Earthen Building MaterialsFor many thousands of years, humans have built structurally sound houses from natural materials such as straw, clay, mud, rocks and soil across many different cultures and traditions.
And with the growing pressures of climate change and a shift back towards more eco-friendly homes, we are now starting to see more natural eco-homes starting to emerge out of consideration and love for our beautiful planet. With this page, we will be introducing you to some of the more popular earthen material building methods to help you with any design decisions for your home. Learn how to use recycled building materials here |
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Earthen Building Techniques
Building with natural materials allows you to create a home which is earth friendly, healthy, sustainable & bio-degradable whilst at the same time ensure that the building process is more simplified, quicker and cheaper to construct. And as you will see from the below examples, these natural building practices can help you towards the idea of building your house, sometimes for as little as $10,000 or $20,000 (or less depending on size, building materials, access to recycled goods etc).
And actually, one of the most challenging aspects of building these kinds of houses (at least here in NZ) is the process of getting the necessary building permits & planning permission forms approved by the Government. Hopefully, this in an area that will become more flexible with more and more eco-friendly houses being built using these techniques (to prove their solidity and structural integrity).
And actually, one of the most challenging aspects of building these kinds of houses (at least here in NZ) is the process of getting the necessary building permits & planning permission forms approved by the Government. Hopefully, this in an area that will become more flexible with more and more eco-friendly houses being built using these techniques (to prove their solidity and structural integrity).
Adobe Bricks
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When people think of building earthen houses, they will most regularly think of building with adobe bricks or mud bricks as some refer to them. These are often made from a mix of soil, sand, clay, water and/or straw however some will also add a few other ingredients to add some additional strength.
When it comes to the building process, there are many ways to approach adobe building with the most basic technique being to quite literally build your house from the ground up using a basic brick layout. During this process, mortar is applied in between each of the bricks and wooden inserts are placed and reinforced around window and door areas. Flooring can also be done in abode using a variety of different methods and the roofing is constructed as with any typical house atop the brick structure. Overall, the most important part of the process is ensuring the adobe bricks are strong and healthy so here, we see how this process is done in Bolivia where almost all of the houses are build with adobe bricks. |
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Rammed Earth
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Rammed earth techniques work with a similar idea to the adobe brick in that they are effectively mixing together materials like sand, soil, clay, water and /or straw to create a powdered dirt which is then rammed into a mould to create the wall structures.
The main difference between this technique and adobe brick is the way we need to create, mould and then set each of the walls. As you can see from the video here, a much larger mould is used as the earth is first shovelled in and later rammed and then left to dry. For us, this process has always seemed to need a lot of professional assistance and therefore this may come at a higher cost if you are thinking of building yourself a home on a very small budget i.e. extra cost for the labour. |
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Straw Bales
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Building with straw bales is a very simple way to build your own home and will also help to bring a wonderful amount of insulation value & natural breathability to your home. Surprisingly, it is also more fire proof and rodent proof than the average standard home.
The basic idea with straw bales is to lay out a simple bale brick structure and then use a clay or limestone render to help plaster over the bales. There are a variety of different framing and structurally binding techniques used in straw bale homes and the type of framing techniques used depend on whether you are wanting to build a load bearing or a non-load bearing structure. in this short video, you will see a very basic format for how to build a straw bale structure. And whilst there are often a few additional steps to be added to this which help to strengthen the overall structure, it is a good basic introduction to building a structure with straw bales. |
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Cob
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Building with cob is another exceptionally easy way to build your own home and can also be a lot of fun. The cob itself can be made up of a mixture of sand, straw and clay and when mixed together (with a little water), these ingredients help to form the cob.
The walls are then built with this mixture from the ground up with an appropriate roofing structure being required to finish off the structure. There are of course some added things to consider along the way such as developing the right foundations etc however this gives you a basic idea of building with cob. This short video shows this process in action and demonstrates the flexible nature of building with cob. You can see that you are also free to draw, sculpt or create other forms of artwork right there in your walls (outside or inside) as well as creating a range of cob shelving & bench tops inside the structure. |
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Earth Bag Building
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Building with earth bags is another very cheap and easy way to build a structure and for us, this seems to be the cheapest and easiest of all building structures (provided you can get building consent). The earthbags themselves are filled with a variety of in-organic matter such as sand, clay, volcanic rock, lime or gravel and are then used to build the walls of your structure.
The earth bags are then filled and laid out according to the design of the structure i.e. following a basic brick layout. At each level, these are tampered down to ensure that they are flat and tightly packed in and then barbed wire is laid before moving up to the next layer. This process of barbed wire helps with the structural integrity of the building and helps to ensure that there is no slippage or movement in the walls. This video is a quick tour of an earth bag build and helps to give you a good idea over the build process. There is lots of great information about earth bag building here |
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