David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 3/6/2010 6:40 AM JIMMIE spake thus:

On Mar 4, 12:30 pm, JIMMIE wrote:

My friend and I were discussing building adobe home in areas where
adobe would not normally be used, Like here in North Carolina. We are
aware of its shortcomings for doing this but was trying to come up
with practical ways of overcoming them. Basically it gets down to are
their ways to make adobe hold up in wet climates short of mixing
concrete and calling it adobe.

Found out this AM that digging up local soil to make adobe or rammed
earth may not be very practical. In this case cutting blocks from the
ground would be the best way to make adobe bricks. It seems the soil
in my friends backyard is as hard as mine.

Sounds like you have caliche, no?


What is your time worth? Concrete block is pretty cheap, locally
produced from mostly local ingredients, and is a lot 'greener' than most
building materials. You can skim-coat the outside to get whatever look
you want, and you won't have to fight/educate the local code officials
about it. With modern insulation materials and vapor barriers, it will
be as dry and warm inside as any other method of construction, and
properly laid and reinforced, it lasts A Real Long Time. People in US
scoff, but concrete and clay block are still routinely used for
residential construction in many parts of the world, especially those
that have used up their cheap trees. I've had visitors from Europe visit
a US construction site and ask why we build our houses out of twigs.

Remember, way back when. people used mud brick and straw to build with,
because that was all they had. We have better stuff now. 50 years, we
may be back to building from bricks of ultra-compressed garbage, and
have little Wall-e droids running all over the job sites.

--
aem sends...