HOUSES OF EARTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4797, 9 January 1925, Page 3

HOUSES OF EARTH.

CHEAPEST PERMANENT BUILDING. _ - AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT. Buildings of “pise de terre,” or rammed earth, though not unknown, are still comparatively rare in this country. The possibilities of this form of construction, and its advantages as offering a durable house of excellent quality’ at low csot, are interestingly ; suggested in the following article by Mr G. H. Dacy, in “Popular Mechanics’?.: — ' • ~ ~ : A- Washington • scientist has lately built a new style of house with walls of rammed earth? at a great saving over all other forms of permanent construction, thus reviving a building style of the ancient Greeks and Romans in order to curtail construction -costs. . '' This home-builder made a. caretui study of all the books he could And in our national libraries pertaining to "pii.se de terre,” or rammed earth, ■ houses. Then he communicated with builders in England, south Africa, and New South Wales, where such houses are still in use. He learned all about the rudiments and advantages of such . construction. Employing a trio of unskilled labourers, who had never pie- - viously heard of rammed earth walls, he then embarked on his building adventure. Rammed earth houses are cool in tsummer, warm in winter, veimin, sound, and rat proof, fireproof, weather-worthy, .and the cheapest A .,durable structures that can now be built. The process es free to all, as it is unpatented. The building material is the earth excavated in digging the basement. Strong wooden forms are built, similar to those, use in concrete work . . „ Admixture of loam aud clay is best, with not more than one-fifth of the latter material, as too much clay makes the walls crack easily after thev are dry. The top pix . inches M soil are discarded. The remainder o* th .J soil is carefully screened to remove all large stones, vegetable matter -and other organic material. A laver of the soil four inches deep Is then shovelled into the form. The . -workmen, armed with fifteen-pound rammers made of root wood of oak or beech and shod with metal plates, then tamp the noil firmly in place until it is reduced to half its original volume and rings when struck with the hammer. .' . ’ Then another . layer of soil is added.? and compacted. Three men can build iwo cubic yards of pise wall ir eight hours at a labour cost of ten dollars. As soon as one course is, completed the three-foot forms are raised and the next course is begun. The walls of the Washington house are eighteen inches thick, and twelve and a half feet high. The house is 32 by 4’B feet dimensions. When rammed earth dries it has the strength of reinforced concrete. A / technical test of the pise from tne soil used showed that a column of rammed earth 18 inches square and 42 inches high, after drying for 16 days, had a crushing strength of ' eighteen and a half tons. A small block, one and three-quarter inches in diameter and two inches high, supported 2801 b before it fractured. When the walls were finished the owner desired to bore a small hole. He tried - •'ah’auger, but it had no effect. Finally he had to resort to a hammer and cold chisel, and found that the task : was as difficult as though he had attempted to cut through a stone wait. According to the home-builder’s experience, pise gives an absolutely solid-walled house at about a quarter of the cost of a similar brick struc- < tue. and seven-tenths that of a sub- ' Htantial frame building. Pise becomes • stronger as years pass, and finally turns as hard as stone. Hannibal l>uilt fortifications and watch-towers • of rammed earth in Spain in 124 1 B.C. /which are still standing and durable. Lyons, France, a city internationally famous for its venerable buildings, consists in large part of - rammed - earth structures. In England are many homes which have been used for four or five centuries which are still habitable and weather resistant. Th Dinas Jefferson more .than a century - ago'investigated the possibilities of >using pise construction in the United States. He found it practical, and ' urged his friends and neighbours and the colonists at large to build rammed earth houses. The forests were thick, however, and logs were abundant, ?o the settlers elected to build in wood • instead of earth. -..•■■■•. Pise houses are best built on concrete or masonry foundations, although the basement partition walls that carry the beams may be of rammed earth. The walls can be carried safely to a height of 50 feet. The first floor wall should be 18 inches thick, the second floor 14 h chets, and thus tne walls; can be tapered to a minimum thickness of 10 inches. After drying, the exterior of the Wail should be weather-proofed with a mixture of lime and tallow, cement wash, or, hot tar. Plaster can be applied directly to the inside walls, and will' adhere better than to wooden laths. 7 Mouldings and other woodwork may be held in place by the rammed earth, as there is no danger of the wood rotting. Wood taken from wrecked pise buildings in Europe shows no damage from wear, worms, or decay after two centuries of use. Building contractors furnished bids oh the brickwork of the house made of rammed earth, the lowest of these estimates being 3800' dollars, the actual cost of the rammed earth walls of this buliding amounted to 1800 dollars. By reviving a system of construction which is as old as the most ancient Roman rains, this Washingtonian made a remarkable saving in construction costs and has paved the way for .other house-builders to do likewise.