Dirt Cheap Series

Empire Group Publishing

Dirt Cheap
Series

Ten definitive guides to building real structures with natural & low-cost materials. Each title is a complete construction manual — not theory, not inspiration porn, but a build guide.

10
Forthcoming Titles
1
Live on Amazon
∞
Build Possibilities

Build Smart, Build Dirt Cheap — Available on Amazon

Now Live

Available Now on Amazon

Build Smart,
Build Dirt Cheap

by Empire Group Publishing

The foundational companion to the entire Dirt Cheap Series — covering materials science, cost engineering, and hands-on construction principles that apply across every earthen and low-cost building method. Now live on Amazon Kindle & paperback.



Buy Now on Amazon

Kindle & Paperback available

All 10 Titles

The Complete Series

Compressed Earth Blocks
01

Dirt Cheap CEB

Master the art of machine-pressed stabilised earth blocks — the industrial-grade way to build strong, affordable walls from the ground beneath your feet.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Earthbag / SuperAdobe
02

Dirt Cheap Earthbag

Fill polypropylene sacks with earth, stack them in running bond, and weave barbed wire between each course. Ancient wisdom. Modern resilience.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Rammed Earth · Pisé
03

Dirt Cheap Rammed Earth

Compact raw earth in formwork to create monolithic walls of extraordinary thermal mass and architectural beauty. No kiln. No factory. Just pressure.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Adobe Brick Construction
04

Dirt Cheap Adobe

Sun-dried mud brick — humanity’s oldest manufactured building material. Learn to cast, cure, and lay adobe blocks with zero energy inputs.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Cob Construction
05

Dirt Cheap Cob

Mix clay, sand, and straw into a monolithic sculptural mass. No forms, no bricks — just hands, feet, and the most plastic building material on earth.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Wattle-and-Daub
06

Dirt Cheap Wattle & Daub

Weave a lattice of timber and reeds, then plaster it with earth, dung, and lime. The world’s most widespread vernacular wall system — still relevant today.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Structural Bamboo
07

Dirt Cheap Bamboo

The fastest-growing structural material on the planet. Learn to treat, join, and engineer bamboo culms into frames, walls, and roofs that outlast steel.

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Straw-Bale Construction
08

Dirt Cheap Straw Bale

Agricultural waste becomes your wall. Stack standard straw bales, plaster them inside and out, and achieve insulation values that concrete can’t touch.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Ferrocement · Thin-Shell
09

Dirt Cheap Ferrocement

A mesh of fine steel wire, plastered with cement mortar just millimetres thick. Tanks, vaults, roofs, and hulls — pound-for-pound stronger than reinforced concrete.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

Container & Hybrid
10

Dirt Cheap Container Homes

Repurpose ISO-standard steel shipping containers into liveable, stackable, expandable homes. Structural shells already paid for. You bring the vision.

Coming Soon — Notify Me

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