| The exterior walls being constructed in this video are 18″ thick rammed earth. Rammed Earth is an age-old building technique used worldwide. Rammed earth homes and buildings built in the late 1700s and early 1800s can be found throughout the United States . Our rammed earth walls are built by tamping a mixture of soil, 3% portland cement, and a 6-10% moisture content. With a skid loader the soil is dumped into the forms. It is put in lifts of 7-8″ and is tamped down to 4-5″ with pneumatic tampers. A larger footing is required for the mass and weight. The forms can be stripped immediately, as the wall is strong enough to stand right away. For each day that passes, the wall becomes stronger. The exterior of the walls will receive layers of foam insulation, metal lath and stucco. The interior of the wall will be lathed, plastered and painted. The finished thickness of the wall will be nominally 21″ thick. |
