Adobe house pros and cons. Do-it-yourself adobe house: construction technology, photos of adobe house projects Build an adobe house

The desire to own their own home often drives a modern metropolis resident into numerous debts, loans and mortgages. But few people think about the fact that it is quite possible to build your own house with your own hands without spending fabulous sums on it. And in this case we are talking exclusively about the good old technology of construction from natural material - adobe. Read about how to build an adobe house with your own hands and get your own home for personal use within a year or two in our material below.

Important: the first adobe buildings were erected thousands of years ago, and this directly speaks to the strength and reliability of adobe as a building material. That is why an adobe house is a confident competitor to any building erected from modern building materials using the latest construction technologies. And here it is noteworthy that building a house from adobe does not require special education. Buildings from such material can be assembled like modeling from plasticine, and any mistakes and mistakes on the construction site can be corrected right there on the spot.

Saman and everything about him

Adobe is a natural mixture of clay and fillers in the form of fibrous inclusions of straw, flax, lime or cattle manure. As binder water comes out, with the help of which the mixture is brought to the desired consistency. In this case, fibrous additives (straw and flax fiber) are cut into pieces up to 16 cm in length. You can also add sand to the adobe mixture to reduce the fat content of the clay. Because clay that is too oily may burst when dried, and this will lead to the destruction of the wall over time or a decrease in its heat capacity. Also, depending on the requirements for the finished adobe house, the following impurities can be added to the mixture:

Fire retardants – enhance the fire resistance of the building;
Antiseptics – prevent negative impact moisture on the finished walls of the house;
Earth, sand and lime increase the fire safety of blocks;
The soil in the mixture will help increase the compressive strength of finished adobe blocks;
Tensile strength is enhanced by all plant fibers plus dung;
And reduce the percentage of shrinkage finished house allow gravel and sand into the adobe mixture;
Lime strengthens the structure and makes it more moisture resistant;
Liquid glass, bone glue or whey will make the adobe mixture more plastic, which will make it easier to work with;
Expanded clay and sawdust - enhance the heat capacity of the finished adobe brick.

Important: but adobe itself meets all operational characteristics, such as heat capacity, environmental friendliness, strength and moisture resistance.

Advantages and disadvantages of adobe

Note that a house built from adobe is not inferior in technical specifications many modern wooden cottages or stone buildings. Yes, for adobe house has the following advantages:

Highly environmentally friendly home. The use of exclusively natural materials for preparing the mixture in tandem with sunlight ensures ready house only natural characteristics.
Economical construction. After all, to install an adobe house there is no need to purchase expensive building materials. All the components for preparing adobe blocks are literally under the master’s feet. In addition, the use of exclusively natural materials does not require knowledge of complex construction technologies. This means that you can also save on hiring specialists in a certain field and do all the work yourself.
Wide possibilities in the implementation of architectural plans. In the literal sense of the word, you can sculpt a house from clay at your discretion. Curved semicircular walls would be appropriate here, graceful arches, bay windows, etc.
Among other things, an adobe house has increased heat capacity and sound insulation. This means that such a building will always be warm, quiet and cozy, regardless of the time of year and the level of noise on the street.
In addition, we note that an adobe house can last about 100 years or more.

But adobe also has some disadvantages, which are predetermined by the origin of the mixture:

So, the house will have low resistance to moisture. Therefore, you will have to additionally protect it from exposure to water from the outside.
Rodents may enjoy the adobe mixture of a ready-made home.
A house made of adobe blocks undergoes long-term shrinkage, and therefore it is necessary to create a higher ceiling height at the construction stage than is included in the project. Otherwise, after shrinking, the house will not be entirely comfortable.
Well, the construction time will be delayed, since building from adobe can only be done in dry, warm weather.

Important: the construction of an adobe house is strictly contraindicated in areas with high humidity or in heavily shaded areas. And where the soil is not clayey, building an adobe house is simply not economically feasible.

The nuances of working with adobe

Before you start installing an adobe house, you should understand how to build a house from adobe in such a way that finished building lasted as long as possible. There are a number of specific recommendations here that have been shaped by hundreds of years of using such technology.

Important: it is noteworthy that there are simply no GOST standards for adobe construction. Here the master uses only the existing history of construction and the experience of his ancestors.

It is better to make the foundation for an adobe house a shallow-deep strip one with mandatory reinforcement when pouring. The width of the base should exceed the width of the adobe block by 20 cm. At the same time, having made the base, it must be waterproofed on all sides.
To protect the walls of an adobe house from rodents, the lower part of the building (approximately 150 cm from the foundation) must be additionally reinforced with reinforcing mesh and applied to it. acrylic plaster. Such a mixture will be too tough for rodents. For the same purpose, you can use a special impregnation for walls.
It is better to equip window sills with drainage systems, and above the top of the windows it is advisable to place canopies that will drain rainwater from the walls of the building.
All wooden thresholds houses must be waterproofed.
External and interior decoration the finished house can only be carried out after the final shrinkage of the house.
For greater strength of the house, in all places where walls meet, in window and door lintels, as well as in the lower parts of openings, a kind of reinforcement in the form of stalks of reeds or brushwood should be laid. The same can be done every three to four rows of block masonry.
If work is suspended, then the adobe wall must be covered with film in case of rain.
It is better to have clay for construction checked for fat content by specialists.
A do-it-yourself adobe house will be stronger if it is assembled from blocks, although a monolithic adobe wall using formwork can also be assembled.
And most importantly, clay for construction needs to be prepared ahead of time. It is better if it spends the winter on the site under the influence of frost. In this case, she will gain strength. It is also worth preparing straw, which is harvested.
The foundation is also pre-installed from monolithic concrete, rubble or rubble concrete, so that work can begin in the spring.

Construction execution

We make adobe blocks

First of all, to assemble a house from adobe, you should prepare blocks. To do this, two sites should be prepared. One of them should be shaded (under an awning or roof) and well ventilated. Finished bricks will be stored here. And the second one is placed in the sun with a slight slope so that water from the finished brick can drain freely. It is also worth preparing a place for mixing the adobe. This should be a recess of approximately 2x2.5 m.

So, the process of producing an adobe block looks like this:

Clay, pre-mixed with selected additives, is placed in the prepared recess. In this case, the clay is laid out in layers of 15 cm, forming holes in them along the perimeter.
Each layer of laid clay is watered. It should be understood that the amount of water in the mixture should not exceed ¼ of general composition adobe. As a result, the level of the laid mixture should not exceed 1 meter.
As soon as the clay is completely wet, you can add hay or sawdust, previously moistened with water, to it.
Now thoroughly knead the mixture using a shovel (which is convenient for small volumes of the mixture), using a concrete mixer, or simply inviting the neighbor kids to trample in the clay. Leave the mixed mixture to gain viscosity overnight.

Important: after time, you can check the readiness of the adobe. To do this, form a 3 cm lump from the mixture and throw it from a height of about 2 m. If the lump does not deform or crack when dropped, then the solution is ready.

Now we take the forms and begin to fill them with the solution. But before this, the inside of the template is moistened with water and thickly sprinkled with straw and sand. The adobe is compacted into the mold, and the top edge is cut off with wire for evenness. To ensure that the blocks dry evenly, five holes are made in them along the perimeter with a cross-section of 1.5 cm. The top of the mass is coated with straw and sand.
Then the raw brick is dumped onto a prepared site with a slope. The site also needs to be sprinkled with sawdust, sand and straw. The blocks are placed at some distance from each other and left there for a day.
After a day, the blocks are turned over on their edges and left in this position for another 3-4 days.
Then adobe brick put away under the canopy, folding it in a checkerboard pattern or two per edge. It is important to leave gaps between the blocks for proper drying.
Completely adobe brick dries within 10-15 days.

Important: completely dry and strong adobe has a uniform color and does not break as a result of falling from a person’s height.

Advice: it is better not to prepare the adobe mixture for future use. It is necessary to prepare such an amount of solution that can be completely produced in one day.

Masonry walls made of adobe

The walls of an adobe house are laid out in the same way as walls made of any other blocks. That is, tied with the displacement of the blocks of the upper row relative to the blocks of the lower row. A mixture of clay and sand in proportions of 1:1 or 4:3 is used as a solution for adhesion of adobe bricks. Chopped straw or flax fibers are also added here. When laying adobe walls, the thickness of the interblock seam is made no more than 1 cm.

Important: when installing adobe walls, do not rush. It is better to lay out 1-2 rows of blocks in one day so that they can grip well, and excess moisture had time to evaporate from the solution.

If there are openings in the wall, then the ceilings for them are made of wooden board, driving it along the edges 15 cm into the walls. Where the tree rests on adobe, it must be waterproofed.

Roof of adobe house

It is better to make the roof for a house made of adobe not particularly steep. Approximately 30-45 degree angle. This is done in order to reduce the pushing force of the roof on the walls of the house.
Assemble the roof along the rafters, securing them securely in strapping beam at the top of the wall. At the same time, do not forget to thoroughly waterproof all joints between wood and clay.
It is better to make the roof overhang at least 70 cm so that the walls of the house are reliably protected from rainwater.
And for exterior finishing For a finished adobe house, it is best (and most importantly economical) to use vapor-permeable plaster based on acrylic, silicate or lime.

Important: floors adobe building carried out on the ground, having previously covered it with waterproofing and thermal insulation. A board is used as a final finish.

When you mention the name adobe house, many will ask what it is, or shrug their shoulders skeptically, because they have a vague idea of it or associate it with a rural hut-mazanka that has grown into the ground. However, today it is possible to build modern, beautiful and comfortable housing from the building materials that our ancestors have used for thousands of years. And most importantly - environmentally friendly, warm, energy efficient and inexpensive. It is these factors that become especially important when energy prices creep up and surround synthetic materials. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at the technology of building a house from adobe and considering its positive aspects.

And first, let's figure out what this building material is, what properties and characteristics it has, and how durable it is.

Saman: what is this?

Adobe consists of components that are available to every developer and cost almost a penny. Its base is clay, the filler is chopped straw, fibrous plants, and manure. To give the clay the necessary viscosity, water is added to the mixture. Clay is chosen with medium fat content (low-fat clay gives poor adhesion and does not provide strength) and, if desired, various additives are added:

sand, crushed stone or crushed expanded clay can reduce the shrinkage of the structure;
adhesive compositions: casein or liquid glass provide the building material with good ductility;
cement and lime increase the resistance of adobe to moisture and promote its hardening;
cellulose fibers increase the elongation coefficient of the material;
shavings and sawdust increase heat-shielding properties.

Since adobe is valued for its environmental friendliness, chemical components are extremely rarely added to its composition, but sometimes, wanting to speed up the hardening process, developers resort to appropriate additives.

Two types of adobe are used in construction:

Lightweight, containing just over 10% clay. Bricks or blocks are not formed from such a mixture, but are used in frame technology, filling the external and internal cladding of the walls.
Heavy. Blocks are made from it. Having thoroughly mixed the ingredients, the mixture is laid out in molds and left to dry outdoors. The density indicator of a raw adobe block is almost no different from that of brick and is characterized by a value in the range of 1500 - 1900 kg per cubic meter. But the thermal conductivity of adobe is almost twice as low. Moreover, this indicator depends on the straw content in it: the more straw is added as a filler, the warmer the future house will be.

Any building material cannot be considered ideal, since it has, along with positive qualities and disadvantages. Saman is no exception, therefore, when talking about him, it is logical to dwell on this point, finding out all his advantages and weaknesses.

Adobe house: pros and cons

So, what is good about a house built from adobe with your own hands? To its obvious and undeniable advantages both builders and residents include:

Microclimate favorable for human health. Due to its high hygroscopicity, the material is an excellent regulator of indoor humidity.
Low thermal conductivity. The house perfectly retains precious heat in the cold and coolness in the hot summer season.
High sound insulation ability.
Low cost compared to other building materials.
Environmental friendliness and fire safety.

In terms of plasticity, adobe is comparable to concrete, so it is easy to give building structures interesting shapes: curved walls, rounded corners and openings, unusual arches. And unlike walls made of monolithic concrete, which are cold to the touch, adobe is warm.

And one last thing. If anyone doubts the strength of houses for which adobe is used, then it does not hurt to get acquainted with significant facts that testify to the longevity and solidity of such buildings. On the territory of our planet, thousands of houses made of adobe have been built, the age of which is estimated to be centuries, and our contemporaries still live comfortably in them.

As for the shortcomings adobe buildings, then there are few of them:

The need to protect adobe walls from moisture, since the material does not have good moisture resistance. For this purpose, the surface of the walls is carefully plastered.
In an area with temperate climate constructed adobe houses take a long time to dry and gain strength.
Limited construction time, because winter period They don’t build adobe houses.

Another serious drawback is the possibility of fungus and other harmful microorganisms. Such unpleasant moments can be prevented with modern antiseptic and disinfectant additives or wall treatment special compounds. It is not recommended to build adobe houses in damp and shaded areas, as the walls will be damp.

Do-it-yourself eco-adobe house

The construction of an adobe house will appeal to people who are far from being experts in the construction business, but who have the time and desire to build and experiment. The technology is quite simple and does not require special skills.

Any construction is divided into stages, and in the case of an adobe house, the process will consist of the following types of work:

A ready-made and dry adobe brick will not break if dropped from a height of 2 meters, and will not get wet if it is in water for 24 hours. It is recommended to carry out such a quality assessment before putting the material into use.

The ceilings in an adobe house built with your own hands are wooden beams supported on the wall structures by at least 15 cm, as window and window lintels. doorways use wooden panels wrapped in waterproofing material.

An adobe building requires mandatory finishing of the walls, otherwise they will crumble. Usually the base surface is plastered or covered with various finishing materials. Cannot be used only cement plasters, since the material has poor adhesion to clay.

As you have seen, building a house from adobe with your own hands is a feasible task for many developers and in terms of minor financial costs, and in terms of ease of construction. But technology does not allow building housing very quickly and carrying out work at any time of the year.

Adobe, as a building material, has been used throughout the history of civilization, from the creation of the first adobe settlements to the present day. And although in the era of rapid development of the construction industry it was not very popular, these days there are more and more people who want to build themselves a house from an environmentally friendly, natural material - adobe.

What is adobe made from?

Adobe is prepared from components that can be found in abundance in any region - clay and straw. Among the Turkic peoples, the word “saman” just means “straw”. In our country, this word is associated with a building material from which clay blocks can be made, suitable for the construction of housing. In addition to straw, other organic and inorganic additives can be added to clay to increase strength, ductility and improve other qualities.

Environmental friendliness and safety

Houses made of adobe have not become widespread in Russia, except in the steppe regions, where there is a constant shortage of wood and other alternative building materials, and is also influenced by neighboring peoples who have rich experience in construction adobe houses. But the very idea of building environmentally safe home, on the wave of the struggle for natural purity, captivates and inspires. Especially young people. In addition, building an adobe house does not require huge investments, because clay and water are available in abundance in any region and building materials can be located on the site right under your feet. But before you start building a house from, you need to familiarize yourself with some of the features of preparing the material and the difficulties that you may encounter.

Adobe

Over the centuries, the recipe for adobe remained unchanged and consisted of clay, sand, straw, manure (dung) and water. Nowadays, cement, lime, expanded clay, shavings, liquid glass and other organic and inorganic components are added to the basic composition.

Some people are confused and surprised by the presence of livestock manure in the composition of adobe, however, this component was suggested by life itself. Even in the old days, animals were used to knead large quantities of clay. Oxen, horses or donkeys sadly walked around in a circle, kneading clay with water, straw and the products of their vital activity. It's like a horse-drawn clay mixer. As it turned out, livestock excrement improved the quality of adobe, made it stronger and more flexible, and the dried blocks did not contain any foreign odor. But if you don’t like the fact that there is dung in a recipe, you don’t have to worry about it. Straw alone is enough to significantly increase the fracture and tear strength of clay blocks. In addition, there are other organic additives that improve the quality of the mixture.

Nowadays, adobe is kneaded with concrete mixers, but you can do it like our ancestors, with your whole family trampling on the clay with your bare feet, adding water and adding straw. It's even fun, especially for children. When the clay is well mixed and brought to a paste-like state, it should be allowed to sit for a day, and then it can be used for its intended purpose.

The raw clay mass is filled into standard molds for blocks or formwork, compacted thoroughly and left to dry under open air. Blocks must be standard sizes: 39x19x9 cm; 39x19x19 cm; 33x19x19 cm.

To prepare adobe, it is recommended to select clay of medium fat content. To determine this, you may need the help of an expert in adobe construction, but correctly selected clay is the key to the quality of adobe blocks. Dried adobe is not inferior in strength to low grade baked brick.

Samana recipe

There is no one set and standard recipe for adobe. The ratio of the amount of clay and fillers is determined experimentally, depending on the characteristics of the material. Heavy adobe, which contains less straw, has a density of approximately 1500-1600 kg/m3 and a compressive strength of 10-15 kg/cm2. The thermal conductivity coefficient of such adobe is approximately 0.3 W/mxC 0 .

Light adobe has more straw, its density is 500 kg/m3, and its thermal conductivity is 0.05-0.1 W/mxC o. The thermal conductivity of adobe is half that of ceramic bricks, which provides reliable protection housing from winter frosts and summer heat.

Subtleties of construction

Height clay walls should be 30-40 cm higher than the design, since they shrink more over time. The excessive content of organic fillers in adobe attracts various insects and rodents that can make passages in the walls. To protect against such uninvited “guests,” the plaster on the lower part of the wall (about 1.5 m) must be applied to a fine metal mesh. You can also apply chemicals protection, but it is better to do this as a last resort. You can begin exterior decoration of the house no earlier than the next season, when the house is completely dry and shrinks.

Home construction

The construction of an adobe house is a troublesome and time-consuming task. It will not be possible to do the entire amount of work in one season, and it’s all about technology. After all, the wall of a house can be built up no higher than 30 cm per day, lifting the formwork daily and preparing the adobe for the next day. Using this method, it takes half a month or more to build a box at home, provided that the weather is warm without precipitation, and strip foundation made in advance. The method of forming walls in formwork significantly reduces the construction time of the box, since there is no need to make a large number of blocks. Finished walls you need to immediately cover it with a roof, the overhangs of which must be at least 60 cm so that the rains do not wash away the clay. This can be the end of the construction season, since the house must be allowed to completely dry, settle, and shrink, so that work can continue the next season. Use heat fans heat guns, heaters to speed up the drying of walls are undesirable. The adobe should dry slowly and naturally. After a year, you can install carpentry, lay floors, plaster, lay communications and carry out other engineering and finishing work.

Features of building a house from ready-made clay blocks

The construction of a house from ready-made clay blocks has its own characteristics. The whole season will have to be spent on making required quantity bricks or blocks, give them time to dry and gain sufficient strength. Laying walls from ready-made blocks is easier and faster and they do not require long-term drying and shrinkage.

The technique of constructing an adobe house using formwork allows the construction of exclusively one-story buildings. Method brickwork You can build houses with two or more floors. This is a long-established practice that has stood the test of time and is widely used today. There are no uniform rules and regulations for construction, just as there are no reference books or scientific research that prescribe the number of floors and methods of adobe construction. IN different regions there are local peculiarities in the construction of such housing, depending on the availability of raw materials for adobe, established local building traditions, seismic activity and weather conditions in the region.

For housing construction, two main types of adobe are used - heavy (40-80% clay) and light (10-40% clay). The remaining mass consists of straw or various organic additives.

Heavy adobe. Usually like this clay mixture used for the construction of walls in formwork. Formwork is made from sheet metal or wooden boards, upholstered roofing iron. Raw clay does not dry to the metal and does not come off when rearranged. The formwork installed on the foundation is filled with adobe and a layer 30 cm thick is carefully compacted. Every day the formwork is moved higher and layer by layer is built up, repeating this operation until the walls grow to the desired height. The frame of the house turns out to be monolithic and capable of withstanding considerable loads. Openings for windows and doors are formed in external walls and internal partitions. When constructing a house using formwork, it is very difficult to maintain the dimensions of the walls vertically and horizontally, and moreover, large shrinkage can increase inaccuracies.

Walls made from adobe blocks are being laid traditional way, perhaps, instead of cement mortar, they use clay paste, half and half with sand with the addition of straw for better bonding. To ensure a tight fit, the seam should be approximately 1 cm. No more than two rows can be laid per day, this is 40 cm in height.

U this method construction has a significant drawback. It is necessary to make a large number of blocks in advance and for a long time store them in a dry, ventilated area or under a canopy.

Light adobe. The structure of the building is made of light adobe and consists of wooden racks, sheathed on both sides with boards or OSB. Prepared clay, with a high straw content, is placed in the space between the outer and internal lining racks and compacted.

Such a structure is more like a frame or panel house, rather than an adobe one. Its construction will require a large amount of wood and fasteners. In addition, the architectural attractiveness and originality of adobe architecture is lost, because lightweight adobe in this design plays the role of filler or insulation.

Elements of adobe house

It is recommended to build the frame of an adobe house on a strip foundation made of concrete or stone. To protect the clay from splashes of water and serve as the basis for a thick exterior finish, it must rise above the ground level by at least 20 cm. Its width should be 10-20 cm greater than the thickness of the wall. It is also necessary to ensure reliable waterproofing foundation, because adobe is quite hygroscopic and quickly absorbs moisture.

Walls

The thickness of the load-bearing wall made of heavy adobe is 50-60 cm, and internal partition 30 cm. To give the house box additional strength, it is reinforced with non-rotting plants in height every 50 cm. This is done in the corners load-bearing walls, below the level of windows, in places where jumpers are installed. Dry stems of reeds, reeds, hemp, etc. are used as reinforcement. The thickness of the wall made of light adobe is no more than 25-30 cm.

Ceiling coverings

Wooden beams are used as ceilings, the ends of which must lie on the walls at least 15 cm on each side. In places where the beams come into contact with the wall, they are wrapped in waterproofing material and walled up. It is recommended to reinforce the walls on which the beams rest with stainless mesh or reed.

Used as lintels over openings wooden blocks 50 mm thick. They also need to be isolated where they come into contact with clay.

Windows and doors

Wooden frames of windows and doors must be covered with waterproofing.

Cover the building with a roof tent-shaped(two-slope, four-slope, etc.), rafter system. The angle of inclination of the rafters must be at least 30-45 0 to reduce the thrust load on the walls. In order to minimize the ingress of rainwater onto the walls, the roof overhangs are made at least 70 cm. In dry and hot regions, the roof is often made flat.

Facade finishing

To save adobe walls from erosion, facade finishing must be produced. The walls are plastered with lime, acrylic, silicate mortar or lined with brick. The brick must be laid, leaving air gap between the walls. In some cases, adobe houses are decorated with wood. You can use cement mortar for plastering clay walls only on a grid.

Inside the house, the walls are usually plastered with a clay solution, with the addition of dung in a ratio of 10:1. But today on the building materials market there is wide choose environmentally friendly finishing mixtures, so there is no need for exotic organics.

D oma and adobe buildings can be found in any part of the world and not always in the rural hinterlands: “hutted houses” of Ukraine, pueblos of Mexico, duvals of Central Asia, cozy houses old Europe, and the huts of Africa. Moreover, the largest structure on Earth is the Great Chinese Wall 2/3 is built of adobe.

What kind of material is it, how it is made, how it is used and how to build a house from adobe with your own hands - we will figure it out in order.

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Composition of adobe

To start with the composition, adobe is ordinary clay mixed with sand and other additives. Builders have another name for it - clay concrete. Clay in adobe is like cement in ordinary concrete, connects together all the components included in the material.

In addition to clay and sand, adobe includes:

Light fillers, which increase the heat-shielding properties of the material, reduce specific gravity, increase tensile strength, reduce shrinkage, preventing the formation of cracks.

Such additives are suitable fibrous materials, straw is best. In addition to or instead of straw, you can use chopped reeds, shavings, dry pine needles, dried sea grass, etc.

Tip: Of all the types of lightweight filler, rye straw is considered the best. It has long been noticed that rodents - mice and rats - do not settle in it or even make burrows. Insects avoid rye straw.

Heavy mineral fillers increase compressive strength and reduce clay consumption.

For this you can use crushed stone or gravel, river pebbles, broken bricks. Also, to build a house from adobe, expanded clay, blast furnace slag, and expanded perlite can be added as heavy mineral fillers, which further increase the thermal resistance.

Additives and plasticizers. They reduce the amount of water required for mixing the composition, thereby reducing shrinkage when the adobe dries. Increases the plasticity of the material and tensile strength.

For a long time, instead of complex chemicals for preparing adobe, ordinary manure was used to build a house. Horse, cow or camel. It was mixed with water 1:1, allowed to soften for a day, and then added to the adobe.

Nowadays it is easier to use casein, PVA emulsion, and potassium silicate (“liquid glass”) as additives. Adding whey has a good effect.

The construction of a residential building can be reduced several times in cost if you use adobe for the construction of walls. It is not difficult to make, besides, this material has good thermal insulation and is the most environmentally friendly. In appearance, a do-it-yourself adobe house is no worse than a brick or wooden one, if you choose the right finish.

The strength of the structure directly depends on the quality of the adobe. Low density of blocks, their humidity, irregular shape– all this complicates the installation process and reduces the reliability of the structure. It is necessary to make adobe in advance, because construction will require a lot of blocks, and it takes time to form and dry the material.

To make adobe blocks you will need:

straw;
clay;
water;
large mixing capacity;
boards;
nails;
hammer and hacksaw.

Step 1. Assembling the adobe mold

A box without a bottom measuring 35x18x14 cm is knocked down from boards 2 cm thick. The mold can be made double, but lifting it will be too difficult. Boards should be chosen as smooth as possible, preferably with smooth surface. Standard sizes for adobe, no, but the specified parameters are the most practical.

Step 2. Preparing drying areas

To properly dry the adobe, you will need to prepare 2 platforms. To do this, brick racks or wooden beams are laid out on a flat piece of land, and boards made of tightly knit boards are attached to them. A canopy is built over the first platform, while the second is left in the open air, but paved at a slight slope.

Step 3. Preparation of material

The most important component of adobe is clay. Not only straw is used as filler, but also wood shavings, dry grass, sand, gravel and cement. The clay must be clean, without impurities, very plastic and durable. Checking whether the clay on the site is suitable for construction is very simple: dilute a little clay with water and roll it into a ball. If it dries and does not crack or break when dropped from a height of 2 m, the clay can be used. It should be noted that for 1000 blocks it takes about 10 cubic meters clay, so you need to prepare a sufficient amount of it in advance.

It is better to take straw from last year, not fresh, with a length of 9 to 16 cm. Finely chopped straw is unsuitable for these purposes. To increase the strength of the blocks and increase their water resistance, it is recommended to add lime to the composition. The standard ratio of clay to straw is 4:6, but the proportions may vary depending on the type of adobe. In light clay there is 10% less clay, in heavy clay there is 10-20% more than normal.

Step 4. Forming and drying blocks

You can prepare the solution for adobe directly on the ground by clearing a 2x2 m area and making a depression in the center. For a small amount of building material, a container in the form of a trough with low sides is suitable; you can also assemble a frame from boards 3 cm thick and cover it with galvanized sheets. In such a container, the solution will not mix with the soil; in case of rain, it will not be difficult to cover everything with plastic wrap.

The mixture is prepared as follows: pour clay, add water to it, mix well and leave for 12-20 hours. This will allow the clay to acquire maximum viscosity and plasticity. Then add straw or other filler and knead thoroughly. Usually mixing such a solution is done with your feet - it is quite difficult to do it manually. Ready mixture Leave for a few more hours to ensure uniform impregnation of all components.

To mold adobe, take a flat wide board, place the mold on it, moisten the surfaces generously with water and sprinkle with sand and dry fine straw. Scoop up the solution with your hands and tamp it into the mold, making sure to compact the corners. Excess material is cleaned off with a trowel or a piece of thin wire, and then the block is pierced in 3-5 places with a sharp stick. This is necessary for the adobe to dry evenly.

The open area is sprinkled with straw, sawdust or sand and the workpiece is laid out on it. Here are the opinions experienced builders are divided: some recommend leaving the block in the mold for at least 3 days, others advise immediately removing the mold and drying it flat for 24 hours, and turning it upside down for 3-4 days. In any case, when drying, there should be free space between the blocks for air circulation. It’s easy to check the adobe for readiness: if a block thrown from a height of 2 m does not break or soak in water for 2-4 hours, it can be used for construction.

Construction of the foundation

For an adobe house, you should choose a flat area with low level groundwater and dense soil. It is advisable to make the house itself one-story, without a basement or cellar. If space allows, it is better to build a cellar and other utility structures at some distance from the home.

For the foundation you will need:

large crushed stone;
broken brick or stone;
clay;
sand;
fittings;
cement mortar;
building level;
boards;
self-tapping screws;
wooden spacers;
polyethylene film.

Step 1. Digging a trench

The trench for the strip foundation should be 15-20 cm wider than the thickness of the wall. Walls made of light adobe are 30-35 cm thick, and those made of heavy adobe are about 60 cm. A trench is dug along the perimeter of the future house and in the locations of the internal load-bearing walls. The depth of the internal trenches is 70-80 cm, the depth of the external ones should be 10 cm greater than the freezing level of the soil. Typically this value is 1.2-1.5 m.

Step 2. Pouring the foundation

A sand cushion 15 cm thick is laid at the bottom of the trench, and stone is covered on top, broken brick, crushed stone, not reaching the top by about 25 cm. Reinforcing bars are driven between the stones at a distance so that they rise by 20 cm, and then the foundation is spilled with a liquid clay solution. If the soil on the site is not very stable, the clay is replaced with cement mortar.

Formwork is assembled from boards, covered with plastic film and installed inside the trenches. From the outside, the formwork is reinforced with spacers made of beams. After this, the structure is checked with a level, mounted reinforcement cage and secure it between the boards. It's all poured in concrete mortar, level the surface and cover with film.

Construction of walls

After hardening, the surface of the foundation is covered with two layers of roofing material and glued bitumen mastic. This waterproofing will protect the adobe blocks from excess moisture.

Laying out the walls begins from the corner of the facade; masonry, as for brick, is done in a checkerboard pattern. A mixture of clay and sand is used as a binding solution.

Step 1. Construction of the lower rows

It is allowed to erect 2-3 rows of blocks in one day. If you put more, the adobe may shift under the load and the wall will be uneven. Having laid the first row, it is necessary to determine the location of the doorways and leave free space between the blocks. Install door and window boxes not recommended, since when drying, adobe shrinks by 3-5%. Every 2 rows you need to check the walls horizontally and vertically to prevent distortions in the structure. At the window level, the construction process becomes a little more complicated.

Step 2. Laying jumpers

Leaving openings for the windows, the masonry is raised to a height window frame and begin making jumpers. To do this, take boards 5 cm thick and knock them down into panels, the width of which is equal to the width of the walls, and the length is 30 cm greater than the width of the window. The shields are treated with an antiseptic and dried, and then wrapped in roofing material and secured with staplers.

The finished lintels are laid flat over window openings so that they cover 15 cm of the wall on both sides. A beam is placed inside the opening and the lintel is supported with it. Next, they continue laying on top of the shields until they reach the top of the doorway. They install it above him in exactly the same way. wooden shield and lay out another 1-2 rows of the wall.

To reduce the load from the rafter system on the adobe, the roof must be made quite steep - at least 30 degrees, and preferably 45. The recommended length of the roof overhangs is approximately 70 cm. The best option The roof for an adobe house is a straight gable roof. During installation attic structure the load on the walls increases significantly.

To install the rafter system you will need:

wooden beams;
timber with a section of 150x100;
boards 30x250 mm;
waterproofing film;
insulation;
roof covering;
primer;
fasteners;
level;
roulette;
screwdriver;
hammer;
hacksaw.

Step 1. Installation of ceilings

When laying two last rows the walls between the blocks leave holes for the ceiling beams. In the places where the wood adheres to the adobe, the beams are wrapped with roofing material and coated with mastic. They should protrude quite a bit beyond the perimeter of the wall, about 2-4 cm. The beams are laid at a distance of 1-1.5 m. After this, another row of blocks is erected and the assembly of the rafter system proceeds.

Step 2: Installing the rafters

On ceiling beams they stuff the sheathing boards. The beams at the ends are cut at an angle of 45 degrees and connected to each other. Having strengthened the structure in the middle with a jumper, lift it up and install it above the side wall. The rest of the rafters are placed in the same way and connected longitudinal beams. Between the ceiling and the rafter lintels, additional support posts are installed and pediments are nailed.

Step 3. Attaching waterproofing

The rafter system must be protected with a waterproofing layer. You can use roofing material for this, plastic film or a special membrane. Attaching the hydraulic barrier begins from below along the eaves of the house. The material should sag slightly between the beams, so it should not be stretched too much. Adjacent pieces of film are overlapped and taped at the seams with construction tape. If roofing material is chosen as protection, the joints are coated with mastic or resin.

Step 4. Roof insulation

Suitable for roof insulation mineral wool, polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam boards. To lay the thermal insulation layer, first install a timber sheathing. Insulation boards are inserted between the cells of the frame, compacted, and the cracks are filled with foam. After this, the roofing covering is fastened, the eaves are screwed in, and the snow guards are installed.

Facade finishing

The walls of adobe houses require mandatory finishing. An unprotected surface will become wet from rain and snow, and will be destroyed by mechanical damage, blown away by the wind. As a finish, you can use waterproof, vapor-permeable plaster based on lime, acrylic or silicate. To do this, a reinforcing mesh is attached to the wall, and plaster is applied to it. You can cover the facade with siding, wood, or special tiles.

Inside the house, the walls are covered with plasterboard, clapboard or plastered. The floor is compacted, logs are laid on top and boards are laid. Can be done concrete screed and lay linoleum, laminate, or any other covering on it.