Building with wine bottles in wall?

[Nel frattempo]

Anyone worked with empty wine bottles embedded in walls? I saw picture long ago where someone put wine bottles and soda cans in wall but I do not remember how it was done. We plan a small building and thought to be creative - anyone used bottles in construction? Thanks.

[peter nap]

Hmmmmmm. This calls for another way back when,,,story.

The summer of my Senior year of high school, I went to work for a fellow named Lambert who aspired to build houses for a living. He had been a Baptist but had a falling out with the church and joined the Mormons.

We were building a natural stone fireplace for him. This requires face stone and a lot of filler behind.

Everyday after work, we would sit outside and drink a beer before going home. One day he saw us and gave a sermon on the evils of beer. He also forbade anyone drinking beer on the property...OK, it's his building site

Oh....I forgot, his plan was to live in the house until he built another one then sell this one.

Anyway...one morning he saw us drinking coffee. Another sermon and another item to the forbidden list. Even then I got cranky without my coffee.

Lunchtime the same day and you guessed it....no soft drinks...Elixer of the devil you know.

On Saturday and Sunday, I scoured the ditches for BEER BOTTLES and got an entire car trunk full.

On Monday, they became filler in the fireplace.

After we finished and it was time to start school, I presented him with pictures of all the evil beer bottles residing behind his face stone.

He lived in a travel trailer until the house was sold...To Methodists I think........

So yes, I have built a house with bottles in the wall...and darn proud of it!

[tallpines]

When we put an addition onto our barn we needed to tear down some wall that had been built in 1910.
Found a couple of very old empty bottles buried in that wall.


These bottles were totally out of view-----------but I have seen a stone fence that had colorful glass bottles imbedded in them.
They were plsced so the bottle extended through from one side to the other.

Very pretty when the sun would be shining through them.

[highlands]

This is something we're doing in our tiny cottage. So far we're just collecting the bottles from a local pub but soon I plan to build a small test wall. We'll not be building whole walls, just using it for accents on interior walls where light can come through. The cottage is built of stone and concrete. You can see it here:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/02...age-views.html

I had wanted to use glass block but it is crasy expensive.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[Jan in CO]

Many years ago, my former husband and I went on a motorcycle ride between Cheyenne, Wyoming, where we lived, and a lake somewhere between there and Laramie. Stopped and saw a house that had thousands of embalming fluid bottles in the walls. It was really neat, and I wish I could find it again. Someone had told him about it, I think, as it's not in any of the travel brochures! The people living there let us take a look inside, too. The bottoms were facing outward, and they were embedded in concrete. Jan in Co

[HilltopDaisy]

I've seen pic's of cordwood buildings with bottles in the walls. Looks really nice.

[nappy]

Several years ago we visited a glass house in Kaleva, Michigan. What a neat idea. It is described within the following group of bottle houses:


http://www.agilitynut.com/h/otherbh.html

Nappy

[Ed Norman]

In the Philippines they stand the glass bottles on top of the wall and then break them after the concrete sets. It does wonders to keep people from climbing over.

[Nel frattempo]

Hahaha! Ok, I needed a laugh after this day. Peter - funny story!

Well, I have to find something to do with all these bottles. My husband is brown belt Aikido and the DoeJo is next to "joint" and he gets cases of bottles each week. So - I have to find something creative to build with them!

[Filas are Prima]

In many of the old mineing camps around the desert there are small cottages built of bottles-a readily available resource in a climate of few trees.
Calico Ghost Town (Google it) should have some prominently displayed for checking them out. There's also one I recall in Goldfield NV.
As I recall, the bottles are laid out and stacked just like bricks, bottoms out, concrete for mortar between.

[susieM]

How do keep spiders and dust from making a home in the opened bottles? I have been wondering that for years.

[wy_white_wolf]

Peter

Your former employeer reminds me of one of my uncles. He preaches at me every time I see him about the evils of drinking beer. Yet, he grows malt barley for Coors.

As for bottles in the walls. I hope anyone that does this doesn't end up with a nieghborhood boy with a BB gun. He could put a quick end to the beauty of the wall.

[NativeGurl]

I love this idea. And have looked at different pictures of them. Here is a link or two to maybe help you out a bit.

http://www.daycreek.com/dc/html/journal060101.htm
http://www.marshwoodvisions.com/inde...rtid=6&Itemid=
http://www.marshwoodvisions.com/inde...tid=4&Itemid=3

These articles are all dealing with cordwood building. I don't know if these will be of any help but hopefully they will. Have a great day!!!

[pixelphotograph]

try cob, adobe, or cordwood building they have all used bottles and cans in their walls.
The bottles look cool but can get hot if in a hot climate like florida or the south east.

[Mysticdream44]

I saw a program a couple of years ago about a home in Arizona I think it was where they were building a very earth friendly house. And they had some glass in the walls as heat conductors I think it was for the cool desert nights. It was a house that used solar, and other alternative ways to use engery without electritiy. I wish I could remember more about it because it was really interesting. And I've seen on the same program I think where this guy used tires and glass bottles to make a wall. Better that than in a landfill somewhere.

[Nel frattempo]

Aaah! Thank you for the great links. Lots of good infor there. I may ask husband to bring more bottles now. Thank you

[rockinl]

Family story here. My grandparents immigrated from Germany. My father was born in a tar paper shack on the Mississippi River in St Louis. (Ask me how many times I heard that while I was growing up!)
Anyway, my grandfather went to work for the phone company. Every week he would spend some of his paycheck to buy leftover telephone poles. When he had enough, he built his family's house with the telephone poles and insulated it with bottles. This was a beautiful house, that looked just like any house we would see now. It was covered with pretty red siding, and you would never guess it had such humble beginnings.

I have no idea how effective it is as insulation, but I do know that it was from a free source. Remember I said my family was German and beer and liquor bottles were readily available.

Keep us posted!!