Zokman01
Civil/Environmental
- Feb 8, 2021
- 1
Rammed earth construction
Considering building my next home out of rammed earth and wanted some feed back from fellow builder. Washington State has see a few Rammed earth home projects so some of the state codes have been modified
But it is still county by county. I visited a rammed earth builder in eastern Washington and got some great advice to build my rammed earth exterior wall between 16 to 20 inches thick with re-bar anchored to a solid poured
Concrete footing with the rammed earth starting 8 to 12 inches above ground level depending in the amount of precipitation and to consider an interior offset if building with a concrete Slab so the rammed wall would start from floor level on the interior wall side. I was told if I chose to build my walls higher then 16 feet to add 2 inches of wall for every 4 feet in height. So a 16 foot wall free standing that is 20 feet in length without any interior supporting walls would be 16 inch in width upon completion. And a 20 foot high wall that is also 20 foot in length would be 18 inches wide. It was also recommend that I increase the thickness of the wall by 2 inches in thickness for every 4 foot in length over 20 foot. But not to exceed 32 feet over all in length with out interior supporting walls. So based on these numbers I find myself limited to a maximum of a 20 foot tall by a 32 foot in length that is 2 foot thick. If my desired goal is to have a non-interior supported wall made of Solid re-bar enforced rammed earth. Without any Rammed earth structural numbers it is hard for me to run the calculations. Then one must consider the use of between 2 to 4 inched of insulation foam board placed in the core of the wall to help balance the thermals of the wall.
I have considered a using a 6 inch solid center concrete re-bar enforced wall sheet-ed to the interior side with 2 inch foam board insulation and then encased in a 6 inch of rammed earth anchored to the concrete wall.
Giving me a 20 inch think wall hoping I could stretch my walls to 24 foot in height by 32 foot in length and just stick to a 20 inch exterior walls throughout the design.
I would love some feed back and if anyone has some rammed earth structural design number please share.
Considering building my next home out of rammed earth and wanted some feed back from fellow builder. Washington State has see a few Rammed earth home projects so some of the state codes have been modified
But it is still county by county. I visited a rammed earth builder in eastern Washington and got some great advice to build my rammed earth exterior wall between 16 to 20 inches thick with re-bar anchored to a solid poured
Concrete footing with the rammed earth starting 8 to 12 inches above ground level depending in the amount of precipitation and to consider an interior offset if building with a concrete Slab so the rammed wall would start from floor level on the interior wall side. I was told if I chose to build my walls higher then 16 feet to add 2 inches of wall for every 4 feet in height. So a 16 foot wall free standing that is 20 feet in length without any interior supporting walls would be 16 inch in width upon completion. And a 20 foot high wall that is also 20 foot in length would be 18 inches wide. It was also recommend that I increase the thickness of the wall by 2 inches in thickness for every 4 foot in length over 20 foot. But not to exceed 32 feet over all in length with out interior supporting walls. So based on these numbers I find myself limited to a maximum of a 20 foot tall by a 32 foot in length that is 2 foot thick. If my desired goal is to have a non-interior supported wall made of Solid re-bar enforced rammed earth. Without any Rammed earth structural numbers it is hard for me to run the calculations. Then one must consider the use of between 2 to 4 inched of insulation foam board placed in the core of the wall to help balance the thermals of the wall.
I have considered a using a 6 inch solid center concrete re-bar enforced wall sheet-ed to the interior side with 2 inch foam board insulation and then encased in a 6 inch of rammed earth anchored to the concrete wall.
Giving me a 20 inch think wall hoping I could stretch my walls to 24 foot in height by 32 foot in length and just stick to a 20 inch exterior walls throughout the design.
I would love some feed back and if anyone has some rammed earth structural design number please share.
