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Earth Floors
Background:
- Earth floors of various designs and applications can be found throughout history.
- Locally earth floors were used by early settlers where timber could not be sourced or afforded.
- Local vernacular architectures still use earth floors.
Benefits:
- If well built can provide viable warmer alternative to concrete using local materials.
- Earth floors provide excellent thermal comfort to building interiors.
- Can be easily repaired.
Technical Information:
Ground slab construction:
- Adobe bricks or cast clay slabs are laid on a thick bed of gravel.
- Then various layers of earth, straw, dung and sometimes lime is used to screed over.
- Normally sealed by burnishing with mix of beeswax and linseed oil, casein.
- Good perimeter french drains are advised to divert all moisture.
- Vulnerable in floods.
- Easily damaged, but also easily and inexpensively repaired.
First Floor Construction:
- There are many variations of this construction.
- Typically a slab of clay straw is laid on criss-cross layers of reeds and bamboo or timber ceilings spanning between timber rafters.
- Earth bricks can be used forming mini vaults between rafter supports.
Company track record and examples of work:
- House Klipspringer – Wild Rivers Estate, Hoedspruit, Mpumalanga, 2021
- OR Tambo Narrative & Enviro Centre – Leeupan, Johannesburg, 2010 - 2011
- Mamre Info Centre Project, Mamre Western Cape, 2010, first floor construction.
- House Davids, Zeekovlei, Cape Town, 2000
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