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View gallery - 3 imagesAustralian researchers have analyzed the structural properties of walls made from end-of-life car tires packed with dirt, giving engineers some figures to work with and making a well-known upcycling technique available to the construction industry.
Car tires are an environmental nightmare. Ubiquitous, consumable, filthy to burn and they take hundreds of years to decompose in landfill, where an awful lot of them end up. Any project that can recycle them, like grinding them up for use as asphalt filler or insulation, or using them as swings and bumpers in kids' playgrounds, is an environmental boon.
For decades, people have been recycling yesterday's rubber donuts into tomorrow's tire walls, stacking them in staggered formations and packing them with dirt. You'd have seen this kind of thing plenty at motor racing facilities – indeed, some tires have been unusually keen to get involved. The Earthship movement takes the idea further, creating retaining walls and entire buildings out of tire walls, sometimes filling them with concrete rubble and broken bricks to allow for drainage, or even rendering over the top for a smoother appearance.
Earthship-style construction makes use of recycled materials like old tiresDepositphotos
These kinds of projects, though, are pretty niche. And researchers at the University of South Australia saw an opportunity in the 55 million tires the country disposes of every year.
This 450,000-odd tonnes of toxic garbage could become free building materials for use in all sorts of mainstream construction projects if it was studied and documented to the point where engineers can use it.
"The lack of supporting data has prevented wider uptake of tire walls by engineers and architects, and we’re hoping this study will change that and expand the range of projects in which these walls are used," said Dr. Martin Freney, co-author of a new study that submits these tire walls to a full structural analysis. "The wall we tested was the first of its kind to be scientifically tested in this fashion, and all the data indicates tire walls can be extremely strong and safe structures.”
"Not only are the tire walls as structurally sound as concrete or wood sleeper retaining walls, they are also extremely resilient," he continued. "Unlike a concrete wall, we found these walls have the ability to ‘bounce back into shape’ following impact, such as from an earthquake. And if a drainage material such as recycled concrete rubble or crushed bricks is used to fill the tires, they also offer excellent drainage, which can be a major consideration in many retaining wall scenarios.
Furthermore, the use of recycled fill materials reduces the environmental impact of the wall."
University of South Australia
The researchers hope the data they've generated, as well as associated software models, will be used to create certified design guidelines and building code provisions to encourage the wider adoption of this environmentally-friendly – if labor-intensive – construction method.
“We really believe this research provides a strong evidence base for the expanded use of tire walls in housing and other applications, and the next step will be to engage with an industry partner to develop a range of real-world applications for tire walls,” Dr Freney said.
The study is published in the journal Engineering Structures.
Source: University of South Australia
View gallery - 3 imagesLoz Blain
Loz has been one of our most versatile contributors since 2007, and has since proven himself as a photographer, videographer, presenter, producer and podcast engineer, as well as a senior features writer.
Joining the team as a motorcycle specialist, he's covered just about everything for New Atlas, concentrating lately on eVTOLs, hydrogen, energy, aviation, audiovisual, weird stuff and things that go fast.
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I remember the summer with pleasure and with a feeling of deep dissatisfaction. After all, how many different great ideas can be brought to life, but the trouble is, as soon as you start some kind of grandiose restructuring, winter rolls in your eyes ...
You have to freeze everything and wait until the next season to continue what you started, unless, of course, there are other worries will not appear.
What would you like me to do during the long winter months? It remains only to sit back, but in the depths of the soul to envy the inhabitants of warmer regions, who have the opportunity, if not year-round, then at least most of the time, to devote themselves to the affairs of the day.
We can't do anything without haste, we are constantly waiting for something, and then, if we're lucky with the weather, we quickly turn on the emergency mode, and then choke on the accumulated work.
Today I would like to share a little experience that I received in the process of solving an existing problem.
And the problem was this: from the previous tenants, I got a lot of dilapidated and dilapidated adjoining buildings as a load. To destroy an old barn and build a new one in its place does not require much intelligence. But what if this same shed or part of the yard stands on imported soil made of sand, which crumbles all the time, crawls somewhere, and with it threatens to run away from the house and all other real estate?
There are many options for solving such problems through the construction of various engineering structures, ranging from wooden to stone or monolithic reinforced concrete structures. Each of the methods has significant drawbacks: laboriousness of execution, fragility, complexity, high cost of construction, etc.
Through a deep analysis of the situation and long reflections, I found the only and, I think, the right way to solve the problem.
I will build a retaining wall from used tires!
1.
The advantages of this method are as follows: ease of execution, reliability and durability, rich opportunities in terms of design approach, waste-free production, and most importantly, availability and meager cost of construction, ultimately tending to zero.
I'll start with the fact that our house is built quite soundly, it stands on a good foundation, but most of the adjacent territory is based on imported soil. It is mainly sandy loam with a high proportion of sand content.
For some reason, the builders put the houses very close to each other, probably because in Russia there is not enough land for everyone. As a result, each house turned out to be slightly higher than the previous one, each on its own step.
2.
This stepped structure is easily eroded by rain and other precipitation, over time the soil settles and crumbles, and with it the buildings and part of the yard slide down to the neighbors.
I looked at this disgrace for a long time and wondered how best to proceed. The previous summer, the garage had to be demolished, which was about to fall on the neighbor's yard. Hastily strengthened the crumbling slope and took out a couple of dozen wheelbarrows of soil. A future path has been outlined along the fence, which I plan to pave with something in the future. In the place freed from the garage, a small free space has formed, from which, if desired, you can create something original, for example, a cozy courtyard and a flower garden with decorative flower beds.
3.
Before starting construction, I outlined the desired width of the future path, such that a wheelbarrow or bicycle could pass freely along it. I decided not to touch the rickety firewood for the time being, in the future it will be demolished, and a new one will be built in its place.
Therefore, we will start building the wall from the barn wall. Here is the highest point of the slope, then the level difference decreases and after about 30 meters, it completely disappears.
So, the height of my future retaining wall will be approximately 80 cm, plus a depth of another 20 centimeters relative to the track. And that: 1 m in the highest part and 20 cm in the lowest.
Of the tools, only a shovel, a wheelbarrow and a level were useful.
We use used car tires as the main building material, which can be filled with soil, crushed stone or broken bricks, even construction debris will do.
For the reliability of the bundle, it is desirable to fasten the tires together, so a screwdriver and self-tapping screws will come in handy.
4.
The uniqueness of this method lies in the fact that the released soil does not need to be removed. Everything that we dig out of the ground, including household waste that has accumulated here over the years, broken glass and stones, this entire cultural and cultureless layer will also not require additional disposal and can be used in construction.
The most difficult thing: to get enough tires, in my case, they will need about a hundred pieces.
5.
To search for material, I had to go around a dozen tire shops, where, with varying success, I managed to get from five to twenty tires at once. Tire fitters gave away this rubbish with joy, though there was some shortage - as it turned out, tires are in great demand among gardeners and summer residents.
The whole construction process is as follows: we dig a trench to the required depth, in my case the depth is equal to the height of the tire. Since I had to take everything that they give, I came across tires of different diameters and 13 and even 19therefore, I laid the largest on the bottom, and the smallest on the upper tiers.
While the tires are empty, for additional structural strength we fasten them together with self-tapping screws, if desired, you can tighten them with bolts.
7.
To make our wall even, we lay each next row of tires on a level.
I cut off the upper rim of the tire with an ordinary knife, mainly so that later my wall could be used as a hedge.
Depending on the task assigned to you, you can not do this.
The inside of the tire is partially filled with any construction debris that you were able to dig up while working. In my case, these were whole deposits of household waste that had been accumulating here for years, I even managed to dig up a broken TV. The previous owners did not bother going to the landfill and limited themselves to burying in their own barn everything fireproof and not amenable to natural decomposition.
The next layer is broken brick or gravel, acting as a drainage.
We fill the rest of the space with the soil released after the excavations and carefully tamp the whole cake.
In other words, we put everything that was taken out of the ground in the same place, but in the correct order.
8.
For the next row we use tires of a smaller diameter and lay them in a checkerboard pattern with an offset to the inside of the structure. The result is a slightly sloping hill, where the lower rows slightly peek out from under the upper ones.
To keep my wall from crumbling during work, I laid the tires in small sections, gradually moving from right to left, from the side with the lower slope to the higher.
It turned out completely waste-free production, the soil removed for laying the next row was thrown into the already prepared formwork from the wheels.
Carefully ramming, I noticed that after these manipulations, the earth leaves much more than we take it out of the same place. The broken brick came in handy, it compensated for the missing volumes.
Since the wheels in subsequent tiers have different diameters, our strict staggered stacking order is gradually broken. This can affect the strength of the structure, especially in those places where the positions of the upper and lower tires coincide and they will be strictly on top of each other.
To prevent this from happening, I decided to break the wall and make an impromptu ladder out of the same tires. To do this, in the center of the structure, I began to lay tires at the bottom with a large offset outward, and at the top with an offset inward.
9.
This ladder is convenient because it is easy to go down to the lower path, it visually breaks the monotonous structure, thereby performing a decorative function, and due to the resulting deformation, it removes the excess pressure of the soil mass on the retaining wall. The resulting steps can be poured with concrete, filled with gravel, etc. I fell asleep with gravel.
Fill the top row of tires with turf and garden soil. We fill the pockets formed between the tiers with the same earth.
Next summer we will plant some climbing plants in this structure, which will densely tighten the tires over time.
10.
Further decoration of such a design depends entirely on your ideas, imagination and desire to experiment.
It should be noted that using tires in this way, we can find many uses for them, from decorative to quite practical. Baths, sheds and other fairly massive structures are placed on the foundations of tires. Retaining walls, terraces and even entire houses are built from tires.
Some people manage to strengthen problem areas of the road with the help of tires, and some use them in their own dachas as a variety of useful devices.
It took me several days off to make the retaining wall, a lot of effort and patience, 80 tires and a couple of hundred self-tapping screws.
Tags: Crazy hands
The construction of a retaining structure on a hilly site is not only a decoration of the landscape, but also an opportunity to protect your yard from soil slipping after rain. If someone thinks that such a building is easy to do with his own hands, he is deeply mistaken. A retaining wall is a complex engineering structure that requires compliance with all construction rules. Today we will take a closer look at how to make a retaining wall from available materials.
Content
3 Procedure for the construction of wall Walls made of natural stone – buta – are a good decoration for a cottage. The large mass of the structure does not require alignment with the hill. After erection, the wall does not need special care and will last a long time. The laying of stones can be done dry, filling the voids with fertile soil. In the future, climbing plants are planted between the seams. But this option requires great skills in laying stone. The best option for building a stone wall in a country house with your own hands is the wet masonry method. It consists in laying stones on a cement mortar.
Each stone can weigh up to 30 kg or more. Sizes and shapes are also varied. Therefore, before laying the wall, it must be sorted:
During the laying process, the stones will have to be chipped down to smaller sizes. For these purposes, use a 5-kilogram hammer and chisel. After trying on the stone, a mark is made on it with a wax pencil. Then, according to the mark, a chisel is set at an angle towards the chip and is sharply beaten with a hammer.
Bandaging of joints of uneven rubble must be observed in all directions: between rubble in each row and between adjacent rows:
When laying out a wall with your own hands, you should not make the structure larger than 1-1.2 m. Without a certain skill, the wall will turn out to be unstable.
Construction of a retaining wall of stones
Construction work must be carried out at a temperature of at least +5 o C.
To seal the voids between the stones, separately prepare a liquid mortar. Then proceed to work according to the instructions:
Fill wide voids with rubble. Next, fill all the small voids with cement mortar. The base is ready for the construction of the retaining structure. 
As the mortar dries, moisten the seams with water so that they gain strength. It is more affordable to build a monolithic concrete wall in the country house with your own hands even for an inexperienced owner, although this is a laborious process:
Formwork filled with concrete
Decorative concrete retaining wall with cladding
Do-it-yourself brick support is no different from ordinary wall construction. If a decision is made to lay an ordinary red brick, then the front side will have to be faced. Laying decorative bricks will help to avoid this procedure. You just have to do the stitching.
Particular attention should be paid to the thickness of the masonry:
A concrete base is poured under the structure 30 cm wider than the wall itself. The depth is determined by the composition and degree of freezing of the soil, as well as the height of the aerial part.
The higher these indicators, the deeper the foundation is needed:
A rather simple retaining wall is obtained from gabions. These prefabricated boxes are made of stainless steel wire mesh. Gabions are produced in different sizes and shapes.
To build a wall with your own hands, it is better to use a box-type gabion:
Gabion structure can deform under high ground pressure, but will never collapse.
Wood is not the best material for such buildings due to its fragility. But still, this is a good option, especially if the site is located near the forest. From pre-prepared logs, you can build a beautiful support for the ground with your own hands:
To increase the life of wood, impregnate the logs with an anti-rotting compound.
Wood is a material to experiment with. Having skills in working with wood, it is easy to build a small fence-support from logs of different thicknesses with your own hands. A wall of horizontally laid logs will elegantly decorate the landscape in the country house. This design consists of vertically concreted logs at a certain distance. The spans between the supports are covered with logs, laying them horizontally on top of each other.
The simplest and cheapest retaining wall made from old car tires.
They are laid in rows in the form of columns with a stepped offset towards the hill. Hammer the anchor pile in the middle of the column. Fasten the tires to each other and to the pile with clamps made independently from a conveyor belt. Fill the inside of the tires with fertile soil. You can plant climbing plants in them to decorate the wall.
Before backfilling the soil between the wall and the hill, a number of measures must be taken:
Longitudinal drainage: 1 - wall, 2 - foundation, 3 - drainage, 4 - crushed stone, 5 - geotextile, 6 - sand, 7 - soil.
