Trash House A Dream Come True
Recycled Tire Home A Model For 'Green' Building
Last updated Sunday, July 6, 2008 2:59 PM CDT in Your Home
By Marla Hinkle
THE MORNING NEWS
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ROGERS - The Tire House off Dream Valley Road in Rogers truly is a dream realized for Kristine and Mark Stanley.
The Rogers couple is building an alternative home that utilizes waste materials, minimizes fossil fuels and maximizes the use of sun and rain water.
So far, it's the only tire house of its kind in the state. Others are located throughout the United States. The couple visited Colorado to view similar homes before building their own.
Mature trees wave their branches in the wind as all sounds from Arkansas 12 fade when the home comes into view. Workers pour concrete onto a re-bar supported archway in front of the Stanleys' self-proclaimed "trash house."
English ivy was planted around the archway for an attractive addition to the berm.
The home's exterior exhibits a handsome layer of native stone. An intercom/doorbell system at the entrance announces visitors.
Tire bales and plastic bottles cast a colorful hodgepodge on the interior walls. Plastic bottles from the Rogers Recycling Center are poked into spaces between the bales. The tires are from The Benton County Solid Waste District.
"I say it's always better to reuse than to recycle," Mark says. The tires were also free, saving even more costs during construction.
Plastics were stuffed in with chicken wire to secure them and the cement plaster.
Originally from Illinois, the couple relocated to Arkansas and later began work on their home in September 2007. The Stanleys own Home Instead Senior Care. The company enables seniors to say in their homes instead of entering a nursing home.
Until this project, Mark says he had no previous building experience. The decision to erect a tire house developed when they discovered The Earthship Concept on the Internet at touchtheearthranch.com.
A tire house is designed to heat and cool itself naturally. Living spaces are surrounded with thermal mass, the used tires.
In summer, the sun enters into planters, and natural convection-driven ventilation from underground cools the building, and in the winter, glass along the building's south side lets sun in, which heats the mass of 5-foot-thick walls.
Heat is released when the temperature in the room drops below the temperature in the walls.
Temperatures range from 64 to 74 degrees, Mark says.
The awning windows give unfettered access to the sky and large trees outside.
Arkansas humidity motivated the Stanleys to install a central air conditioner, Kristine says.
Mark built a pool on the 4.3-acre property. Maverick, the family's black Labrador, followed them along during the home tour, and finally decided to cool off as he swam across the pool.
A cabana and outdoor shower are other outdoor features. Behind the straw bale home is an earthbag dome the boys use as a fort. It is constructed with 20-pound bags. Kristine says is concerned about the durability.
The soil is much more sandy in Arkansas than her native Illinois, she says. Buying dirt has proven to be one of their major expenses.
Water saving techniques include a "gray water" system. Rain water is collected and placed in a planter made of soda and beer cans, providing oxygen and food for plants. It is then used to fill then toilet when it is flushed.
The couples' two sons, Marek, 10 and Seth, 9, helped collect bottles and apply plaster.
For now, the family lives behind the tire house in a straw bale house. Mark describes the floor plan as simple but attractive. The boys have bedroom lofts upstairs, and several native stones are used inside.
A large railing leading up the stairway is from a felled Oak tree. This tree was used rather than cutting down a new one, Kristine says.
The entire living space will eventually be around 4,000 square feet, Mark says.
Construction has been slow, Mark says. No loans are available for alternative houses, and labor is something the Stanleys need, he says. They also offer tours to school groups, so they may witness environmentally friendly building in action.
Plans are to have the house finished by November.
"We want to network in the community and invite groups out to tour the place," Kristine says.
"We were inspired and we hope to be an inspiration for others."
AT A GLANCE
What is a tire bale?
Tire bales are "big rubber bricks." Place them in a wall with a large fork-lift, a hay-grapple, larger size skid-steer with forks (3,000 pounds tipping weight, minimum), or a backhoe.
They are made in a hydraulic press exerting extreme force to compress about 100 tires into a "brick" 2-by-1/2-foot-by 5-foot- by 5-foot block that weighs 2,000 pounds and is wrapped with five .113-inch diameter steel wires pre-formed into square-knot ends, which are hooked together when the press reaches its compression capacity.
The press is then released and the bale is completed. The bale is now the density of most wood, weighing in at roughly 50 pounds per cubic foot and containing only 5 percent air.
Source: Touch the Earth Construction
GO & DO
To request a tour or for any other information, contact the Stanleys at mark.stanley@homeinstead.com or call 695-1212. For a timeline of the Tire House journey, view the Web site at flickr.com/photos/whatisupwiththestanleys.
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