Private eco-house made of adobe: unusual and relevant. How to build an adobe house with your own hands Do-it-yourself adobe house

Adobe houses are the result of aesthetic and practical experience its designers and builders. Such a house is filled with sensuality. Adobe house– this is not just housing, but a construction masterpiece.

The variety of synthetics around us makes us increasingly pay attention to environmentally friendly, natural materials. We begin to remember the forgotten construction technologies their ancestors, who did not know what artificially created materials were.

Saman is a kind of composite. This is a material that is obtained by mixing mainly clay, earth, straw and sand. As you can see, it contains only natural ingredients. They make an adobe house one of the safest buildings and least industrial.

What is the technology for producing adobe?

The composition of adobe includes clay soil, various organic additives and water. The process of creating adobe itself comes down to liquefaction clay soil by adding water to it. After this, the soil is kneaded in pre-prepared boxes, pits or on special flat areas. Next, various additives are added to this composition and thoroughly mixed until smooth.

Such additives include:

1) Cut straw, wood shavings, firewood, manure, chaff. These components increase the tensile strength of the material during cellulose fibers.

2) Gravel, crushed stone, sand, expanded clay. They help reduce shrinkage after the adobe dries.
3) Lime, cement. Such additives accelerate the hardening process and increase the resistance of adobe to moisture.
4) Liquid glass, bone glue, whey, casein, molasses, starch and others. These substances are plasticizers (promote better placement of individual fragments into a single whole).

After all the components have been added and everything has been mixed, fill the wooden trays with adobe and dry them on outdoors. The result is raw brick. Soil blocks are also produced using the same principle. Synonyms for adobe are adobe material, clay fiber concrete, clay concrete.
When constructing buildings, adobe is laid by hand. They use either specially prepared bricks or pre-dried bricks of standard sizes. adobe is used not only for building walls. In countries with dry climates, it is successfully used for the construction of fences and fences.

Modern technology has improved adobe production compared to the old days. And now adobe, while maintaining its advantages, is free of certain disadvantages that prevented the widespread use of this material for construction.

Pros and cons of construction adobe house

Let's start with the good and list the obvious advantages of adobe, like building material.
In an adobe house there is always a good microclimate. And the reason for this is such a property of adobe and soil blocks as hygroscopicity. And it is very high for these materials. Due to this fact, adobe is an excellent indoor humidity stabilizer. When the level of humidity in the house increases, adobe surfaces begin to absorb it and accumulate it there. In hot weather, when the humidity level in the room drops and the air becomes dry, the adobe begins to release accumulated moisture outside. These “living” walls will replace your expensive air conditioners and humidifiers.

It would not be amiss to mention that adobe blocks are characterized by low cost. Compare prices for houses made of wood (rounded logs or, at worst, laminated veneer lumber), brick and adobe - you will be pleasantly surprised. And all because the source materials are right under your feet. Yes, and compared to ordinary bricks for adobe brick no firing is required (this saves on fuel), because it dries naturally. When producing adobe blocks, they do not make high demands on the quality of raw materials. But this does not mean at all that the final material will suffer in quality.

Due to their impressive mass, adobe walls have fairly decent thermal inertia. Such a house will be warm and cozy. Also, adobe surfaces have a very high soundproofing ability on their own, without additional finishing.

Adobe with a small percentage of organic additives is characterized by high fire resistance. And some soil blocks, which are produced using special technologies (using RK-250), do not burn at all.

One of the benefits of adobe houses is the fact that, due to the aluminum contained in the clay, these rooms shield electromagnetic radiation quite well. At the same time constant magnetic fields The lands are shielded very weakly.

Now let’s evaluate the disadvantages that any building material has, albeit to a small extent. Unfortunately, the ideal material in all respects has not yet been found.

Adobe blocks are not highly moisture resistant. To eliminate such a defect in a finished building, it is necessary to carry out additional work by plastering or at least whitewashing the external walls with a lime solution. This will help protect the room from exposure to precipitation.

If you purchase adobe bricks or blocks with a high content of organic fillers, then be prepared for uninvited guests to settle there in the form of various insects or, even worse, rodents. At the same time, such material becomes less fireproof. Again, due to the increase in organic mass, which burns well.

The finished, newly erected house should long time stand and dry. This is typical for countries with temperate climate. In hot countries there is no such problem. If the house is not given this opportunity, then the materials may not gain full strength, and the organic filler may even rot. As a result, the indoor climate will not be as pleasant as you expected. Therefore, you will not have a housewarming party in such a house any time soon.

Construction work has a fairly limited time depending on the time of year. It is best to build adobe houses in the summer, in hot weather (the reason is clear from the disadvantage described above). In frosty cold weather, such construction is difficult, and if it is carried out, it requires the presence of alkalis or at least salt in the water on which the composition is mixed.

Insufficiently compacted adobe walls will cause large linear shrinkage over time. Its dimensions can reach 1/20 of the wall height.

The so-called heavy adobe (with a low content of organic fillers) requires additional measures to insulate the room. In this case, it is better to use compressed straw, which is then plastered with clay or a clay-lime composition.

In terms of labor costs in the production of adobe bricks, practically nothing has changed since ancient times. This process is carried out manually and not with specialized units. And therefore the speed of appearance required quantity finished building material is low.

And finally

Adobe is perfect as a building material for houses where people will live permanently. The strength of adobe is sufficient for the construction of houses with a small number of floors. Great option For individual house in the city or outside it
.
To forestall possible questions about the reliability and durability of adobe buildings, we will only provide the following data as food for your thoughts.

In England there are several tens of thousands of houses built from adobe. Many of these buildings have been in use for over 500 years and continue to provide comfortable living conditions. In Yemen, ten-story houses have been preserved, partially built from adobe. They have been continuously inhabited by people for 900 years.

Let us remember the age of the pyramids in Egypt or the Great Chinese Wall. But most These structures are made up of earth and clay. The oldest known human-made earthen structures are located in Jericho and are 9,000 years old. What is the service life of houses made of modern materials? It is unlikely that they will be able to compete with adobe houses.

And one of the most pleasant properties of an adobe house is that it has a certain soul. It connects us with nature, surrounds us with natural beauty, harmony and comfort.

In this article: the history of adobe house building; what components are included in adobe; differences between heavy and light adobe; positive and negative characteristics of adobe; how to choose raw materials and make an adobe block with your own hands; strength test of adobe bricks; construction of houses from clay blocks - details; what explains the popularity of green building in the world.

Building a house is an expensive undertaking. The building materials alone for the construction of the walls will cost a significant amount, but you also need to attract craftsmen to lay and finish them. Yes, with all the expenses on high-quality construction and finishing materials, you still need to make sure of their environmental characteristics - you must agree that today this criterion is important. Meanwhile, it is quite possible to build a full-fledged house not only with your own hands, but also from structural material, created, again, independently and right on the construction site - no chemical components are required for the production of adobe bricks. Let's find out what adobe is, how to build a building from it and, finally, how comfortable it will be to live in such a house.

History of adobe houses

To shelter himself and his family from bad weather, a person needed a house. Several thousand years ago people developed various technologies construction, primarily dependent on the availability of the simplest building materials - stone and wood. For many peoples who inhabited the Earth around the equator before our era, wood and stone were in great short supply; they had to look for other building materials. About 6,000 years ago, a solution to the problem was found - bricks were made from wet clay mixed with straw, dried in the sun, and buildings were erected from this simple structural material.

Molded and sun-baked bricks first appeared in Ancient Egypt— for their production, Egyptian builders extracted clay from the bottom of the Nile River. Subsequently, the technology for creating clay bricks was borrowed from the Egyptians by the peoples of Ancient Persia, from where it spread throughout Asia, and then, together with the Moorish armies, penetrated into Spain. By the way, it was the Arab builders who gave clay brick its name at-tob, changed centuries later by the Spaniards to adobe— in Russia its Turkic name “saman” is better known.

The oldest architectural complex in Asia, made entirely of adobe, until 2003, was the Persian “fortress of Bam” (Arg-e Bam), created around the 6th-4th centuries BC. e. Achaemenid dynasty. Unfortunately, at the end of 2003, the ancient Citadel was completely destroyed by an earthquake of magnitude 6.3, the epicenter of which fell almost on the territory of the old city. Note that the Iranian city of Bam suffered from the earthquake not only in the historical part, but also in the modern part - about 80% of the buildings collapsed.

The construction of buildings from mud (i.e. clay) developed independently among the peoples of the American continent. Indians from the Anasazi tribe (Pueblo) built in the southern part North America multi-storey complexes made of clay and straw, however, they did not make bricks - the prepared building material in a wet state was laid along the perimeter of the future building, as it hardened, a new tier was formed on top, and so on.

Adobe house in the city of Taliouine, Morocco, North Africa

In the state of New Mexico (USA), buildings built from adobe about 1000 years ago still exist and are used for living.

Composition of adobe

This clay building material can consist of a variety of natural components, most often in its composition: water, which acts as a solvent; clay of medium fat content, the basis of the mixture; filler, which can be played by chopped straw or fibrous plant stems, manure; other additives.

The purposes of introducing certain additives into the adobe mixture, their list:

Cellulose fibers provide increased tensile strength. Cut straw is used (cutting length is from 90 to 160 mm, depending on the size of the brick), chaff, firewood, wood shavings, cattle manure;
to reduce shrinkage when bricks dry, sand, fine gravel, crushed stone or expanded clay are introduced;
Lime and cement will help increase resistance to water and speed up curing;
to improve plasticity, the composition can be added liquid glass, bone glue, casein, molasses, slurry (the characteristic smell of manure completely disappears after the adobe dries), starch.

The adobe mixture does not require the mandatory introduction of chemical components used in building materials - the clay that forms the basis of the mixture already has most of the characteristics common to modern structural and finishing materials. Construction chemicals are introduced as necessary - to speed up the hardening of bricks, to ensure maximum resistance to microorganisms, rodents and high temperatures that occur during fire.

Heavy and light adobe - what's the difference?

Light adobe is very familiar to the population of the southern regions of Russia - the walls of mud hut houses are made of this material. Light adobe solution contains a smaller percentage of clay - about 10%; bricks are not created from it, since the mixture is applied directly to frame walls according to reinforcing wooden sheathing or placed between the inner and outer wall cladding made of edged boards or OSB boards. The advantages of constructing buildings from light adobe are high speed construction work, small range of building materials, work can be performed by non-professional builders. Disadvantages - high consumption wood materials, which increases construction costs.

Blocks and bricks made of heavy adobe allow you to build a much stronger and safe home than when building from light adobe. During the masonry work, pre-dried adobe bricks are used, so it is not necessary to spend a lot of time drying the walls, and they can be finished immediately after construction. The disadvantages of heavy adobe, as well as the advantages, are associated with clay bricks - the process of their manufacture is quite labor-intensive, until the products are completely cured. large volume, carefully protecting from getting wet.

Characteristics of adobe

The exact characteristics of adobe and products made from it depend on the composition of the mixture and the percentage of light fillers in it:

heavy adobe has a density of the order of 1500-1800 kg/m 3, i.e. it practically coincides with the density building bricks;
the thermal conductivity coefficient is half that of building bricks - about 0.1-0.4 W/m °C. The more straw contained in heavy adobe and the higher its density, the lower its thermal conductivity;
the compressive strength is about 10-50 kg/cm2, this strength range is close to the characteristics of foam and aerated concrete.

pros adobe construction:

the cheapest construction material, since the raw materials for its production - clay and water - are found everywhere and in abundance;
absolute environmental friendliness of adobe buildings;
low heat transfer and high sound insulation of walls;
fire resistance;
ability to absorb excess moisture in rooms.

poor resistance to humidity, especially at low temperatures - external plastering or covering of walls is required facing bricks;
impossibility of carrying out construction work in winter conditions;
buildings erected in temperate climatic zone, dry for a long time and gain strength;
adobe walls create favorable conditions for rodents, insects and fungi to live in them.

A house made of adobe takes longer to build than houses made of traditional materials— walls need more time to gain strength characteristics. However, the final cost estimate for construction will be at least half as much as for a building made of building bricks of a similar area.

DIY adobe brick

First of all, you need to select the clay that will be used in the adobe mixture, determining its fat content. To do this, you will need a sample of clay and two planed boards 100-150 mm wide. Having placed the clay in a small container, add water to it and, thoroughly mixing with your hands, achieve the formation of a homogeneous clay dough - its consistency should be stiff enough so that the clay does not stick to your fingers. Then we take out a piece of clay dough, roll it in our palms to form a 50 mm ball, place the ball between the prepared boards, with even force and slowly press on the top board. It is necessary to squeeze the clay ball until cracks appear on its surface: the diameter of the ball before cracks appear has decreased by half (to 20-25 mm) - the clay is oily; cracks with a decrease in diameter by 1/3 (to 13-17 mm) indicate clay of medium fat content; if the ball crumbles into pieces at the slightest pressure, the clay is thin and not suitable for adobe.

Clay occurs near bodies of water; in addition, the location of its layers near the surface of the earth is indicated by the following external signs:

slightly swampy areas in the area - the layers of clay located underneath do not allow water to be absorbed into the ground;
well water level - if the water in the well is particularly high, then there are layers of clay there;
patches of soil with mint or sedge growing in abundance, although there are no visible sources of water nearby.

Finally, the most easy way discover layers of clay required quality- walk around the neighbors who built adobe buildings some time ago or laid out a stove (fireplace).

The easiest way to make bricks from adobe is from medium-fat clay, since it is easier to work with - less effort will be spent on preparation. If only fatty clay is available, then you will need to change its composition to medium-fat by adding 15-16 kg of sand per 100 kg, thoroughly mixing the resulting mixture. Only clean sand of a coarse fraction (about 2 microns) is needed - mountain sand is better, river sand is worse, because it contains silt particles that reduce the degree of adhesion of sand grains to clay.

Preparing clay for the adobe mixture must be done in the fall, then lay it in a pile up to a meter high and cover it with a thick, 100 mm layer of straw on top. A clay pile is formed and left under open air for the whole winter, due to which it will be soaked by rains and spring snowmelt, frozen low temperatures cold season - by the beginning of spring its plasticity will increase, which is what we need. As soon as the thermometer is firmly established above the zero mark and there is no more frost, remove the straw that covered the clay pile and cover the clay with plastic film, pressing its edges with stones around the perimeter. Polyethylene flooring will allow the clay pile to thaw faster, while preventing the formation of a dry crust on its surface.

Straw for the adobe mixture is required either fresh, remaining after harvesting winter varieties of wheat and rye, or last year's dry straw, without traces of rot. In the absence of straw, coarse-stemmed grass hay is suitable.

In order to have time to build the foundation, walls and roof of the house before the onset of cold weather, it is necessary to begin producing adobe bricks in early to mid-spring, as soon as warm weather sets in. The site for creating adobe bricks should be close to the place where the house is built - finished bricks are heavy and quite large, and it will be difficult to move them over significant distances.

Before mixing the mixture for adobe, we will prepare a platform and molds for bricks. You should not make the mixture on bare ground - debris and soil will certainly get into it, reducing the strength of the bricks. A molding platform is required - a dense flooring made of boards, measuring from 2000x2000 mm or more, or a recess covered with waterproof thick fabric. Clay is placed on it in a volume of no more than 2/3 of the flooring area, large lumps are broken up with a shovel, a depression is formed in the center of the pile, and water is poured in. Then the clay is mixed with shovels and kneaded with feet, if it is high in fat, sand is added, then pre-soaked straw is introduced, the mixture is kneaded again and kneaded with feet until it becomes homogeneous in structure and looks like a thick porridge. You will need about 13-15 kg of cut straw per cubic meter of clay, the exact amount is determined experimentally. At this point, the preparation stage of the adobe mixture is completed; it is collected with shovels into a pile and left for two days to “ripen.”

It should be noted that it is necessary to knead the adobe mixture only with your feet, since any other methods do not work here - an attempt to knead the mixture with the help of a horse will be ineffective, since the animal will prefer to step on the tracks already made by its hooves, and the use of a caterpillar or wheeled tractor will be accompanied by bringing earth and dirt into the adobe.

While the adobe mixture gains viscosity, we begin creating molds for the bricks. To do this, you will need a planed board 30 mm thick, from which boxes without a bottom are knocked together, containing two, three or four cell sections - their number depends on the overall dimensions of the bricks. Adobe brick usually has three standard sizes: small - 300x140x100 mm; medium - 300x170x130 mm; large - 400x190x130 mm. The larger the adobe brick, the longer it will take to dry, so its dimensions are determined primarily by local climatic conditions. When curing, molded adobe bricks lose moisture and are linear dimensions decrease by 10-20%, therefore inner dimensions The cells of the wooden form should be 50-60 mm larger than the desired size of the finished brick. To simplify the removal of “raw” bricks from the mold during the molding process, you can give the cells a slightly conical shape - the distance between the upper walls of the cells is 7-10 mm greater than between the lower ones. Each wooden form must be equipped with handles at the “narrow” ends - just nail bars with a cross-section of 50x50 mm to them.

Before starting the production of adobe bricks in the volume required for construction, it is necessary to test several samples of bricks for strength. To carry it out, make several mixtures of adobe in a small volume (based on two bricks), maintaining the following proportions in each batch: 3 parts clay to one part sand; 2 parts clay and one part sand; clay to sand ratio is 1:1; one part clay to 2 parts sand; one part clay to 3 parts sand. Make two bricks from each mixture, keep them on the site in the sun, then place them under a covered canopy, placing them on edge and keep them there for another week (do not confuse which bricks are from which mixture!).

After a week, before testing adobe products for strength, inspect their surfaces, try to pinch off a piece from the edges, break the bricks with your hands:

if the product crumbles easily under your fingers, there is not enough clay and too much straw in the mixture;
if the surface of the adobe is covered with deep cracks, then the mixture is too rich in clay or the clay is too greasy, i.e. there is not enough sand filler in it - increase the sand content in proportion by one part;
If you managed to break a brick with your hands, there is not enough straw in it, you need to increase its content in the mixture by 1.5 times.

After conducting a preliminary inspection, proceed to strength tests, using one of the two proposed options or both at once: 1st option - drop one brick from each batch from a height of more than 2 meters to the ground; 2nd option - wet 120 mm nails with water and drive them into the remaining bricks. Bricks that split after falling mean that the adobe composition for them was chosen incorrectly, the same applies to split and crumbled samples when trying to drive nails into them. A nail fits into high-quality adobe in the same way as into dense wood (for example, oak) and stays just as firmly in it.

Having chosen the most successful proportion of the adobe mixture, we begin to produce bricks in large quantities. The operations of introducing components, mixing, kneading and maintaining the batch are carried out according to the scheme described above - to create 1000 adobe bricks you will need about 10 m 3 of clay. It is necessary to prepare a site for pre-drying of products a day before molding - cut off tall grass and protrusions on the ground, remove debris with a rake in several passes, ensure the outflow of water in case of rain, cover its surface with a layer of straw.

The finished adobe is taken from the flooring with shovels and placed into mold cells, previously moistened along the inner walls with water, sprinkled with a mixture of fine straw and sand - a measure that makes it easier to remove raw bricks from the mold. The adobe is placed in cells with excess, after which it is compacted with a shovel and a board; after compaction, the excess material is cut off with the same board and returned back to the batch. Next, the wooden form is lifted, transferred to the drying area, the form is carefully turned over, and 4-5 through holes along the central axis of the products - they will relieve stress in the material caused by drying. The products remain on the site for 24-36 hours - they must dry and harden so that they can be moved under the canopy. After a day or two, they need to be turned over on their edges, leaving them in place for further drying.

The molded bricks are covered with tarpaulin or roofing felt on top - the coating will protect them from rain and uneven drying under the sun's rays. At this stage, adobe products should not come into contact with each other; it is necessary that air freely penetrates to their walls. Next, the bricks are transferred to a barn or under a shed, where they are stacked on top of each other in pairs on an edge (in a “well”) with a distance between them equal to the thickness of the products - the storage room for adobe bricks must be well ventilated. The correct way to lay adobe on wooden pallets, absorbing excess moisture. Full term Drying of adobe bricks, depending on the weather, will take from 10 to 15 days - the finished product has a uniform color throughout its entire thickness, does not break when dropped from a height of two meters, and does not lose its shape after being kept in water for 48 hours.

The nuances of building houses from adobe

Exposure to the destructive effects of moisture imposes a number of conditions that must be met during the construction of an adobe house.

Foundation. For adobe construction, a strip foundation is optimal, the width of which exceeds the width of the masonry walls by 200 mm - to protect the house's fences from splashing water and to allow the application of a thick layer of plaster. Concrete, rubble stone and brick are used as foundation materials; the base is raised to a height of 500 mm and above. It is important to lay a waterproofing layer between the foundation and the walls - for example, several layers of roofing felt or roofing felt.

Walls. The thickness of external walls made of heavy adobe should be at least 500 mm, internal walls - at least 300 mm. Along the perimeter of the openings in the walls, above the lintels and in the areas where the walls meet (500 mm vertical pitch), reinforcement made of reeds or brushwood must be laid. The masonry is carried out using the technology usually used for the construction of block walls, with joints about 10 mm thick. During the day, it is necessary to lay no more than two brick rows (no more than 400 mm high) so that the mortar sets and dries overnight - following this technique will speed up the drying of the walls and somewhat reduce their shrinkage, allowing you to begin plastering the walls immediately after construction. Masonry mortar is adobe dough in which the ratio of clay to sand filler is one to one or four to three. If necessary, you can reduce the size of adobe bricks using a regular hatchet. The construction of walls and roofing must be carried out only in dry weather, and the work must be completed before the onset of autumn frosts.

Wall decoration. Walls made of adobe without external finishing will quickly become unusable, so it is extremely necessary to complete it. The layer of plaster should be 50-100 mm, which will reliably protect the walls from bad weather and protect them from penetration of rodents and insects. Acrylic, lime and silicate compounds are suitable for plastering walls - the plaster layer must be waterproof, but permeable to steam. Cement plaster not suitable, because it practically does not provide adhesion to unfired clay. You can line the walls from the outside with brick, board or other materials, but you must ensure that there is space between the adobe wall and the cladding. air gap 50 mm, otherwise the adobe will get wet. The connection between the outer cladding and the adobe wall is done with 150 mm long nails. Interior decoration The walls are made with gypsum plaster; they can be tiled using gypsum-based adhesives.

Floors. Mounted according to wooden beams, placed on the walls by more than 150 mm. Beams must be treated with waterproofing impregnation (for example, two or three layers of drying oil) or wrapped in roofing felt, then embedded in adobe walls. In order to effectively distribute the load, a board is laid under each floor beam, and areas at the support points of the beams are also reinforced with reeds or brushwood.

Jumpers. Window and door lintels are made of boards, the width of which is equal to the width of the wall, and the thickness is 50 mm. The lintel boards must be impregnated with waterproofing compounds or wrapped in roofing felt.

Window and door frames. It is better if these frames are made of wood, which will reduce the risk of condensation accumulation. When installing window and door frames, a waterproofing layer is laid around the perimeter of the openings.

Roof. It is better to install a steep roof, at an angle of 35 or 40° - in this case, the bursting load on the walls will be lower. The minimum length of an overhang that can well protect walls from rain flows is 700 mm. As roofing Light materials are more suitable - metal tiles or sheet roofing. If an attic is installed under the roof, then under roofing material it is necessary to lay 50 mm rigid mineral wool. The insulation of the attic space is carried out with light adobe or other materials of natural origin.

Floor. Gets off ceramic tiles on a soil base pre-insulated with expanded clay or light adobe.

The growing interest in building houses from adobe or straw, which has established over the past decades in Europe and America, is explained not only by the fashion for ecological housing, but also by the constantly growing cost of buildings made from modern materials. Why get into debt bondage with banks and developers if you can save money and build a full-fledged house from natural materials that are literally lying under your feet?

The almost complete absence of building standards for such buildings is not at all due to their low performance characteristics, but rather with a reluctance to develop these standards, with the traditions of constructing buildings made of stone, brick and reinforced concrete, common for the 20th-19th centuries.

Adobe houses were almost completely replaced by brick ones around the 70s of the last century. With the advent of foam blocks, adobe was completely forgotten, but not for long. Now the gradual revival of the adobe house begins, because it really natural origin– this is now most valued.

Like any other material, adobe has its pros and cons. In this article we will try to characterize as objectively as possible positive aspects adobe construction, but let’s not forget about the shortcomings.

A little history

The word “saman” itself came to us from Turkic, where it is translated as “straw”. IN different regions they approached the production of adobe differently: some peoples used clay, some used ordinary black soil; in some places they added straw to the solution, and in some places they abandoned it. It is difficult to write an exact recipe for how adobe was made in the old days. But we will retell from memory the words of one person who lived in the south of Ukraine. These places, as you know, were famous for their adobe houses, which still remain residential despite their venerable age.

A traditional Ukrainian hut made of adobe and a thatched roof is the best dwelling, proven over centuries.

To produce adobe, it was necessary to attract more people. However, there were no problems with this before: if a person asked for help in construction, then almost the entire village responded and construction took place in a matter of days. Then it was a normal phenomenon, let us note, not at all like it is now, when your own brother can turn his back on you.

A small pit was dug in the ground. The soil from it was also used for production. If there was a horse on the farm, then the pit had round shape– the horse walked in a circle, mixing the solution better and better than several barefoot people.

The finished solution is still just a shapeless mass.

Straw and clay were poured into this pit, sometimes adding horse manure, which acted as an adhesive mixture. By adding water and constantly stirring, we ensured that the whole mass resembled plasticine. Next to the simplest rectangular shapes(four knocked down boards) the mixture was compacted from the pit and left on level ground in the sun. Within a few days, the adobe was completely dry and ready for use at the construction site.

The adobe blocks varied in size - there was never a specific standard. For example, we know of adobe with dimensions of 500 mm (length), 170 mm (width) and 120 mm (height). Maybe, smaller size I didn’t want to do anything to make the construction go faster. And there is no point in making more blocks either - they will take a long time to dry, and then the heavy weight will have to be dragged manually.

Benefits of adobe

The advantages of adobe blocks are still remembered by older people who either had to participate in construction or live in an adobe house.

Disadvantages of adobe

Cob houses also have disadvantages, but these disadvantages can hardly be called critical.

Since the weight of the walls and their pressure on the ground is very noticeable, it is necessary to give Special attention foundation. However, one can argue with this. We came across a building made of adobe blocks, where the foundation was represented by lime mortar in a hole with dimensions of only 300 mm (depth) and 600 mm (width). The base was made of flat stones to make it easier to start building the first row.
Rodents or insects may live inside earthen walls. Unfortunately, this is true. It will not be difficult for a mouse to gnaw through an adobe block in the place it needs in order to organize a nest there. However, the mouse will not want to get inside the house if certain odors of treats are not reaching it. It is unlikely that you will store grain in your house, so rodents will find your house boring.
When attaching shelves or wall cabinets, they encounter a problem. If you can install a dowel in a brick and it will certainly support the weight, then in the case of adobe, difficulties arise. For example, we had to use 200 mm nails, and before that we had to grind down the head of each nail so that it would go through the cabinet mount.
Mandatory plastering on the outside is a necessity so that rain and snow do not cause the adobe to “float.” Note that blocks are stored appearance even several years without finishing. The density of the material affects it and adobe can only lose a little in size and become completely damp unless there is a complete absence of wind and sun.

Instead of a conclusion

Adobe houses, the pros and cons of which we have analyzed, can be placed on a par with wooden buildings and even higher. Indeed, in the case of timber, various chemistry can be used in the form of impregnations, paints and varnishes or primers. But with adobe you don’t need all this. Write comments, ask and we will always answer you. Moreover, our experience is practical, not bookish - this is very important.

The construction of adobe houses began in ancient times. Adobe is a natural material that is based on clay soil dried in the sun. This material is used for the construction of houses and fences in dry climates. Today, with the construction portal, we will talk in detail about this material and find out the pros and cons of the structures that were built from it.

What is adobe and how is it made?

The inhabitants of Europe built houses from adobe in the 15th century. At that time, ordinary peasants and wealthy townspeople lived in adobe houses. The material was popular even in Russia. The Prilratsky Palace in Gatchina was built from adobe, which exists even today.

Adobe is usually made in the spring. This is done so that the building can dry completely during the summer. Adobe is made from clay soil, which is diluted with water and thoroughly mixed. Various additives are also added to the solution. For example, it could be:

straw,
wood shavings,
cement,
sand,
gravel and other components.

To dry the adobe, special forms are constructed. For this purpose, ordinary boards are used. Boxes without a bottom are made from boards. The boxes can have single or double walls. Before putting adobe into boxes, their walls are moistened with water and chaff from grain waste after threshing. This is done so that the clay does not stick to the walls of the boxes.

As soon as the boxes are ready, you can lay the clay solution in them. To do this, you usually take a lump of clay that matches the size of the box. Clay is placed or thrown with force for better compaction. After which the solution is leveled. If excess material is formed, it is removed and transferred to another box. Now the solution is left alone for 3 full days. To dry adobe, you need to choose the right platform to fall on. sufficient quantity sun rays. In this process, one must not forget that such material is afraid of heavy rains. Therefore, in order to protect the material from exposure to rain, it must be placed under a canopy.

Please read the publication: How to choose a watering hose

If 3 days pass, the bricks must be removed from the molds and placed on edge. The adobe bricks should remain in this position for up to 7 days. It is worth saying that high-quality adobe does not break when dropped from a height of two meters. Also, it should not soak in water for 1 or 2 days.

What are the advantages of adobe houses?

An adobe house can be called a unique home. Therefore, now it is necessary to name all the pros and cons of such a structure. So, adobe buildings are different high level thermal insulation. So, rooms that were built from sama do not need additional heating in winter time. In addition, such housing can retain coolness in hot weather. It turns out that the adobe house method is as follows. Warm and cold air passes through dense walls at a speed of 2.5 cm per hour. Therefore, in the summer the building accumulates heat, and at night it is returned back. The material - adobe - can be used to build houses in absolutely any area. In areas with severe and cold winds, adobe houses need to be given a streamlined shape. It should be noted that such a house design will reduce the level of heat transfer and the entry of icy air.

The walls, which were built from adobe blocks, do not allow extraneous noise into the room.
Saman is not afraid of fire. It follows that houses from such material can be built even in the most fire-prone areas. And in order to completely protect the object from fire, you need to use earth and clay when constructing the roof.
Clay has good hygroscopicity. Therefore, the room will maintain stable humidity regardless of the time of year.
An adobe house is an environmentally friendly building. Therefore, such a home cannot harm human health in any way.
Houses made of adobe are accessible and have a low price. The raw material for adobe can be found underfoot. Moreover, you can save your money on firing finished material. And all because adobe brick does not need such a procedure.
Adobe is a durable building material. Houses and buildings built from this material will last for millennia.
Saman is best material for beginning builders. It is worth saying that to work with this material you will need the most ordinary tools.
Today you can build a variety of buildings from adobe bricks. Indeed, such material is suitable for the construction of even ultra-modern houses.

Stages of building a house made of adobe bricks

Adobe houses are relatively unpopular these days. However, the technology for their construction is as follows.

Parameters of the future home. Currently, huge apartments, which are equipped with a significant number of additional rooms, are extremely popular. But it's best to build functional houses with the least amount of additional premises. Each adobe house should have several important premises: kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom and children's room. Optimal height walls will be within 2.5 - 2.7 m.
The type of roof of the future house. For an adobe house, you can choose a classic or mansard roof. Classic roof usually equipped with non-residential attic space with insulated floor. This roof is easy to install and easy to maintain in the future. Mansard roof refers to inventions of the 20th century. It is insulated and a living space is made underneath it. The mansard roof will allow you to expand living space and make it comfortable to live in. It must be said that repairing such a roof will require not only additional effort, but also money.
The number of floors of the future house. The most comfortable house to live in has one floor. Indeed, with such a house you can save your money on building a massive staircase. A two-story house is more economical option. The roof will require serious expenses in this process. A house that has 2 residential floors will save useful space on plot of land. However, to construct such a facility, additional efforts will have to be expended.
Garage, cellar and basement of the future home. Some building experts recommend replacing the basement with an above-ground room. Such a room, if necessary, can be converted into Personal Area or bedroom. If you are planning to build a cellar, it is recommended to build it separately from the main house. When building a cellar, it is important to take into account the terrain and dig it down a slope. When constructing a cellar important role it is worth paying attention to ventilation. It is best to attach a garage to one of the walls of the constructed house. If the car is used frequently, you can move the gate and garage door directly to the street.
Foundation. For modern construction They construct strip and slab foundations using reinforced concrete. Slab foundation suitable for buildings that will have a basement and a first floor located below ground level. Strip foundation used for the construction of buildings that will not have rooms located below ground level. In this case, all load-bearing floors must rest on a flat foundation surface.
Basement of the future house. The base is the lower part external wall, which prevents contact of adobe with various natural phenomena, which may be surface water, snow and ice. The base is erected slightly above the level of rising water and 30 cm above ground level. The floor is made below the level of the base by 15 cm. For the construction of the floor it is better to use: concrete, brick or rubble stone.
Walls of an adobe house. Adobe can be: light and heavy. To make lightweight adobe, straw soaked in clay is used. To produce heavy adobe, sand, straw and clay are used.

There are three ways to build adobe brick walls.

Windows and doors. Experienced builders advise incorporating doors and windows during the construction process. However, it is best to install such elements after the adobe has completely dried. And if the opening is small enough, then it is recommended to increase it by cutting the adobe.

How to lay adobe flooring. A monolithic adobe floor retains heat well and at the same time allows you to save money on energy costs. If the material is professionally laid, then scratches and stains will not form on it during use. Before constructing an adobe floor, it is necessary to remove the fertile soil layer and replace it with stones and crushed stone. The materials should be sprinkled with expanded clay and gravel on top. You can build a rammed or cast floor in your home.

A country house is the dream of every resident of a large metropolis who is tired of the daily bustle and worries. Unfortunately, even construction small house entails a lot of financial costs. You need to buy a plot, take care of all the necessary communications, calculate the materials, and if you do not have experience in DIY construction, you will also have to pay for the work of a team of workers. You can save on building a house by using ancient technology construction of adobe brick houses.

What is adobe?

Clay is used as the main material for adobe. To create a solution of the required consistency, water is used, and straw chaff acts as a filler. In some cases, crushed stone, casein, expanded clay or other substances are added to the mixture, which change the properties of the finished building material. It cannot be said that producing adobe bricks is a simple task, however, using this material to build a house is much more affordable and easier.

Advantages and disadvantages of adobe houses

The advantages of an adobe house include:

Virtually zero costs for basic materials for construction.
High thermal conductivity and low sound permeability of adobe houses.
Environmentally friendly houses with a long service life.

Disadvantages of an adobe house:

The need for quality finishing adobe walls, as they quickly absorb moisture.
Construction is impossible in winter, and it takes longer due to the slow drying of adobe.
The walls of the house can become a breeding ground for rodents

Cob houses are a technology from the past that has been revived, and they have quite a few advantages. Now you can build your own eco-friendly safe home with minimal costs.