On site materials can often be used but materials need to be tested for their suitability.
How to make rammed earth floor.
It can even be installed by do it yourselfers with earthen materials that are found on site or at least locally.
Rammed earth has potentially low manufacturing impacts depending on cement content and degree of local material sourcing.
In the interests of learning a craft and also minimising the embodied energy of the building we really wanted to take the earthen route.
Most rammed earth in australia uses quarried aggregates rather than the earth it is popularly thought to be made from.
Construction of rammed earth floors takes a lot of time is very labour intensive and has been seen to fall short of the high standard of quality terra firma assures its clients.
Rammed earth floors have got to be the greenest flooring out there and can be done in either new construction or in renovations.
Making an earthen floor at dirt cheap builder.
Earthen floors at house alive.
How to pour a rammed earth floor adobe floor at dancing rabbit image credit.
At dancing rabbit ecovillage we ve found our earthen floor adobe floor hybrid to be a cheap easy to install durable ecological flooring solution.
We had one problem we didn t know how to do it.
It is an ancient method that has been revived recently when as a sustainable building method.
Online cob house building lessons.
Rammed earth also known as taipa in portuguese tapial or tapia in spanish tàpia in catalan pisé de terre in french and hāngtǔ 夯土 in chinese is a technique for constructing foundations floors and walls using natural raw materials such as earth chalk lime or gravel.
Built with gravel sand clay straw and linseed oil it is made of local natural materials except for a plastic moisture barrier necessary in our area.
Whilst the principle of using rammed earth for flooring is sound in a commercial operation it is often too costly and can provide an unacceptable standard of finish.
And the info available was minimal.
Materials for the rammed earth used on this project were sourced from a local quarry which kept the embodied energy low.
Any waste materials from building this type of flooring can simply be used in the backyard garden.
How to pour a rammed earth floor adobe floor.