Building a Leaf House

Intro: Building a Leaf House

This was a project that I did when I was bored on Saturday be warned it take a lot of your day. If you were in a wilderness situation this would work perfectly.

STEP 1: Ingredients

1.LOTS of leaves
2,sticks
3,cardboard
4, a tarp
Card board works better but if you dont have enough a tarp will work but not as well.

STEP 2: How to Build

First you rake up a bunch of leaves into a big pile.
Second you decide where the entrence then dig down to the ground in that spot to the middle and put the leaves to the side. 
Now you should have a circular room with no roof.You take a tall stick and put it in the ground so its sticking straight up then put the cardboard pieces over the top of the leaves and stick making a triangle roof like a tent if this does not cover the whole thing take the other cardboard put a part over the first part so more is cover up with cardboard i had no cardboard left so I covered the rest with a tarp you should have something that looks just like leaves with cardboard not really a leaf house so take the remaining leaves and maybe rake some more leave to cover the cardboard making it look just like a regular old leaf pile but its really a leaf house.

STEP 3: Finished Product

Finished product

Comments

[LiftAndLove]

We don't have wild cardboard growing where I live :(

[chaoscreationz149]

Check a local Walmart or large discount store most of them will part with large boxes if asked

[cdncycler]

Waxed cardboard would be a extra bonus. Doing this project in late fall when the snow first comes down and stays...the combo of leaves and snow makes great insulation. The more snow the better....also put a flap door on the front....

[valkgurl]

Some local group built a bunch of these here in a park--surrisingly simple and surprisingly clever to disguise also. They seemed to last for a while even tho they were not maintained. I don;t know how long they took to build total but there was no cardboard and the leaves seemed to cling together like velcro. Lots of oak and long needle pine and sugar maple piled on sticks and twigs. Build your frame of larger pole branches and weave or layer in smaller brushy branches or pine boughs and then add leaves and needles. You can also make lean to types with just pine boughs leaned at a slant to shed water --place a pole between two other poles; trees; boulders etc and make layers of pine boughs. You can also use sheets of birchbark. And you can make beds of pine boughs too.

[tim_n]

Usually when I've made these properly, you need to find a branch which is your length + 1 foot, then prop it up with two sticks at one end (the entrance) and lay sticks down its length. Build up the leaves over the sticks until they're 1-2 ft deep all round leaving the entrance clear.

Take an ember from a fire and drop it into wet grass and leaves, roll it up so it smoulders and smokes.

Put into your shelter, this will drive out the beasties.

It takes a good 4-5 hours of suprisingly hard graft, but the result will be waterproof and warm. You also don't need cardboard.

[mquiring1]

I hope it never rains :-D

[dditolla]

I have lots and lots of leaves. Wish someone would make a leaf house here.
Looks like it would be lots of fun to make

[mr.eli]

Took my whole day 12 to 9ish but totally worth it