In this article we will talk about earthen houses, the construction technology of which has been known since ancient times, when our distant ancestors built simple buildings from compacted soil countless times.

• A striking example earthen house in history
• Advantages of earthmoving technology
• What is earthen construction technology?
• Material requirements
• Earth construction technology
  • Preparatory stages
  • Earthmoving works

A striking example of an earthen house in history

The Priory Palace located in Gatchina can serve as an example of earthen construction and is therefore classified as a cultural heritage of Russia. It's two stories beautiful building It even has an 18-meter tower. Its walls are built entirely from earth.

The unique achievement of the palace is the fact that it stood without repair for more than two centuries, and even today it looks impressive and durable. The turn of the 18th – 19th centuries in Russia became the heyday of low-rise earthen construction. This technology was in widespread demand half a century ago.

Advantages of earthmoving technology

• Saving Money. Earth-brick houses are 5 times cheaper than brick or concrete ones. In the same comparison, labor costs and fuel costs are reduced by 1.5 times, and savings on transport are reduced by almost 5 times.
• High wall strength, increasing over time.
• Environmental friendliness and fire safety.
• Low thermal conductivity, therefore, such a house will always be warm in winter if there is heating and cool in summer.

What is earthen construction technology?

Earth-brick houses, the construction technology of which is based on manual labor, consist of walls erected from a certain mixture of earth, laid layer by layer in forms limited by formwork. The thickness of each earth layer is approximately 15 cm. After compacting the earth in the first form, the next one is placed on it, and the process of filling with soil is repeated. These operations continue until the planned wall height is reached.

Since structures made of compressed earth are self-supporting, the lower formwork can be dismantled immediately after installing the next level on it.

A distinctive feature of modern low-rise earthen construction technology is the use of pneumatic rammers for pressing.

Material requirements

Not every soil is suitable to become a construction earthen mixture. To build an earthen house yourself, you need to balance the composition, including:

• clay;
• sand;
• filler, which can be, for example, crushed stone.

Sand is usually used up to 70 percent, and the rest comes from other components.

To build an earthen house with your own hands, sometimes a bit of cement is added to the mixture. An earth beater reinforced with cement allows you to use almost any soil, however, you should avoid getting any organic matter (peat or roots) into it.

Earth construction technology

Preparatory stages

1. Before building an earthen house, the ground must be well covered to protect it from drying out.
2. The construction site is marked, and the turf is removed from the marked area and sand is added.
3. Next, a trench is dug under the foundation (strip).
4. A frame made of steel reinforcement is placed in the prepared trench.

Earthmoving works

1. The technology of earth-brick construction is such that the construction of walls begins from the corners. For this purpose, formwork is made with inner surface made of sheet plastic, roofing steel or thick polyethylene.

1. A 10-15 cm layer of earth is poured into the formwork and compacted well. So, the entire height of the formwork is filled layer by layer with compaction of the next layer.
2. Compaction can be considered complete when the rammer does not fall into the ground, but bounces off it.

1. The wall is built up along the entire perimeter by sequentially moving the formwork along it.
2. After the earthen walls have grown to the required level, they must be strengthened with a blind area made of clay or concrete.

You can begin finishing a house made of earthen brick only after the walls have completely dried and settled, which requires waiting about one year.

Would you like to build an earthen house? Write your answer in the comments. Share your thoughts for and against such an idea.

What do you get when you combine glass bottles, cans, old tires, wire and concrete? House! Do you believe it? Architect Michael Reynolds, who developed a technology called Earthship, believes. Moreover, he built many houses from old tires and set an example for the construction of earth houses around the world!

Concept " earthship"was that the architect used various waste such as cans, bottles, old car tires and used them in the form of building materials to build a house. True, I used cement. As a result, I got an ergonomic design that has low thermal conductivity and is easy to heat. If you use this house alternative sources energy (solar or wind) the house will be completely autonomous. The house can be covered with earth.

Undoubtedly, such a construction is suitable for everyone, but it is worthy of memory. In such a house there reigns a rebellious spirit and refusal modern methods in favor of innovative, use of waste from consumer culture.

A house built using this technology can be either a very simple one-room building, or a building with an attic, or maybe a complex architectural structure.

One of the striking examples of the implementation of such technology is the house on the ranch of the famous American actor Dennis Weaver, the construction of which is estimated at approximately 50 million dollars! But this special case, A small house IR can be built for a few thousand dollars, with most of the money going towards the foundation, waterproofing and cement.

The design concept uses a modular structure, meaning the structure can be expanded by adding new modules. Let's consider the simplest option for building an “earthship”. The basis of the structure is the main module, which is called “Hut”. Its structure forms a round “tower”, so first you need to lay out a circle directly on the ground of the size and shape that you want your future home to be.

Place the first row of tires along the line of the wall, pressing them tightly together. Fill the tires with sand and soil, maybe mixed with small debris, and compact them so that the tires are solid and do not sag. Place the second row of tires on top of the first in a staggered pattern and repeat the filling and tamping procedure. Continue like this, keeping level until the walls are reached required height. Using cement, level the walls.

The roof can be dome-shaped, made of reinforcement, covered with chain-link mesh and cement. The shape and design of the roof can be any.

Interior decoration is done at will, it can be either tiles or cheap adobe.

You need to pay attention to things like drainage.

Old used tires filled with soil are a cheap and reliable building material. It is important to remember that the rubber does not stick out from the walls, but is carefully sealed with cement or adobe.

Alternative super adobe construction

Alternative construction is gaining momentum and becoming increasingly popular. The world is looking for ways to quickly erect cheap buildings in order to provide income for the poor people of Africa and Asia. And Europe is looking for an alternative to established rules in construction. Relatively new technology is a super adobe. The technology is very simple - they collect soil into bags and stack them on top of each other. The main costs for such construction lie on the purchase of bags. And the soil is taken directly on the site or imported.

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Founder this method– architect Nader Khalili from California Development University construction technologies(USA). He successfully introduced “super adobe” into the territories of third world countries and the Middle East within the framework of UN projects. By the way, NASA considers the “super adobe” technology promising for colonies on the Moon!

Benefits of super adobe

The fashion for adobe houses began quite a long time ago, and the “super adobe” method - successful development this technology. Unlike traditional method construction from adobe, “super adobe” does not require any materials other than earth (soil), water and bags, which simplifies and speeds up construction significantly. A house using the “super adobe” technology can be erected by two or three people without construction skills in just a few weeks.

In addition to the fact that these houses are prefabricated, unlike simple adobe houses, they can be erected in areas where there are frequent floods and floods. Such structures are traditionally used to combat water, in the construction of dams, as well as the construction of defensive structures

A distinctive feature of this method is that straight walls using this technology are much more difficult to erect than curved or domed ones. And this is their advantage, because domed houses are very durable. Their shape balances external loads in all directions. In addition, the load taken by the dome creates normal membrane stresses in it with the influence of bending on the relative small areas surfaces. In modern practice, domes are most often used, the middle surface of which is described by the equation of a sphere, an ellipsoid of revolution or a circular cone (conical domes are easier to manufacture, but less economical than spherical ones). Of course, the shape of a house built from bags of earth with your own hands is far from ideal, but the dome, even if not ideal, is still quite reliable.

Khalili himself claims that traditional square house With vertical walls almost doomed to fall one day, but nothing can ever happen to the arch (the base of the dome). To strengthen the structure in soil mixture You can add cement, which is not at all necessary.

Disadvantages of super adobe

The disadvantages of houses built from super adobe include the fact that they can only be built as one-story houses; it is almost impossible to build wide and two-story houses. And if you build another similar house nearby and connect them, it will turn out just great.

The main enemy of technology is rain and dampness. The entire structure can slide, so such structures must be plastered. In very damp areas, building a roof using “super adobe” is mandatory.

Remember that propylene bags are afraid of active solar radiation, so either provide protection for the structure during construction, or build the building very quickly.

When erecting a structure from bags of earth, it is almost impossible to do it alone, since the weight of one bag is approximately 120 kg. Therefore, you need to use a crane or have a team of several people working.

Technology of building a house from super adobe.

Select appropriate place. Stick a pole in the center of the proposed house, tie a string to it, measure the required length of the radius, mark the perimeter and level it. You'll have to work hard with a shovel. Then take care of drainage and foundation. Be sure to mark where the entrance will be located, leaving enough space for doorway. Please note that the base of the entrance here goes inward so that the door can be inserted vertically, despite the slope of the main wall.

As a foundation, you can use the rubble concrete method or lay out the first layer of bags filled with crushed stone, sinking them 30-40 cm into the ground.

For construction, damp or damp earth is used, which is filled with standard sugar bags, bag sleeves, and fabric pipes made of non-rotting fabric, such as propylene. Bags are easier to find, they are sold in bulk and are cheaper. If the soil is dry, then it should be moistened. Underfill each bag by 20-25 cm on top; you will wrap this free edge when the bag is already in the row so that its contents do not spill out.

Before laying each bag, stretch a one and a half meter piece of polypropylene twine under it, so that you can then use it to tie two or three more subsequent layers of masonry. This will ensure ease of plastering in the future. Between the layers, ordinary barbed wire is also placed in two rows. It helps hold together layers of bags or pipes, just like cement holds regular brick walls together.

The first layer of bags is laid out on the ground around the perimeter and compacted. This can be done with your feet or with special tamping devices. Next, lay the second layer of overlapping bags ( brickwork), which is a little narrower than the first! This continues until it reaches dome shape building.

To organize windows and doors in super adobe houses, openings in the form of arches are left when laying the bags. After drying, the building is plastered or covered with cement mortar on the outside.

If the soil in a given area has a composition that, after drying, will not crack or crumble, any, even the most dilapidated, bags can be used for construction. After compaction they will become unnecessary.

The floor can be filled with either cement or adobe, which has a high clay content.

You will need

• - clayey soil;
• - bayonet and shovel shovels;
• - screwdriver;
• - garden wheelbarrow;
• - boards 25-30 mm;
• - 2 thick bars 20 cm long;
• - cement M400 or red clay;
• - self-tapping screws;
• - rammer made of beech, ash or oak.

Instructions

Make a machine for making an earth breaker in the form of a box without a bottom with strong wooden handles on the sides. It is believed that the thickness of adobe walls should not be less than 50-60 cm. This determines the size of the form. For example, very easy to use earthen bricks can be made using a 30x60x20 cm machine. Use self-tapping screws to connect the mold parts.

Prepare the brick mixture. It is better to take loamy soil for digging. You cannot use peat or garden fertile soil. Collect soil from a depth of 50-70 cm and remove stones and various kinds organics. Dig a hole 4x3 m, pour soil into it and pour some water. For strength, add red clay or cement (up to 10% by weight) and straw (30-60%) to the mixture. Knead the solution with your feet until it becomes completely homogeneous.

Test the resulting earth mixture. To do this, take a bucket without a bottom and fill it with earthenware. Do the installation in layers of 10-12 cm with a tamper. Dry the resulting brick in the shade under a canopy for two weeks. Drop it ready stone from a height of one meter. If it does not break, the mixture is suitable for making earthen bricks.

Pack the mixture into the molds, compacting each layer with a strong tamper. Level the mass on top and remove the mold from the resulting brick. Make a few more of these stones. Leave the earth bricks with straw to dry for 3-4 days in the shade, and then turn them over on their edges and keep them like that for a few more days. As the stones dry, lay out the walls using the “brick” method on a rubble concrete strip reinforced foundation.

Video on the topic

note

Soils on the territory of Russia have different composition and choosing the appropriate proportions of earth, clay and straw when making an earth breaker is quite difficult. Therefore, in order not to take risks, it is better to first build some insignificant economic structure from earthen bricks - a barn, summer kitchen, extension, etc. If everything works out, you can use the material you prepared yourself to build a residential building.

Helpful advice

If desired, you can build an earthen house using simplified technology. In this case, stones and organic matter are also first removed from the loam, and then a little cement is added to it. Next, the earthen “dough” is kneaded and compacted into ordinary polypropylene bags. The result is large “bricks” suitable for construction, including residential buildings. Walls made from bags of earth are laid with bandaging.

Brick is a very common building material. Without even studying construction activities, each of us sees brick objects every day. But not many people think about what brick is made from.

The main component in any brick is clay. In the production of bricks they are used various varieties clay and its impurities. But depending on the type of brick, the composition may vary.

What is sand-lime brick made of?

White sand-lime brick is the most popular and inexpensive building material. It contains only environmentally friendly safe substances. Approximately ninety percent sand-lime brick consists of purified quartz sand, and ten percent water and lime. Depending on the method of its production, the percentage may vary.

Typically, sand that is used to make bricks undergoes very careful processing. It is cleaned of all kinds of clay and organic impurities, since impurities reduce the strength of the product. Lime included in the composition sand-lime brick must also have a certain chemical composition. For example, the MgO content in lime cannot contain more than five percent. Ground bricks are usually used to create bricks.

Composition of red brick

Red brick has long been recognized as the most reliable and versatile building material. This natural material created from clay. Depending on the iron content in it, the color of the brick changes. Red bricks are usually made from red-burning clay. If the clay is white-burning, then the brick will acquire an apricot tint. Often certain pigment additives are added to the brick composition.

To obtain high-quality clay, homogeneous clay is used, which is mined in small fractions. The quality of the resulting product depends on the correctly selected components.

What are ceramic bricks made from?

Ceramic or building brick is actively used for the construction of load-bearing wall structures and interior partitions. High-quality bricks must be made from a constant composition and clay of fine fractions. In the process of proper firing of clay, its refractory elements dissolve. Subject to the right technology Molding and drying the raw materials will result in the most durable ceramic brick.

Depending on the components, the brick can be light yellow or dark brown. Nowadays pigmentation is often used ceramic bricks in order to give it certain shades.

House made of “crushed earth”

Earthen houses have been known since ancient times. Surprisingly, this unusual technology is still quite relevant today.

Classic: three ways

The construction of houses from “crushed earth” was quite widespread in the Middle Ages: for example, peasants built buildings this way in Spain and France.

Classic medieval construction technology was known in three versions:

layer-by-layer compaction of earthen walls with low adjustable formwork, wall compaction of walls with high adjustable formwork and masonry of walls from compacted earthen blocks.

Attention!

Do not confuse earthen structures with the more famous adobe ones: their construction technologies were very different. The walls of earthen houses contained no more than half clay (correspondingly, no less than 50–70% sand), and they did not use straw as a reinforcing filler.

In the first and second options, formwork was used to construct the walls, into which earth was poured and carefully compacted: each layer had to be “shrinked” to one and a half to two times its original height. With a height of 3.5 m, the thickness of the wall at the base had to be at least 45 cm, and at the ceiling - 35 cm. The formwork was either made low and, after filling, moved to the next sections of the wall (1st method), or the entire wall was formed in it (2nd method). For strength, rough boards were embedded inside the earthen walls, and they were also placed under the floor beams and rafter supports. For framing and securing window and doorways used stone or brick.

In the third construction option, wall blocks were made from wooden molds, in which sticky earth was compacted. This method is closest to the technology for making adobe houses.

After completing the filling of the earthen walls, they were dried for several months, covered with a roof from precipitation. After this, the surface of the walls was coated on the outside with a mixture of lime and sand or a mixture of lime, clay and wool, and plastered on the inside with alabaster. Finally, the walls were whitewashed with lime.

The most famous earthen building in Russia is the Priory Palace in Gatchina, which has been perfectly preserved to this day. Completed in 1799 by architect N. A. Lvov by order of Emperor Paul I, the palace safely withstood even bombing and shelling during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. The material used was a mixture of earth, clay, loam and road dust. All layers of earthen walls were carefully compacted (the thickness of the layers was reduced by at least half during laying), covered with lime mortar and laid with dry branches as “reinforcement”. Work on the construction of earthen walls of the palace by 40 builders began on June 15, 1798, and were completed on September 12 of the same year.

"Bricks" in bags

Today, the most common technology for constructing earthen walls is masonry from bags of earth. Strong polypropylene bags are filled with a moistened mixture of soil, sand, crushed stone and cement mixed in a concrete mixer to 80% of the volume and carefully compacted to form large rectangular bricks. The necks of the bags are sewn up with galvanized wire. Once placed in place, the bags are carefully compacted again and slightly moistened with water.

To reinforce the walls, barbed wire is laid in two rows on top of each row of bags and secured with staples. The seams between the bags are filled with a mixture of cement, sand and lime or clay with the addition of chopped straw. If the walls are planned to be straight, additional structural strength can be given with the help of sharpened steel reinforcement, which is driven vertically through the bags.

As finishing earthen walls are plastered over steel or fiberglass mesh, and then painted or covered with decorative plaster.

Artificial sandstone

Another one modern technology The construction of buildings from the ground was proposed in the early 1990s by the American Meror Krayenhoff. It is positioned as "manufacturing monolithic walls made of artificial sandstone." The walls are mounted on steel frame with an inner layer of insulation, so they are durable and warm. In addition, if, during the construction of walls, a mixture based on soils is laid in layers various shades, then their surface turns out to be very decorative and does not require external finishing.

A house made of earth can become an unusual, but very comfortable home for you. However, before starting construction big size, it is better to practice on more modest buildings - for example, a round earthen sauna.