Construction of a rammed earth, Nepal

A project led by:

Sustainable future Nepal
 Why build a house out of mud?

More sustainable , ecofriendly and healthy !

 Reasons to build using rammed earth?
• Environmentally friendly
– No bricks needed so no polluting brick
factories
- Little cement needed
– Low transport costs by using earth
from same building site
– Less machinery needed
– No polluting paints needed
• Affordable
• Great thermal properties
– Cool in summer, warm in winter
– More healthy living space
• Looks good!
What is rammed earth
• Monolithic load-bearing
walls made by ramming
layers of a mixture of
soil, sand, stone dust
and a little cement
• Resulting walls are like
sedimentary rock – a
beautiful natural colour
requiring no paint
 What is rammed
earth
• No bricks so there is low
‘embodied energy’ – i.e.
no brick kilns burning
fossil fuels involved. The
earth walls dry in the air
and don’t need firing
• Rammed earth wall are
16 inches (40.6 cm) thick
providing much better
thermal properties than
brick and cement houses.
 ‘Forms’ used to construct the walls
• Walls were rammed
into special plastic
forms imported from
Italy
• These lock together to
form straight upright
walls and corners
 To construct
the walls
While ramming
is going on, to
avoid bulging,
the forms are
supported with
a buttress made
of wooden
planks which
push the forms
together from
outside
 To construct the
walls
• The forms are bolted
together to the
wooden planks with
steel tie rods which are
inserted through the
wall via a piece of
plastic piping. This
prevents the forms
from bulging outwards
with the pressure of
ramming the earth
 How we
build houses

When dry the wall/structure

Rammed it into a form work stronger than concrete
Mix Soil, stone dust and cement
To construct the walls
 How to ram the
walls
• The soil must be
ground into a fine
powder
• The soil, sand, stone
dust and fine gravel or
aggregate mixture
must have the right
amount of water to be
suitable for ramming
How to ram the walls
• The forms need to be
filled with 4 inches
(10cm) of earth mixture
and this needs to be
rammed down to 2
inches (5cm)
• Ramming is best done by
hand to get even
amount of pressure
across the wall
 Testing your soil
• Rammed earth walls must have the correct
proportions of clay and sand or other components
• There should be no topsoil used as this has too
much organic matter and is needed for your garden
• Too much clay will cause walls to shrink and crack
• To decide on how to blend your soil mixture the
locally available soil needs testing by shaking in
water in a jar and allowing to settle over several
days
• The layering of the soil will show the proportions of
clay and sand
• The mixture must have not too much clay
 • Veranda elevated and
wide all around the
house to protect the
base of the rammed
earth walls from water
damage
• Wood and Metal
balcony to protect the
Protecting the walls and allow use of
the solar warming
rammed earth design upstairs
walls
 Earthquake resistance
• Symmetry is important for
reducing shear forces that cause
cracking and crumbling of walls
• Lightweight infill walls forming the
hall / landing area between the 3
main building components for
increased safety
• Thick plastic sheeting below the
foundations to enable them to slip
against the soil
• Unusually large and deep
foundations
Earthquake resistance
(cont)

• Cement tie beams at floor

and ceiling level of ground
floor, all tied internally
with steel rods
• Upstairs wood and Metal
components firmly tied at
corners with wooden tie
beam and metal corner
ties
 Making rammed
earth more
earthquake resistant
• Every 2 ft two steel rod into
the wall eithembeddeder
side of every window or
door opening, which is tied
into the cement tie beam
above and below
• Horizontal plastic mesh
embedded in the wall and
2ft (61cm) intervals
providing horizontal binding
support
Making sound and weather-proof roofing
Working from the
inside to the outside of
the roof:
• Flawooden attached
to wood rafters
• Black sheeting (like
bitumen sheet)
attached to
flattened wood
 Making sound and
weather-proof roofing
• Black sheeting (like
bitumen sheet)
attached to flattened
wood
• 2 by 4 inch pine slats
attached through the
Metal to the wooden
rafters
Roofing
 Making sound and
weather-proof roofing
• Sheets of foam covered in
reflective silver material
attached to pine slats
 Roofing
• Special insulating UPVC
sheeting that is resistant
to solar damage and
more insulating than
metal sheets forms the
outer roof
Roof overhang is large so
as to protect the earth
walls from rain water
erosion and splash-back
erosion