Technical Blog: Natural Building II.

Okay, so I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by the thought of blogging about the whole earthen building process. There’s a lot going on and I know I’m forgetting some of the important technical details. But the best way to retain knowledge is to teach it. So, I apologize if I’ve missed any steps, but at the bottom of the post I’ve listed some other resources for further learning (a drop in the ocean of options). Recap: We’re working on 2 projects, a drop-toilet repair and building a house from scratch. The house is what I’ll be covering here and, when our internship is done will include a small kitchen, bathroom, living/sleeping space, and porch on two sides of the house. They plan to expand later. What we’ve done so far. The house is on a slope, so it was constructed in 3 levels (not stories, but heights, like steps.) Each layer had a retaining wall built of multiple layers of baked bricks with cement between. There were also sturdy pillars in each corner and in the center, back wall of the house cemented into the ground. This phase was completed by the neighbor and his crew. Yes, we could have done it ourselves, but K & M wanted to lay a really good foundation. I believe it was the same crew that also put up the A-frame, with help from a few of the interns. Then came the super awesome work of hauling dirt uphill by wheelbarrow load and bucket. Learning lesson: take breaks! Use water, mandarin oranges, and mate tea liberally. Plan a pizza night for the same week to boost group morale. We filled in the retaining wall and stomped it down by walking on it. We also compacted the dirt further using the tool shown below. It might have a name, but you basically just lift it up and let the weight of it slam down. Once the dirt has sunk down, you add more dirt and continue the process until the slamming tool produces no major results. [Why? This means when you put your cement floor on later, you run less risk of it caving in or cracking badly.] Barefoot Architect – Johan Van Lengen, Home Work Handbuilt Shelter – Lloyd Kahn, Building Green – Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan, The Good House Book – Clarke Snell