Rammed Earth Construction Techniques
Building a rammed earth home is like creating sedimentary rock but very, very quickly. The number of rammed earth construction crews is growing, but a house can also be completed by an owner without professional help. In the days of building the Great Wall of China, people just rammed some earth and called it a day. Walls either stood the test.
Rammed earth construction is a structural building method of compressing a sandy mixture into a hard sandstone-like material. Rammed earth walls resemble adobe construction. Both use soil mixed with waterproofing additives. Adobe, however, requires dry weather so that the bricks can harden (cure) enough to build walls.
In rainy parts of the world, builders developed 'rammed earth' construction, which is more like building a sand castle with forms. A mixture of soil and cement is compacted into forms, and later, when the forms are removed, the solid earth walls remain. The compression of the earth material is more like building compressed earth blocks or CEBs, a process of squeezing out the air in a precise mixture of clay, sand, and lime.
Definition of Rammed Earth
'A material usually consisting of clay, sand, or other aggregate (such as sea shells) and water, which has been compressed and dried; used in building construction.'— Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, Cyril M. Harris, ed., McGraw- Hill, 1975, p. 395
Other Names for Rammed Earth
Rammed Earth Builders
This building process is an ancient method that has been practiced throughout the world for centuries. Rammed earth and forms of earth construction similar to rammed earth are also known as pisé, jacal, barjareque, and hāng tǔ.
Modern Rammed Earth Method
Rammed earth buildings are environmentally-friendly and water, fire, and termite resistant. It is naturally sound- and mold-resistant. Some modern-day designers also say that the thick earthen walls create a sense of solidity and security.
Canadian builder Meror Krayenhoff has modified the ancient practices of rammed earth, creating what he calls Stabilized Insulated Rammed Earth or SIREwall®. 'We use a little bit of cement—5-10 percent cement—and we use some steel reinforcing to make it strong against earthquakes. We put the soil in on either side of the foam [insulation] and compact it.'
The price of a rammed earth wall is generally a bit more than poured concrete, but cost is dependent on location. Since a majority of the price tag is labor, the market price for installation fluctuates depending on where in the world you're building.
Learn More
- Steve Davis website, see photos of rammed earth buildings
- The Rammed Earth House by David Easton, 2007
- Earth Architecture by Ronald Rael, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010
Source
- Rammed Earth with David Suzuki, The Nature of Things, YouTube accessed July 21, 2014
Rammed Earth Construction Pdf
Earth Structures buildings are well known for their construction quality and significant environmental benefits
Modern Rammed Earth Construction Techniques
The massive monoliths that are Earth Structures walls offer beautiful living environments while providing buildings with valuable thermal mass. The walls contain a fraction of the embodied energy of manufactured wall products such as fired bricks or concrete blocks. No other walling can provide architects with such natural elegance combined with such low environmental impacts.
A well designed Earth Structures building can be managed without air conditioning in summer and with reduced heating input in winter. Many of our clients use only bedside or overhead fans when required in summer, combined with common sense opening and closing of doors and windows to maximise the passive solar benefits of living with high thermal mass walls.
Our group members can explain these thermal benefits and how to effectively do away with much of our current reliance on air conditioners and heaters for a comfortable living environment.