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Building for free with "alternative" natural materials
Charmaine R Taylor
Building for free; a wonderful concept that can be put into practice byanyone looking to create shelter for man or animal. Homesteaders andpeople seeking a simpler life are amazingly ingenious at discoveringalternatives to store bought, high priced, over- processed goods. Andthe "waste" generated by our consumerist culture makes for a happyhunting ground across the entire country. Most of us know how toscrounge for windows and doors, recycle, and barter for used cabinets,fixtures, yard sale and demolition materials. But beyond that are trulyfree building materials generated by the Earth herself.
Building with earth
Using earth to make walls and houses has been done for thousands of years. It isn't a new concept in the US either. In the 1920s the USgovernment promoted rammed earth for farm buildings, and producedbooklets on soil testing, adobe brick making, and earthen houseconstruction. In the 1970s Ken Kern actively experimented and wroteabout clay-lime-straw-asphalt emulsion formulas for hand built walls.He created several curved, passive solar buildings on his homestead inCalifornia using free materials. His books taught owner-builders toexperiment, and use on-site, healthy materials for their homes.Clay, sand, rocks, straw, woodchips, sawdust, and even weeds can beput to use to build the entire house. And that is the beauty of usingnature's gifts-readily available, unwanted and uncommercialized, withno profit in restricting your access to grass, weeds, river or beach sand,clay or rubble. In fact, clearing away scrap shrub and weeds is seen asan improvement to most property! Most of what you need can be foundin your own back yard, down the road, or in a local field or stream.The only item which must be purchased for some of the building mixesdescribed here is hydrated lime, sold in 50 pound sacks, at supply and
 
home improvement retailers, or feed & grain stores, and costing $6-$9.
The basic materials
Clay
: Clay is a very fine particle ingredient in an earthen mix. Thereare many classifications of clay based on its plasticity (ability to holdwater), from very sticky "gumbo" clay which is a gray color, usuallyfound lining river and stream beds, to kaolinite, which holds the leastamount of water. Kaolinite (also called fire clay or mortar clay) is usedfor china and pottery, and by artists to make fired ceramics because itshrinks and cracks the least.Most regions in the US will have some type of clay under the topsoil. If there is none on your property the best way to locate it is to look fordeep road cuts where construction is going on. Or, the walls of a riverbank or stream will usually yield the stickier gray-gold clays. Oncefound the clay can be treated in a couple different ways. It can be sunand air dried, then crushed and remixed with water when you're readyto build. Or you can simply dump large chunks of fresh dug-up clayinto a drum and let it soak in water for months. Most clay will fall apartand become pudding-like, but gumbo clay will remain impervious towater unless broken up into small pieces.The chemical makeup of clay is alumina or silica "platelets" with anattraction to water. Evaporation of water is what causes severecracking, and this is why lime is needed. Lime stabilizes the clay bychanging the bonds clay has for water, making it hydrophobic, soswelling/shrinking is greatly reduced or eliminated. Lime also bondswith clay to form a "pozzolan," a natural cement. The longer clay andlime are together the stronger the cement bond between them.If you live in a sandy soil area and want to experiment you canpurchase finely powdered bagged kaolinite clay. A 50 pound sack,mined locally in Sacramento, CA, is $3, but it may be more expensive
 
in your area. Mixing the fine kaolinite powder into clean water is easy,but wear a dust mask to prevent inhalation.You may already have a perfect 30% clay/70% sand subsoil on yourproperty. This is great for making traditional earthen mixes, or foradding sawdust, woodchips and lime to make alternative mixes.Experiment with what you have, make test bricks, and handle thematerial to see how you like using it. There is no one right way to do it,and your available, indigenous materials may dictate your final results.
Sand:
The best sand is clean and sharp, with a wide range of particlesizes (from 3 mm down to 100 micron fines.) Sand can be found nearstreams, or the ocean, but beach sands are mostly round particles.However, when mixing clay and lime this sand works well. I haveused only unwashed (salty) beach sand for my cobwood mixes with noproblem. A local quarry or aggregate seller may have "reject" sands,available cheaply, which are great for earthen mixes.
 Fiber:
Straw or grass provide tensile strength. Straw has no food valueto cattle, and is considered a waste material. It should be dry, andchopped to about 4"-8" long. Grasses such as dried lawn clippings canbe used. Remove seed heads or flowers and pods if possible, especiallywhen they will be used in finish plasters. Straw can be finely screened,or animal hair, such as goat hair, can be used. The many interspersedfibers give a flexible strength, reducing cracks and preventing largefissures, or failure due to lateral movement.
 Lime:
Lime means burned limestone (CAO3, calcium carbonate)which has given off carbon dioxide during processing. Bagged,hydrated limes used for building are a tiny portion of the US market, sofinding the right lime to purchase is sometimes difficult. There aremany grades and varieties of lime, and it can be confusing tounderstand them. A high calcium lime sold in feed stores is perfectlyacceptable to use, but Type N builder's or Type S mason's lime are
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