Building poured earth walls
"The Workshop", Wombat Hollow Cluster, Moora Moora Coop, Victoria, Australia.
Internal walls of workshop are poured earth so as to provide thermal mass inside the building. All external walls will be straw bale (R75) for maximum insulation value. Climate at Moora Moora Coop is mild in summer and very cold in winter (2-7 degrees days in winter).
Setting up the formwork.
Bracing the formwork.
Spacers and tension bolts to hold formwork in place.
Formwork ready to pour.
Threaded rods are used to tie each form together.
Tension bolts covered in silver tape to prevent mud sticking to the threads.
Simon doing the final mix of the mud. Mix consists of approximately 10% cement, 80% high clay content base soil and 10% black top soil (used to stretch the amount of available base soil).
Wet mix poured into forms and agitated to ensure no lumps or air spaces.
Simon working at night to complete the pour.
Alesh on the mixer. Cement stabilised mud is mixed till no lumps or dry spots are left. Mud mix is very sticky and requires the use of a small shovel to loosen from the sides of the mixer while it turns (this can be quite a dizzying experience).
The formwork is removed.
Nice view.
Power and data cables laid ready for next layer. Note barbed wire in wall to help bonding with frames.
More heroic helpers.
The next layer formwork is in place.
The top course of the wall can be the most difficult to access.
Power outlets need to be set into the wall prior to the pour. This extended housing required a blank box to be placed into the formwork and the removed after the formwork was removed and weather proof housing could then be installed.
High level formwork requires numerous ladders, clamps and support blocks to aid in the placement of these heavy wooden forms.
Where fixtures are to be attached to a earth wall, it is advisable to insert wooden attachment points before the layer is poured. This block is connected through to a similar block on the otherside of wall connected by solid wood blocking with barbed wire attached.
Barbed wire is nailed to wooden uprights to aid the bonding of the earth wall to the wooden wall posts.
Access to high level formwork needs to be stable and easy to access. Ramp is used for bring wheelbarrow loads of earth mix to the right level for shoveling into forms.