Rammed Earth Eco-Shed

[MonkeySpecs301]

very nice, may i ask, when you remove the forms, how do you extract the steel rod? Drill? And have you noticed aesthetic differences when you complete the wall vertically and it is allowed to dry all at once, vs moving laterally and allowing a layer of wall dry before adding on top? Hope that makes sense....:)

[thyo27]

hi there, great vid, just wanna ask, is the rammed earth construction needs column or piles if not? i'm adapting this method to my thesis. cheers.

[Thomoco]

@thyo27 Everything to complete your thesis can be found on my website...

[thyo27]

@Thomoco thanks... it's really gonna be a great help for me., merry Christmas by the way.

[MrSweetieJayDub]

@Thomoco which you don't seem to have linked in the description

[pdutube]

This type of construction would benefit from an air or gasoline powered soil compactor tool. There is of course, the expense, but a big project might go a lot faster with such equipment!

[telec100]

прикольно,но очень долго.я ставил стены таким-же образом. зато без шовная кладка.

[bogunechka]

@telec100 А подробнее не напишете? Можно в личку. Долго это сколько если ручной трамбовкой тюкать. И вообще мнонго вопросов у меня есть, а тут всё не на русском написано.

[jcanivan]

Looks substantial. can't wait to see how the house looks wnen your finished. How do the mud walls hold up in the rain. Do you coat the walls with ferro cement like they do in New Mexico.

[pickford7812]

the walls are water proof when finished. in lots of houses in spain they dont use any cement, its just dirt and nothing else. watch "rammed earth with david suzuki" its a good one. contact me if you want any good links.

[RichardEP]

Don't use cement people! Use slaked lime, or even better mix up some unhydrated lime with water and leave to stand a few weeks before using the pasta.

[441MPYSstihl]

More info please! Materials? Time frame? Cost? Size perhaps? Thanks and lol.

[pumkinvine]

looks great, but some narration giving some information would be a BIG plus

[Blytheheat3]

....what keeps the walls from crumbling once the form is removed? Are you mixing in cement with the dirt?

[anthonyisaac9]

Hi, great video. I am looking at sorting a shed/workshop out for the garden. I need a cheap/solid structure to fidle with my bikes in. Do you think it's possible for a bloke with a bad back to do this?. cheers, tony.

[Thomoco]

Thanks for the comment, in answer to you question... I have always had a bad back and it didn't improve any whilst I was ramming the walls! If you get a tamper with a long handle (5'-6') you should get less discomfort than you would if you use a short handle tamper.

I am planning to write an eBook over Christmas to share my experience and to help guide budding eco-sheddies with the ins-n-outs of this wonderful building material.

Good luck with your project.

[Thomoco]

My Eco-shed has 60m2 of walls so it should take me about 180 hours to ram. but you can double that twice over when you add in the sieving and mixing of the earth, setting up the formers and fighting the elements etc.

[Enviroman101]

Cool, thank you very much. So that's almost 8" thick walls. I live in Canada now but grew up in London, loved Norfolk. 2 weeks on the broads sailing. Great stuff!

I plan to build with strawbale for the insulation. Need it here big time! then thinking of using rammed earth on the internal walls. It will be open concept so not too much to do. So yours is just going to be a shed for storage??

Anway I admire your work and I look forward to starting on my project next year.

[Enviroman101]

So I am presuming by you comment that it does indeed give the body some RSI, Repetitive strain injury, maybe tennis elbow or arm pain.

I do love what you have done and wondered how long it takes to do a section?

[Thomoco]

It takes me about 3 hours to ram each section, each coffin former hold 200mm X 2000mm X 500mm of rammed earth so based on that you could say that it would take 15 hours to ram 1 cubic meter. Depending on the thickness of your walls and size of the building you can calculate the time it will take to ram it out.

[Thomoco]

My Eco-shed has 60m2 of walls so it should take me about 180 hours to ram. but you can double that twice over when you add in the sieving and mixing of the earth, setting up the formers and fighting the elements etc.