EARTHEN FLOOR Destroyed and Rebuilt, Start to Finish | Natural Materials
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- čas přidán 29. 02. 2020
- I already posted a few videos of this earthen floor rebuild process, but this is the whole process start to finish in one video with no explanation, just showing the process. This includes footage not seen in the other videos. This is more like infotainment.
The idea of the earthen floor is to create a durable surface for my floor that is made of natural materials, specifically cob, a mixture of sand, clay, and straw or other natural fibers. The floor also provides a thermal mass for the passive solar heat to collect the sun's energy. The thermal mass is insulated with perlite, a puffed mineral used commonly in horticultural applications. This kind is purpose made for insulation.
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Cob floor
Earth floor
Earthen floor techniques
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Amazing and thank you - great work! Just like my ancestors built the 300+ years 3 store houses - still in use ;o). The reed is used all and everything: stem, leaves and the puffy part as micro fibers to strengthen even the thin layers. This clay technology is known for millennia - why we don't use it anymore? One thing I have been watching my granny as technology steps (she died 105 y in a similar house) - she smashed, hammered and kneaded the clay till silky consistency, before to add anything else. Lime and cow manure were must - no worries - the manure is a small quantity and smell goes away shortly after mixing. Thank you once again. Blessings.
I used cow manure in the finish plaster on my walls. It does stink while you are applying it, but after it dries you can't smell it at all. You can also add manure and allow the plaster to age and cure and it will help it bind better. The manure has tiny fibers that add strength too.
105. . that is incredible Nadia, she must have had so much knowledge and really lovely that you learned from her. Thank you for sharing this wisdom :)
What beautiful work intensive but absolutely stunning thank you for sharing this with us. I heard about that kind of flooring but never knew the amount of work it in teal.❤️👍😺🐶😊
very interestin' indeed ...appreciate this share ...thank you ..
debating whether to take on a very challenging reno' of a bungalow in the forest ....
My hat OFF to you ... awesome task , well done. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Nice! I like your recipe :) adding cottony fiber is cool. And poke holes in the first layer is smart! Guess it will dry evenly and prevent big crack
I appreciate knowing about this process and all your hard work. I'll bet it feels good on the feet during a hot summer. personally I prefer to work with wood. I also like cork floors. Tx for sharing. Rich
It does feel nice in summer. Banjo my dog thinks so too. She likes to lie on her side on the floor to keep cool. Cork is great for less trafficked floors. It is easily damaged.
Keep up the good work 🙏❤️
Awesome video Dan!!! Hope to see you Folks again real soon!!😃😃
Thanks Zach. Good to hear from you!
I jumped in that moment when the neighbor said morning I thought for sure it was the city with a permit or something I can’t believe nobody’s in your business right now, lucky man!
What an amazing person you are. IF people started livin like this... I am going to subscribe you now. YOu deserve more subscribers. VEry hardworking amazing person =) love and peace to you friend
Well, thanks for the encouragement! Glad to have you as a subscriber.
Nice job, ,
Turned out great hopefully the perlite will work out and you won't get any cracks. Thanks
I'm pretty confident the perlite will work much better and won't go anywhere. Thanks for the positive words.
This whole video is attractive ! Good Job ! Thank you :)
That’s a lot of work. Even if I knew exactly how to do it, it seems I would be at it for a very loooooog time. Great job.
You just have to find some neighbors to help you with it
Nice job!
Shiny floor... lol
Can u plz guide me about the mud house reconstruction of first floor,
Is it weird that I feel bad I didn’t help? Kisses for Banjo ❤️
I did get some help, but it was definitely a big job. At least you feel bad about it, eh?
The floor looks great. It is the second time you replaced the floor. Could glass be put in the floor for decoration.
I resurfaced the floor several years ago because it was sinking. You could put glass in the floor for decoration. I wonder what bottles on their sides would look like with just the side of the bottle above the surface. As far as a mosaic, if it's a high traffic area having small pieces would be problematic because the earthen material is not a cement, so they'd be more likely to pop out. The tiles by the windows are purely aesthetic. I came upon those clay tiles and liked the way they contrasted with the earthen material.
Great work. What are your recipe’s for the layers? Is there a vid you get into those details? Thanks!
There are a few videos that were posted just before this video that explain the whole process in more detail. If you go to the list of videos for my channel you will find them there at about the same time this video was posted.
Does the gimp sleep below the trapdoor down in the dungeon?
How can I build a new floor on my mud house in first floor
I Wonder what is this white Powder. And whats it for?
Here we have a subsoil that is mostly sand and silt, but is very low in clay... Would it work to mix in 20% of dry clay with the silt soil, than add mason sand and straw, do you think ?
Also, I noticed you added both finely chopped straw and cattails (is it called that?) in the final layer, and I was wondering if that was out of curiosity? Or did you find the cattails (if those reedlike things are called that) make the mix better in some way, adding tensile strength while being softer and more discreet than the straw?
Looks beautifull, anyways, like a huge job well done ! And I am curious to see how it holds up over the years!
I would think you might need more clay in the mix than 20% but possibly the silt could help bind. I'd just play around with it and see what you come up with. Any time you are using local materials you have to test to find out how different materials perform.
If you haven't seen the more detailed videos of this floor installation, this one was a compilation of three other videos I posted that had more detailed explanations of what I did. YOu can search my channel or go to my natural building playlist and they should be in there.
The cattail fiber is just for fiber and tensile strength. I used chopped straw because it's a little more durable than the cattail, making a surface that will hold up to traffic better. The cattail is something I commonly use in finish wall plaster. The floor is holding up pretty well so far after a year.
I’m thinking of building an earthen floor my home gym in the basement. Would it withstand without cracking or denting if I dropped weights on it?
Highly doubtful that it could withstand a drop of heavy weights ! Remember though being strong and durable flooring it still is just earthern material ! However with the left over mud mixture you (hopefully) have extra, form into small brick shape molds to dry out and save for future floor repairs by reconstituting with water and fill holes and cracks then resealing with boiled linseed oil !
wondering why you didn't mix the perlite in to the floor mix directly.
I could have done a mix of clay and perlite to bind it together and with this fine perlite it probably would have worked, but the more clay involved the less insulating it'll be.
How to rebuild my first floor with the help of mud
What was the white powdery substance that you spread under your clay mix?
That was perlite., and insulation. If you watch the other two videos I did on the floor installation where I explained everything, it goes through it slower and there's talking.
Hi good job. My question, is that possible to use cotton seed oil. Linseed oil is not possible to find in my country. Thanks
I'm not sure of the properties of cottonseed oil. It has to be an oil that can dry hard. Other oils stay oily and don't cure like linseed oil, which is why it is used as a treatment for wood and plaster.
@@HardcoreSustainable Thanks a lot of your answer. What about Sunflowers oil. Do you thing that the properties of Linseed oil can be nearly.
Heres probably a real newbie question. But whats up with finger poke inorints in the clay? Wont that alloe the clay different thickness and drying time and therfore risk of cracks?
The idea of the finger prints is to give the next coat something to key into. You could also just use a trowel with teeth and score it. I don't thing it contributes to cracking, which really only affects the finish coat if it's too thick or the consistency of the plaster isn't right.
And how soon before you can walk on it? And how soon before you can start putting the linseed oil on it? And how warm to heat the linseed?
Check out those other videos and I think these questions will be answered.
Was it feel much different with just concrete ??.. since you ve layed rocks and plastic at the bottom,the earth fragrance might be loosen.. i guess
The floor was never concrete. Before it was earthen as well. The floor smells like linseed oil still. Natural buildings with linseed oil treatment somewhere tend to smell like linseed oil. It's a good smell.
what kind of oil do yo use for coating?
Linseed oil
Hi! How does it feel in winter, the floor? Is it to cold or is quite nice? (if you have cold and snow and all,i do not know whre you live).
We do get some cold. I don't find the floor to be very cold. It tends to be more the temp of the room. It is insulated by design to prevent the heat from being sucked out into the floor as a concrete slab would. It's also softer on the feet than concrete and some other floors.
Dan, is this you playing the guitar?
This is not my guitar playing. It's from a site where I got background music.
Are u in Florida?
How do the structures hold up with all the humidity?
I'm not actually in Florida. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, where I live, is in northeastern Missouri. In Florida, "cracker" house design can work better because it allows the flow of air through a house. But I have a video about an earthship in Myakka City, FL. Some have commented that they think it's too humid there to work. I was there during the building stage and didn't see the finished product. I plan to go back and make another video when I can.
@@HardcoreSustainable
Well, im loving rammed earth
And im currently in NM but will be heading to FL due to work.
Iv been contemplating 🤔
What options could possibly be available to me.
Iv never heard of "cracker house"
But i will look now
What is the white powder in the bags? Thanks
Perlite.
My question is why tiles under the windows on the floor.
I just did that for aesthetics, and I got some cool looking Mexican tiles on the cheap.
Is there a set number of coats of linseed oil you use, or do you just keep adding another coat until it stops soaking in?
Well, ideally you would add a coat and wait until it dries and then add more. People also usually mix 50/50 with a solvent like citrusolv initially and then gradually wean off the solvent to a pure linseed coat. Unfortunately, citrusolv is no longer available in gallon jugs and it's super expensive. There are some pre-made tung oil mixtures for floor finishes you can buy out there that are really good too. They are more expensive, but if it's just for a floor you know will last, it's totally worth it, and less than low VOC polyurethane (not that you'd ever use that on an earthen floor [though I don't actually know if you can't use it, just never heard anyone talk about it]).
The point is, I didn't want to use a solvent like mineral oil or turpentine, that has very toxic fumes and will offgas for months. I chose not to use a solvent, which is why I heated the oil--to get better penetration. I'd say you want to do at least 3 coats, but more if possible. Probably don't need more than 5-6. It will eventually harden to provide a more durable surface, though still dentable and scuffable.
@@HardcoreSustainable im in the process of doing an earthen floor on my own. would like to ask you if you use beeswax at all. thanks!
@@spyrospanagos5657 YOu can use a mixture of linseed oil, beeswax, and a solvent.
question: specifically what type of earth material (soil), did you used on the first mix and for the finish ? also what do you suggest me to use instead of perlite ,its not industrially available around where i live .?
thank you.
I've seen foamed recycled glass used instead!
I've seen small pumice/lava rocks used before too. A lot of landscaping places typically carry them but I bet you could buy it in bulk online too!
Why do you poke holes in the clay mixture with your fingers??
I did three videos just before this one that go through the whole process and I explain everything. They start with this video:
czcams.com/video/RbkGflkkTQM/video.html
The dimples are made so that there is something for the next layer to key into so it won't easily separate from the under layer.
Q: When re setting your tiles into the earthen floor, did you have to add some mortar to the mix or were you still using the earthen mix? Good job!!
Not to answer for "Hardcore" but laying the tiles on the earthen mix is normal. In the beginning , the removal of the old tiles was easy to remove because neither tile set nor mortar mix was used.
I did just lay the tiles into the earthen mix. No mortar was used. I find that if you have a good surface of linseed oil or other sealant the tiles will hold in there pretty well. Sorry for the delayed reply. Sometimes I'm not notified of some comments.
How long was the first floor down?
Maybe like 8 years.
I assume that the bag with the white powder was lime?
No, that was the perlite. You can see in the other two videos where I explain everything. Perlite serves as insulation.
@@HardcoreSustainable Forgive my lack of knowledge, but I want to learn all about this type of building. I'm just wondering why we would need insulation in an earthen floor, and yours is not the first I've seen along my youtube journey. But, I thought the earth was a certain temperature all year long, so, why insulate it. Wouldn't it be so nice to have in the summer when it gets so hot outside? To help keep the home more comfy?
@@destination...diamond3892 I insulate the floor and I think most people do so that they don't lose all their heat through the floor in winter. The earth is a never ending heat sink so if you are trying to heat a house and have an earthen floor directly connected to the earth, all the heat will be sucked out into the earth. In summer, the floor is still a thermal mass and it stays cool. My dog knows this because the first thing she does when she's really hot in summer is sprawl out on her side on the earthen floor. If you live in a really hot place like the desert southwest of the US, you'd be better off not insulating your floor because you'd want the cool earth temps and you'd want the earth sucking any heat out of your house.
Also explain ingredients you used here
If you check my other videos around this time I did 3 separate videos explaining the process. This is the no talking version without explanation.
Real quick question why do you have to put insulation down under your Earth and floor isn't the Earth insulation enough
I'd recommend you check out some of the previous comments that have the same question. Basically it's because if you don't insulate, all the heat will be sucked out of the house into the ground during winter. The same reason you insulate your walls. The insulation holds the heat in the earthen slab and it can be radiated into the space at night.
I'm in Florida where my soil is a white powdery sand like sugar. I want to build a soil cement floor for an 8x8 shed. I tested mixing local sand with 10% Portland and seems very strong. Wondering if this will work and resist cracking and erosion?
I got to make some plaster with Florida sand earlier this year and I found it very hard to work with. It's sea sand so it is rounded. We usually use sharp sand for plaster, which is like working with little bricks instead of little ball bearings. You could try it though. Even though the plaster was much more slippery with the Florida sand and didn't hold its shape very well when wet, I mixed it with straw and it dried pretty hard.
@@HardcoreSustainable what part of the state? This is on the Lake Wales ridge which is 2 hours from any ocean. It's like sugar.
I would wear safety glasses and have hired an electric spade which would have smashed the existing floor into small pieces making it easier to use for something else.
Probably should have worn glasses. This worked fine. All you have to do is add water and the cob softens to be used again. The chunk size doesn't really make a difference because it all gets soft in a barrel of water.
Can you give me full proof idea for reconstruction of first floor of mud house
What do you specifically want to know about?
@@HardcoreSustainable actually in my old mud house, my first floor of the house which is made of mud but after so many years, it start shaking or anytime it fall down if I start to live there, so I want to construct a mud floor on the first floor of my house, as it is build by my ancestors and they are no more with us, and local people also don't have any knowledge how to reconstruct a mud floor on the first floor, as I want you home as it is left by my ancestors, if you have any plan how to rebuild a new mud floor on the first floor of house plz guide me, I will be thankful to you
It start to falling down means floor is started shaking when we walk on the floor, as I ask with local they said you can build a cemented floor, but I don't like that because it is more than 100 year old asi want to make mud floor. And want my old age home as it is. I don't want it as a modern age home.
@@HardcoreSustainable hope you get it, if don't understand plz reply back. I try my best to explain all the matter.
Our house is made of mud, and after 100 year it's first floor start shaking while we stand or walk on the floor, so I want to reconstruct the first floor of the house but I like to construct it with mud as it is build by our ancestors, but I don't have a knowledge about the work, if it's possible to rebuild a new mud floor on the first floor of my home. Please guide me, I request you please reply it is possible or not.
What was wrong with the old floor?
I have 3 other videos of this same floor redo and I explain it all in those. You can search for them on my channel. I'd insulated with light clay straw and it began decomposing.
Why did you rebuild?
I have some other videos on the floor that show the whole process and explain it. The light clay straw insulation I used initially had degraded and the floor had sunk and cracked.
Oil name please?
Raw linseed oil. there are also a few other videos of this floor redo on my channel that have narration and explain the entire process. This one is the short, no voiceover, version.
thank you vaia
@@HardcoreSustainable How long does it last once applied. Please Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram
@@ramjanshekh3875 I'd recommend applying more oil every few years, just to have a renewed floor and added protection. Some spots can get abraded with traffic.
Why did you destroy Floor, cob
There are a couple other videos on this project where I explain it all. The insulation in the floor had been straw and rotted and sunk. The entire floor sunk a few inches and cracked. I tore it up to redo it.
@@HardcoreSustainable sweet thx,
I want marry you
"Natural materials," goes on using plastic...
What plastic? If you mean reusing the plastic bags the perlite came in, how could that not be a good thing? I reuse waste products whenever I can. But, I guess I'm a hypocrite because I used .000000001% plastic in the floor and called it "natural".
I just can't believe what people will complain about in the CZcams comment section. It brings out the worst.