CHEAP BUILDING

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 211, 1 June 1920, Page 5

CHEAP BUILDING

REVIVAL OF ANCIENT METHOD ■ SUGGESTED. ■ ■ Mr. C. K. Wilson, of Te.Kuiti, formerly M.P. for Taumarunui, who has been Tisiting Wellington in connection with the Producers' Conference, has been interesting himself in the pise de terre method of building, and has been urging the Public Works Department to make an experiment.

Mr. Wilson points out that tbie high cost of building in Britain has been responsible for directing attention to this ancient method of buildiug, and an enthusiastic advocate and practical experiroentor has been Mr. J. St Loe Strachey, editor of the "Spectator." Pise de terre", literally "hammered earth," consists of eartbfen walls built by dry earth being rammed down hard between wooden casings, a depth of about four inches being rammed at a time. The casings, or shutterings, which is the correct term for them, are shifted as this work progresses. The Tesult is the creation of a wall in tho likeness of a smooth, close-grained sandstone, into which a nail can only be driven with difficulty. As Pliny remarkrd two thousand years ago, it is a very old and well-tried system of building. Watch towers biiilt in pise de terre by Hannibal remain on tile hills of Spain to this day. There are pre-historic piso buildings in Arizona and New Mexico whioh are said to be at least 4000 years old. Dutch colonial farmhouses in South Africa stand as solidly as when built a hundred years ago, and many piso houses can be found in Britain three and foiir hundred years old. Tho practice is to make the walls from 12 to 24 inches thick. The "Australian Settlers' Handbook" is said to recommend eighteen inches as suitable for Australia. Any soil except either, puro day or puro sand is suitable, or at least'has been found so in England. According to the "Spectator" it took two men new to the work a month' to complete the outer walls of a six-roomed house. Four trained men could do tho work in about three days with a moTjile power plant aiid reasonably favourable conditions. The walls are too dense to harbour rats or other vermin; internally the walls can be plastered, or papered direct if well made and smoothly finished. Over door openings and 'wider spans the pise is reinforced with sticks or 6crap metal. The cost of the outer walls of the "Spectator's" six-roomed cottage was £W. but this did not include damp course or foundations, both of which were inexpensive. Mr. Wilson states that he has made a small experiment with a low wall, and the rammed earth has remained in a state of remarkable hardness. He contends that in view of tho cost of timber, bricks, and cement, a small experiment in pise de terre building by the Government is amply justified, and should not cost much. ,