An off-grid ‘Earthship’ property made of cans, bottles and tires just listed for $1.05million on a remote Canadian island – but one man spent 21 years building his own, with a 2,000sq ft dance hall that bounces on old car tires
A 41-acre island property with two 'Earthship' homes made of cans, bottles and tires just listed for $1.05M CAD. Mark Young's place isn't for sale, but it's the one those listings wish they were. He's spent 21 years off-grid on a BC island with no power grid, no car ferry, no sewer and no building inspector, and he made good use of that last one.
Getting there
No car ferry. You come in by water taxi or your own boat.
20 acres, nine hand-built buildings, zero utility hookups.
What it's made of
Half-buried in the rock with grass growing on top. Cool in summer, holds heat in winter.
Not a junk pile. The tires end up in foundations and the bags get stuffed into walls as insulation.
Bottles set in cob, which is clay, sand, straw and manure. Light comes through like budget stained glass.
The winter cabin
That's a living tree. He cut the top off, peeled it and framed the room around it with the roots still in the ground.
A leather bench seat out of an old limousine. Probably the best couch on the island.
He cooks out here most of the year and only moves inside once it freezes.
Plastic bags in these walls too. It warms up on almost no firewood.
Every bit of heat on the property comes from wood stoves.
His office. He runs his whole business from this desk, and the floor isn't sitting on anything.
Steel chains bolted at the corners. He used to be an aerospace machinist, so I'll trust his math.
Roof insulation is hay bales. Actual hay.
The tarp comes off in summer so the hay doesn't heat up and catch fire on its own. Never thought I'd write that about a roof.
Power, water and a lot of fridges
Twelve panels, about 6 kWh a day. The foxgloves are a bonus.
65-foot well, 3 gallons a minute. He found the spot with dowsing rods. It worked, so who am I to argue.
Two fridges and a chest freezer in a hole in the hill. He only does a grocery run once a month.
The first thing he built, 20 years ago, because living in a tent was melting his butter.
Sealed with $50 of 6-mil plastic. Still holding two decades later.
Backup bank, 5 kWh of lead-acid. These need distilled water topped up every month or they boil dry.
The water wheel. Winter rain gets him about 3 kWh a day, right when the solar is useless.
Then there's the dance hall
Leviathan Studio. In the warm months he teaches Contact Improvisation workshops here.
A fire sprinkler on the roof. Commenters loved this more than almost anything, and one called it his own fire insurance policy.
Built in 11 months. No steel beams, no crane. He reckons each of those three log trusses can hold 3,000 tons of snow.
He used to machine aerospace parts to tiny tolerances. Then he built this by eye, mostly with a chainsaw. One viewer called it 'chain saw freestyle,' which sounds right.
Mid-build. Old car tires under the floor, which is why it bounces.
Dog bed on a lump of bedrock he left in. The line everyone quoted from the video: 'The best thing I ever did was get the dogs.'
A guest bedroom box up in the rafters. I'd sleep terribly up there and love it anyway.
Feeding everyone
8,000 meals off this one wood range in a single summer.
A 50-gallon tank hanging over the stove, heated with zero electricity. One commenter: 'I was not ready to see a water tank hanging from the ceiling on ratchet straps.' Same.
Rainwater bogs. Garden water most days, fire water if it comes to that. He's also got six high-pressure pumps and 400 liters of gas set aside.
Sauna on the ground floor, six guest beds upstairs.
Blue clay dug on site plus water buffalo manure. It sets hard. Don't ask me how.
He mills his own lumber and sells the extra. Also eggs: 40 chickens, three dozen a day, $8 a dozen to the neighbours.
Someone's paying $1.05M for a tire house this year. I'd rather have a week in Mark's rafter box, with the dogs.
