The Owner-built Adobe House

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The final mud mix should be thick enough to allow the brick to stand by itself once you take off the mold. With a few tries you will learn exactly how thick to make your own mud mix.

To pour the bricks, I laid newspapers directly on the ground and placed four five-brick molds on top of the newspapers. (Do not pour the bricks directly on the ground, since the wet mud will form a solid unit with the soil and spoil the brick.)

Next, I poured the stiff mud into the wheelbarrow and dumped the mud from there into the molds. My contractor's wheelbarrow holds just enough mud to completely fill one five-brick mold. The plaster mixer itself holds enough to fill four five-brick molds. I then worked the mud up and down with a rake to fill out the sides and corners of the mold (see the accompanying photos). When I was sure I had the mud into all the corners, I turned the rake over and leveled the brick surface even with the top of the molds. Many people use a trowel for this, but I find a trowel much too slow. As soon as I had the bricks leveled and fairly smooth, I slowly lifted off the molds. If you have made the mud stiff enough, the bricks will stand by themselves with only slightly bulging sides. Do not allow the mud to set for any length of time before removing the molds, as this makes the bricks stick to the molds.

You must now clean your molds. I simply sprayed them with a hose, then scrubbed the molds down with a stiff brush. You can also completely immerse the molds in a tankful of water and clean them with a brush.

Then cover the newly made bricks with a few sheets of newspaper held in place at the corners with pieces of mud (as shown in the photos). In my early brickmaking days I did not shade the bricks . . . unfortunately, I often ended up with large cracks in each brick. I found that the newspapers slowed down evaporation and gave me almost perfect bricks every time. You will need to experiment with this. If your bricks dry in the open without cracking, fine. If not, utilize some sort of shade. You can make a more permanent shade than newspapers with 2 X 4's and plywood.

One other consideration: The rough surface left on top of the bricks by raking may in itself cause cracking. If you find this to be true with your own soil, smooth the bricks with a trowel instead of the back of a rake.

If a few bricks crack, don't worry about it. You will need many part-bricks. I found, in practice, that I didn't have nearly enough part-bricks and frequently had to cut whole bricks to make the walls come out even between the posts.

As soon as your bricks have dried for three to four days, stand them on end so they can dry on either side. After about six weeks, the moisture content will be down to about 4%. You can then stack them in groups. Simply place them on edge, three to four bricks high, against a center pillar. In my early brickmaking days I frequently stacked them seven to eight bricks high on wooden fruit pallets. This resulted in considerable breakage among the bottom bricks. Bricks stacked on edge store well for long periods of time.

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