Grex Science Conference

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Grex Science Item 88: Mud- Appropriateness for low cost housing ?
Entered by greycell on Sat Jan 25 06:07:04 UTC 2003:

As we all know that mud is considered to be a building material for the poor.
But are there any possibilities of making it or converting it to such a
material so that most people can use it Also how to alter its liabilities like
erosion with high rainfall, low strength, low shear strength, less tensile and
like wise... So please tell me about these all problems Already i know
something about stabilising it by addiing some additives like lime, cement etc
So lets all discover it. I did not get any place for this topic, so for those
real science geek i fell sorry..if u can't find it upto ur intellectual levels.

[:)]

12 responses total.

#1 of 12 by greycell on Sat Jan 25 06:08:16 2003:

Also suggest all the website and webpages related to mud architecture.
thank you al

#2 of 12 by rcurl on Sat Jan 25 07:18:01 2003:

I presume this would be what we call adobe. There are a lot of homes
built in the American southwest with adobe. It has many advantages - as long
as the area is not prone to earthquakes. For lots of info plus building
plans, etc, see http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-adobe.htm

#3 of 12 by greycell on Sat Jan 25 11:44:05 2003:

thanx for response, but still i would like to tell you that i am not looking
for adobe, but i want is the stabilised form of raw earth.

regards
:)

#4 of 12 by cmcgee on Sat Jan 25 14:39:23 2003:

What do you think adobe is?  There is no firing process involved in building
an adobe structure.  It's just mud.

#5 of 12 by rcurl on Sat Jan 25 19:45:03 2003:

If you look at the web site I have in #2, you will find links to other
forms of "earth homes" including rammed earth, straw bale, earth sheltered,
and cob (mud).

#6 of 12 by keesan on Sun Jan 26 13:16:49 2003:

There is some way of mixing Portland cement with mud to make it stronger. 
I forget what this is called.

#7 of 12 by russ on Mon Jan 27 03:20:19 2003:

As previously noted, people have found mud appropriate for
low-cost housing for thousands of years (mostly in very dry
climates).

There are a number of ways to use cements to help stabilize
a structure made of earth.  The thing to do is probably to
search the web rather than the few participants of this
conference, and spend some time quizzing reference librarians.
I guarantee that they'll find things you never knew existed.

Checking history is just as important.  If mud or earth
construction is appropriate for your locale, it has probably
been used there before.  Just because it has fallen out of
favor doesn't mean that it can't come back.

#8 of 12 by greycell on Mon Jan 27 10:41:07 2003:

hi to all
thanx fro ur responses
yeah here i would like to mention few things
that i knew how to make mud stabilise using sand and cement.
i would like to know are there any other additives or stabilisers possible
and we are not going to discuss about raw mud
that is adobe bricks or sun dried bricks
they are of least importance to us
we should discuss the qualities of compresses earth blocks and stabilised
foundations and walls

regards
mukesh

#9 of 12 by keesan on Mon Jan 27 16:14:47 2003:

Mukesh, as far as I know, you are the only one currently participating in the
grex conferences who has any training in architecture.  You should look on
the web for discussion groups for architects.  Maybe some other grexer could
suggest just how to search for a group like this.  I think the term you want
may be 'earth cement'.  Perhaps there is a newsgroup about that

#10 of 12 by rcurl on Mon Jan 27 17:24:13 2003:

A google search on "earth cements" finds a hundred or so links. There are
only a couple dozen google/groups usenet thread hits, so that might be
a good place to start.

#11 of 12 by keesan on Tue Jan 28 02:27:22 2003:

Jim read something about 'soil cement' so search on that too.

#12 of 12 by greycell on Tue Jan 28 05:14:50 2003:

yeah on google groups i can see there are so many links about earth
architecture.. !

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