RAMMED EARTH
(Page 2 of 2)
September/October 1973
By the Mother Earth News editors
Nowadays, what with the renewed interest in non-destructive technology and the growing hunger for the satisfaction of producing one's own shelter, low-cost housing is back in the news ... and so is rammed earth, one method that's within most people's financial reach and practical ability.
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Which is not to say that there's anything effortless about this way of building. On the contrary, rammed earth is—as the economists say—"labor-intensive" (one good reason why contractors don't attempt it). The making of a pisé wall involves a long process of setting forms, mixing soil and tamping it vigorously, layer by layer, until the pressure creates an artificial sandstone that rings like rock under your strokes.
Hard work, yes, but you can do it yourself ... and, since the only material needed for such construction is a soil with an acceptable sand/clay ratio, the makings of such walls are available to many of us free for the taking. No wonder the idea has never caught on with the commercial building industry!
(Ironically enough, a valuable government publication on the subject—the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Handbook for Building Homes of Earth— is intended mainly for self-help programs in underdeveloped countries and isn't distributed domestically because some of the practices it describes don't conform to American building codes. If your own homestead's self-help program includes a plan for earth housing, however, you can obtain a copy—ask for PB 179 327—from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va. 22151 ... $3.00 for paper and 65¢ for microfilm. And while you're at it, you might also send for the Department of Agriculture's leaflet No. 535, Building with Adobe and Stabilized Earth Blocks ... 10¢ from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.)
Meanwhile, John McMeekin—an elder statesman of rammed earth building—still lives comfortably with his family behind his well-tamped walls, grinning at the weather and at all the people who thought he was insane when he launched his project a quarter-century ago. "This place will still be here a hundred years from now," says John ... and on the following pages he tells how he built his house to last—JN.
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