About AECT | Compressed Earth Block Pioneers Since 1989

As featured on "House of What?"

The $50K CEB home

AECT President Ryan Runge and his family show the earth block home they built themselves.

Our story

From a San Antonio garage to the world

In 1989, a small group of entrepreneurs in San Antonio set out to become the first US manufacturer of CEB machines. For 28 years, fueled by the mechanical genius of founder Lawrence Jetter, Advanced Earthen Construction Technologies built the fastest, most reliable CEB machines in the world.

In 2017, as Lawrence planned to retire and close the shop, Ryan Runge and a business partner bought AECT to carry on its legacy. Their first project: making 10,000 blocks on a 12-year-old 3500 to build AECT's new 3,200 sq ft headquarters, which is where every AECT machine is built today.

Our president

Ryan Runge

Ryan first fell for CEBs in 2012 while consulting on a construction project in South Africa. Five years later he and his family moved, by chance, next door to Lawrence Jetter. The rest is history.

Ryan holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from UT Austin's McCombs School of Business, and has managed some of the largest construction projects in the world. He lives in a CEB home he built himself, and personally trains every machine customer on site.

Semper Terrae

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