Building an "earthship" hoilday lodge here on my Organic Farm in Central Scotland, Planning been past and have a good flexible relationship with my local BC officer.
Not Pounding tyres (painfull). Main load bearing structure being 500mm thick wall of Rammed Earth, Insulated with strawbale and sheep wool.

Question; tyre bales as a foundation, any experience or guidance please.

P.S addicted to this Forum, wished I had found it last year!!

Thanks James for responding,

The rammed earth wall is above ground, protected from the elements by the roof that oversails the wall and straw bale insulation, connecting with the ground that rises to meet it.

I understand that amazon nails use "pounded" earth filled tyres for their foundation of straw structures. A tyre bale consists of approx 100-120 tyres compressed into a bale using an hydraulic press with wire tied around.

The bales are free and I hope will be a good foundation that will add a little insulation whilst providing a DPC. An experimental project up in the north of Scotland used tyre bales as road sub-base. The road has been in operation for 5-6 years with great success.

wow, sounds interesting. Am all for tyre foundations.

Tyre bales are pretty standard in the U.S. the machine for making them is imported from there.

The wire that holds them together is 9 gauge heavy duty zinc coated high tensil wire, This depending on conditions will corrode over time say 15 to 25 years.

I have been told that the tyres have a memory and will not "spring out" if wire corrodes. In the U.S. they place a concrete "bond beam " to hold them together when placed end to end.

Getting my first 32 bales from Inverness on thursday (weather depending). I can think of many applications, drainage, retaining wall, swimming pool, animal shelter etc......

Thanks Ed for the web address

tyre bales have already been used as a foundation and access road in a house project in Caithness. Various other projects have been successfully completed using the bales such as ground / rainwater soakaways, riverbank and embankment erosion / stabilisation applications. There is also a PAS108 ( public accepted specification for the blocks in construction ) under the guidance of the BSI available to view giving details of the correct fitment and technical expertise for a vast range of applications.