steel belted and nearly indestructible,” Barbor said. “Bullet-proof.”

Because of its weight, Barbor had to form the bricks where he wanted them to sit. He used a pool liner at the bottom of the tires to prevent loose earth from slipping out. And to offset the bricks, he bolted two tires together to form one long brick in order to maintain structural integrity.

It’s been four years since Barbor broke ground. Laying the tire bricks - approximately 600 in total - took him two-and-a-half years alone to complete.

And he still has a lot of work to do before he can move into the space. But just to watch and listen to him explain the science behind his future home, it’s clear that he’s excited about the project, which he’s done mainly by himself.

The principle to the design, Barbor explained, is the building block’s ability to hold thermal mass. The front exterior wall of Barbor’s home is mainly comprised of long, narrow, triple-paned windows.

The sunlight streaming into the energy-efficient windows will heat his home. The rammed earth contained in the tires will absorb the sun’s heat and, then, slowly, release it through the night.

“The idea here is, instead of insulation and the reduction of heat loss, it’s heat storage. All day long we have this greenhouse effect. … That’s going to allow us to live comfortably without a heating or cooling system.”

He also said that having his home’s back wall built into the hillside will also help to maintain the air’s temperature inside his home. The house’s temperature will never drop below 60 degrees and it will never rise above 75, thanks to the earth berm around it.

To create some color, he put blue, green, purple and clear bricks made from glass bottles at the top of the west-facing wall and around a side door, also facing west.

In addition to not having a traditional HVAC sysytem, he’s also not using any city utility, such as water or electricity.

“We’re off-grid,” Barbor said, as he pointed to two, rain-water collection tanks that will gravity-feed his home’s toilet and washing machine.

He’s got his drinking water covered, too. He buried 1,000 feet of pipe to run water from a spring on his parents’ property to a large, concrete collection tank outside his home. The spring water will gravity-feed into his home to provide shower and drinking water.

He already knows where he’s going to install a series of terraced biofilters to filter his gray water - the used water from his sinks, washer and shower - so that it can be returned safely to the ground. He’s going to have plants along the south-facing windows to have food production in the home.

He also built a terrace into the land above his home, which will serve two purposes. First, it will prevent any hillside erosion from falling on top of his home. Second, it will create a flat space to install the solar panels that will provide electricity to his home.

He wants to homestead - and he’s well on his way to do it.

Barbor and his parents, Reed and Jenny, are already growing most of their food. They use a large, high tunnel, which has helped them to expand their growing season.

And he’s doing it all mortgage-free - just paying for the project, which is significantly lower than the cost of a traditional home, in segments as he goes.

“It may take me five or six years to build the home, but I won’t have a 30-year mortgage. I’ll be a free man,” Barbor said.

Barbor was featured in the Gazette-Mail Oct. 18 for his work as the full-time horticulturist in the city of Buckhannon. There, he’s implemented an all-organic program, while helping to beautify the town.

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Information from: The Charleston Gazette-Mail, https://wvgazettemail.com.