Despite the appearance on the market of more and more modern and high-quality building materials, adobe houses do not lose their relevance to this day. But they have been known for a very long time. And they are ecological energy-saving housing, the construction of which does not require large financial investments.
Adobe is a mixture of clay, sand and straw. In production, such products are called raw bricks. Ceramic differs from it in that adobe is dried in air, and ceramic - in ovens. From the described material, one-story buildings, fences and fences can be erected. However, operation is possible only in dry climates, where frequent rains will not destroy the material over time.
Most often, light adobe is used. It differs in durability and density, does not sag and does not burn. Over time, the shape is well preserved, and the walls breathe. Light adobe is quite cheap, it is great for filling frame buildings, acting as a heater.
Main benefits
Ado home has many advantages. First, it has a high level of thermal insulation. Secondly, houses are good at blocking noise from runways, railways and roads.highways. Thirdly, the material is fire resistant. This allows it to be used in the construction of houses that have high fire safety requirements.
The material is environmentally friendly, affordable and cheap. It has high strength and allows you to build a house taking into account the most complex modern design. Such buildings do not require additional heating in winter. In the summer, heat is retained in the walls, while coolness remains inside. The adobe house is also hygroscopic. It is able to provide optimal humidity in the premises. The walls are based on environmentally friendly materials that are exclusively of natural origin.
The high strength of such buildings has been proven for thousands of years. The use of special tools, chemicals and equipment is excluded, and the materials are well known even to a novice builder, who will not have the opportunity to spoil them. In favor of the described houses, it can also be noted that the clay contains aluminum. Due to this room, electromagnetic radiation is well shielded. Earth's magnetic fields are weakly shielded.
Main cons
An adobe house, like any other building, has its drawbacks. Among others, low moisture resistance should be highlighted. To eliminate this defect, plastering and whitewashing are carried out in the finished building. This also eliminates the impact of precipitation on the facade.
If you buy bricks or blocks that are high in organic fillers, then you need to beready for uninvited guests in the form of rodents and insects to settle inside. Such material in parallel becomes even less fireproof. This happens due to the increase in organic mass, which perfectly supports combustion.
The minus of an adobe house is also that the finished building has to stand and dry for quite a long time. This is typical for areas with a temperate climate. If the work is carried out in hot conditions, then such a problem should not arise. If the house is not allowed to stand, then the material will not gain strength, and the organic filler will begin to rot. As a result, the microclimate inside the building will not be what you expected. In this regard, you will not celebrate the housewarming soon.
Considering the pros and cons of adobe houses, you should also note that construction work has a limited time. It is better to build a building in the summer, in hot weather. The reason here is expressed in the aforementioned disadvantage. As for frosty weather, construction in such conditions is very difficult. If it is carried out, it requires the presence of s alt or alkali in the water as part of the blocks. If the walls are not sufficiently compacted, then over time they will give a large linear shrinkage. Dimensions can reach 1/20 of the height of the walls.
Additional insulation measures require walls built from heavy adobe. This material has a low content of organic fillers. In this case, it is better to use pressed straw, which is then plastered with clay or covered with a mixture of clay and lime. From the pointIn terms of labor costs in the manufacture of adobe bricks, almost nothing has changed since ancient times. Blocks are made manually, and not with the help of special units. Therefore, the speed of preparation for construction is rather low.
Block making
The reliability of the structure will be reduced if the blocks at the base of the walls have low density and high humidity. Adobe needs to be made in advance, because for construction you will need a lot of material, and it takes a lot of time to form and dry. If you are planning to build an adobe house with your own hands, then you should take care of the availability:
- straw;
- water;
- boards;
- hammer;
- clay; mixing containers; nails; hacksaws.
Boxes without a bottom are knocked down from 2-centimeter boards. Their size should be 35 x 18 x 14 cm. The shape can be double, but in this case it will be too heavy. Boards should be as flat as possible, with a smooth surface. There are no standard sizes for the products described, but the indicated parameters are the most practical.
In order to dry the adobe, it is necessary to prepare two sites. Racks of wooden beams or bricks are laid out on a flat plot of soil. Shields from downed boards are attached to them. Above the first platform there should be a canopy, the second should remain in the open air. Next, you can start preparing the material.
Clay is one of the important components. The filler can be straw, wood shavings, gravel, sand, drygrass and cement. Clay must be clean, strong, plastic and without impurities. In order to check if it is suitable, it should be diluted with water and rolled into a ball. If, upon drying, it did not become cracked and did not break when falling from a height of 2 m, then clay can be used. Approximately 10 m33 of raw materials will be used for 1,000 pieces.
If you are faced with the question of how to make an adobe house, then first you will need to make blocks. For them, stale straw is taken, the length of which reaches 16 cm. Fine cut is not suitable. To increase the strength of the blocks and increase their water resistance, lime should be added to the composition. Clay and straw are combined in a ratio of 4:6, but the ratio can be changed depending on the type of product. In light bricks, clay should be 10% less, while in heavy bricks - 20% more than the norm.
Shaping and drying
Building an adobe house involves the formation of blocks. You can prepare the solution on the ground by clearing the area and making a depression in the center. For a small amount of building material, a trough with low sides is suitable. You can form a frame from boards and sheathe with galvanized sheets. In the container, the solution will not mix with the soil, and in case of rain, everything can be covered with polyethylene.
The mixture is prepared as follows: first, clay is poured, to which water is added. Pour water into it and mix well, leaving for 12 hours. Then straw or other filler is added, everything is mixed well. To form, usea wide board on which the form is placed. The surface is abundantly wetted with water and sprinkled with sand. The solution must be collected by hand and compacted into a mold, sealing the corners. The open area wakes up with straw and sawdust. When drying, there must be free space between the blocks for air circulation.
Earthworks and foundation pouring
After looking at the photos of adobe houses, you will understand that they are all installed on the foundation. For its construction, you should prepare:
- rubble;
- clay;
- rebar;
- level;
- self-tapping screws;
- plastic wrap;
- brick fight;
- sand;
- cement mortar;
- boards.
At the next stage, a trench is dug under the tape base. It should be 20 cm wider than the thickness of the wall. The walls will have a thickness of 35 cm. The trench should be located around the perimeter of the house and in those places where the internal load-bearing walls will be located. It is necessary to go deeper by 70 cm.
A sand cushion is laid at the bottom of the trench, brick, stone and crushed stone are poured on top. The layer should not reach 25 cm to the top. Reinforcing bars are located between the stones, which should rise 20 cm above the soil surface. Then the surface is poured with a liquid solution of clay.
Formwork is assembled from the boards, which is covered with plastic wrap. Outside, the formwork is reinforced with struts made of beams. The structure should be checked with a level and a reinforcing cage should be installed, fixing it between the boards. The interior space is floodedmortar, the surface of which should be leveled and covered with a film.
Building walls
By looking at old adobe houses and new buildings, you can determine what your future home will look like. The next step is to build walls. As soon as the foundation surface is covered with two layers of roofing material, and bituminous mastic is distributed between them, you can start laying the walls. You should start from the corner of the facade.
The blocks are mounted in a checkerboard pattern. The binding solution is a mixture of clay and sand. In one day, you can build about 3 rows. If you lay more, the adobe will shift under load, and the wall will turn out to be uneven. When laying the first time, you will need to determine the location of the openings and leave space between the blocks. It is not recommended to install the boxes immediately, since the adobe will shrink by 5% when it dries. Every two rows, the walls should be checked horizontally and vertically to avoid distortions. At the window level, the process gets more complicated.
Laying jumpers
Leaving the openings under the windows, the masonry must be raised, after which you can start making lintels. For this, 5 cm boards are used, which are knocked into shields. Their width is equal to the width of the walls, while the length should be 30 cm more than the width of the window. The shields are treated with an antiseptic, dried and wrapped with roofing material. Then they can be fixed with staples.
Finished lintels are laid over window openings so that theythey captured the walls on both sides by 15 cm. Inside the opening, it is necessary to install a beam and support the jumper. The masonry continues over the shields until you reach the top of the doorway. A wooden shield is installed above it, then about 2 more rows of wall can be laid out.
Ceiling device
Creating the ceiling of an adobe house involves laying floors. After completing the installation of the last two rows of the wall, holes for the beams must be left between the blocks. In places where the tree adjoins the adobe, these elements are installed with a protrusion beyond the perimeter of the wall. The distance between the beams should be 1.5 m. After that, you need to build another row of blocks, then you can proceed to the assembly of the truss system.
Facade decoration with bricks
Finishing an adobe house is carried out after the building has dried. This will happen within 4 years. During this period, the brick will no longer shrink. First you need to purchase the right amount of material, sand, cement and insulation. Before this, it is necessary to inspect the foundation, since in most buildings it is very narrow or absent altogether. If there is a base, it is strengthened, because a brick wall will also be added to the weight of the house.
The width of the base should be 30 cm. It will also be necessary to raise the plinth, make formwork and fill the interior with mortar. If you are going to overlay an adobe house with bricks, then you should know: the indentation from the facade should be 60 cm. If this step is reduced, then the walls will be poorly ventilated and beginpret that will reduce their strength.
The walls are connected with each other with 100-mm nails, and the voids are filled with expanded clay. Laying can be carried out in half a brick. The masonry mortar will include the presence of a part of cement and 4 parts of sand. The amount of water can be determined during mixing, the solution should not be too thick or liquid.
In conclusion
If you want to build an adobe house with your own hands, you must remember that it is perfect for the role of a building for permanent residence of people. The strength of the walls will be sufficient for buildings with a small number of floors. An excellent option for an individual house is adobe if the house is planned to be installed in the city or outside it.
If you have some doubts about the durability of such buildings, then you can pay attention to the houses in England, built from adobe. They have stood for several hundred years and continue to be comfortable for living. In Yemen, you can find 10-story houses, in the walls of which there is partly adobe. Such buildings have been continuously inhabited by people for 900 years.
