Scrap tires have been a disposal menace for decades: theEPA notesthat “There are at least 275 million scrap tires in stockpiles in the U.S.,” and in 2003 (the last year for which there are figures, I assume), approximately 290 million scrap tires were generated.” Yeah, that’s a lot of tires. State and local governments have recognized the costs created by this particular form of waste — they take up lots of landfill space, serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and create ugly fire hazards — and acted accordingly with recycling mandates and landfill prohibitions. Now, recycled tires are likely to be used in everything from playground and road surfaces, to erosion control installations, to mulch for your garden.
All of these uses take advantage of strong, durable, and readily-available material. They also require quite a bit of processing, though: tires generally have to be ground up (though “rough shredded tires” can be used as-is for certain civil engineering projects). The strength and durability of tires also make them attractive as a building material… and, usually, this requires relatively minimal processing (if any at all). Forward-thinking designers and builders have used tires to meet a number of goals for greener, more resilient buildings.
Building With Tires For Energy Efficiency
Used tires aren’t only pretty cheap (in some cases, free); they’re also ready to use for high insulation factor building projects. Michael Reynold’sEarthshipconcept, for instance, uses old tires as “bricks”: they’re filled with earth that’s pounded in to create strength and stability. It’s a labor-intensive process, and no doubt the resulting bricks are pretty heavy; the result, though, is much more thermal mass than found in ordinary construction, which creates much higher insulating factor.
Thetire bale conceptalso turns these “waste” materials into a building materials with high thermal mass. Using a hydraulic press, tires are compressed into “big rubber bricks” of 2-1/2′ x 5′ x 4-1/2′ (which weigh about 2000 pounds). Walls built from these bales also have a high insulation value: aColorado School of Mines studypredicted an R-value of “40.0 – 41.6 for a 60″ tire bale wall… about 3x as much insulation as goes into a standard 4″ stud wall.”
Building With Tires For Disaster Resistance
Tires aren’t just strong and durable; they’re also flexible, which makes them a good choice for disaster-resistant building (particularly for earthquakes).
A earthquake-resistant house designed by theIndonesia Aid Foundation, for instance, used tires for the home’s foundation to provide a “buffer zone” between the shaking earth and the house. Colorado State Universitytested this designand another on a seismic shake plate, and the building was able to resist progressively stronger quaking.
The patented Tire Log byRe-Tread Productsof Great Valley, New York, is another option for disaster-resistant housing that takes advantage of tires’ flexibility. In this case, designers use the logs as a ground-level buffer as in the Indonesia Aid Foundation design, but also for the walls of the building (much like a traditional log cabin). Take a look at how this building material is manufactured:
But Don’t Old Tires Off-Gas?
The short answer: yes. The longer answer is more complex: tires need to be exposed to light for breakdown to occur, but the Earthship and tire bale building models covering them in earthen plaster. Similar questions have arisen concerning the leaching of chemicals into groundwater: studies on the use of old tires for landfill lining suggest the threat here is minimal (especially when compared to other materials and chemical compounds).Earthship BiotectureandTouch the Earth Construction(which both have horses in this race, so to speak) address these issues and studies conducted on them.
Know of other building models or concepts that make use of old tires? Share them with us in the comments.
Additional Resources:
- Building with Tires at Earth911
- Tires Used to Build Earthquake-Resistant Homes at Earth911
- Tire Construction Won’t Tire But Advances at Green Building Elements
Image credit:Duncan Kinney at Flickrunder aCreative Commons license
Pete Kane (@Buildingwell)says
回收旧轮胎作为建筑材料是轮胎的一大用途。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率另一个问题可能是对使用这种材料的建筑进行改造的能力。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率用旧轮胎材料制成的外墙的改造(切割和添加)过程是怎样的?另外,与标准的墙体施工相比,成本是多少?这些好处听起来很有希望。
Jeff McIntire-Strasburgsays
Hi, Pete–
Yeah, it probably would be tough to modify buildings (at least in terms of putting in spaces for doors, etc.) — you’d have to make openings where the tires line up (I’d imagine, anyway). Don’t know about costs offhand, but I’ll check into it… good question!
Liz Karschnersays
Great story on recycling tires. I would love to see this become main stream when it comes to building materials for homes and such. I have seen it used at playgrounds ground up as a flooring in my area and have to say I like how it is soft enough that if the kids fall off of something they won’t get terribly hurt.
nomansays
Is it good to recycle the used tires ?
Lori Johnsonsays
我已经建了一个鸡舍,并且正在使用地球飞船的概念建造一个木棚和根窖。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率我们买了一个有很多垃圾的止赎房。我们决定重复使用这些轮胎,而不是花钱把它们处理掉。鸡舍的成功鼓励我们尝试其他项目。当地的一个机械师有成堆的旧轮胎。很好,我们有免费的建筑用品来源而且他不用花钱处理轮胎。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率
Filling the tires is hard work but it is a skill that is easy to master.
Jeff McIntire-Strasburgsays
Thanks for sharing, Lori… would love to see pictures if you have any posted.
galen alpinesays
aloha, im looking into building a round house on my hawaiian property. thinking of making the foundation of used tires filled with cinders. ideally not sealed as wanting to save cost, but have used billboards that could be utilized in this. how does something like this do in the moist climate? is there a noticeable aroma whence tires are set? any other suggestions greatly appreciated,
thanks
galen
Tarisays
Hello,
I built the tire walls recently but one part of the wall is declined starting from the 3.row but leveled in the upper rows. Is it critical? Should I dismantle the wall and build it once more? Thanks.