How To Make Adobe Bricks
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2020
- Here we are learning to make adobe bricks that we're hoping to use for several projects (hopefully an outdoor bathroom/shower very soon!). We went with the following recipe, but may change it slightly to make it just a little wetter in the future. The bricks came out just a little "chunky," so I think a little soupier mix might solve that. We may also sift the ingredients in the future to help smooth the bricks out a bit, and we'll make any updates to the process that will help us be more efficient when trying to make mass quantities. A cement mixer is already on our list, as we need about 400 of these for the outdoor shower we're planning!
Recipe:
- 4 parts water
- 2 parts chopped straw
- 7 parts soil (ours is pretty clay-rich)
- 7 parts sand
I think in the next batch we'll try 6 parts of both the soil and sand, which will hopefully make the mix a little less chunky. This would make the ratios as follows: 2 water, 1 straw, 3 soil, 3 sand. We'll let you know how it does in our outdoor bathroom/shower build series. Hope you can stop back to check it out!
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No mask lecture at the beginning AND a Star Wars crawl? SUBBED, lol
😂🤣😂 Thanks!
I know the video you watched.
There is another “seismic” Adobe brick video in Spanish with subtitles. In South America they have been building with adobe before the Spanish arrived.
The ratio from that video:
4 sand to 1 clay
(They didn’t state what the clay content of the soil was.)
Dry bricks in shade.
Brick surface should remain rough, do not smooth with water. This helps mortar/mud bonding to the bricks.
Their brick sizes were 30cm x 30cm x 10cm
Approximately 12” x 12” x 4”
Half brick 15cm x 30cm x 10cm
Sounds about right!
Those bricks turned out pretty nice. Beautiful view of the mountains and the clouds in the sky.
Thanks! 👍 We do love the views out here.
I made adobe bricks with my grandpa when I was 11yrs old. And living in NM he said that it's best not to turn them over until the top side started to turn white before you turn them over on their sides. And there is really no need to scrap the bottom side if they have been curing in your sand pit you created under where your laying your brick mold
Awesome! Thanks for the tips! 👍
I making a adole house with my grandfather and I am going to remember him for along time
Nice way to make Adobe bricks for construction. Very nice and informative video. Went with it till it's conclusion
Thank you.
Thank you for the video! Great looking bricks 😊
Glad you like them! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for showing us your process and end product. I bet that is not as much fun as it looks like, watching you guys do it. 🤣😂🤣
Take care and stay safe,
Rob
Thanks, Rob. It wasn't too bad just making these few, but not looking forward to making hundreds! 😬😓😭
Getting them hands dirty! Love it!👍
Yes! It’s a lot of fun! Thanks Jim and Jess.
i really liked this video, good explanations!
Thanks Matt! It was fun. We are going to be making a LOT more. We appreciate ya! 😄
Wow thanks. I will try
Thanks so much for watching.
They turned out very nice 😊
Thanks so much! ❤️😊
These are good looking bricks! I like the size of them too. Building a wall with those bricks should go pretty fast. Great video you two! 👍😀
Yes. They are heavy! 😆 Thanks Yvonne!
Good starting and preparation for the coming project.. Going slow but steady... 👍
You’re so right. ❤️😃Thanks so much Faheem.
@@MidlifePrices it's nice to hear my name from Pam.😃
Helped a ton
Thanks!
Very nice
Thanks!
Sweet!! Nice job... Brian and Pam !!! 👍😊
Thanks so much! Hopefully y’all are doing well. 😊❤️👍
MidlifePrices
Yes!! Thankyou 😊would love to get to see you soon !!
You made that look so easy!!
Seems like everything we embark on is dang hard work !!
Very inspiring !! 😊😊😊
AaliYah Tova Lol. It was a lot easier with Brian helping me. Lol. Now it’s getting hot and it’s brutal.
MidlifePrices
Oh my. gosh!!! Isn’t that the truth !!
Trying to get something done is like a snail trying to get to Tucson!!!😊 a long hard journey!!
Very good breather super
Thanks!
Thanks!
Have fun with it!
Hey guys! We have made and tested some bricks made some soil at Contentment! We need to find more clay! Thanks for sharing this!
That is awesome!
Nice progress Pam and Brian! Keep up the great work! Excited to eventually see the end result! I'm trying to keep up with you guys and all of your neighbors who are also doing major builds! Once you guys are all finished with your homes, then what? LOL!!!! Brian, how is the solar project going? Thats what I really want to see! Cheers!
Brian is getting very close with the solar. I promise. 😄 Thanks so much for sticking with us. The wheels are in motion. He should have a video out on it in the next few days. Thanks 😊 Pam
I realized I forgot to answer your question. So when we are done with our house, we plan on focusing on some really fun projects. For example: building an outdoor bar/kitchen. I have a really cool idea where there will be rope swings for seats. It’s going to be pretty cool! Also some other neat ideas. Thanks for asking. 😊
Legend has it that if your soil is high clay content it's desirable to add 10% lime to your water or 10% cement if your soil is high sand content. Or just use 5% asphalt emulsion for either.
Good tip! 👍
im in AZ and planning to build with DIY adobe. i have a bit of a different idea instead of bricks to take most of the steps out. i seen a guy using a sock net and making long tubes of adobe in it the diameter of a 5gal bucket. he would tamp each run flat. gave me an idea i want to experiment with. i was thinking a slip form, make a form say a foot deep the width of the wall. same as your form for bricks but no center dividers. fill and let dry a week or so then move the form up and do another run. saves flipping, stacking and then brick and mortering them. eliminates a lot of handling them. . also thinking ill use a power cement mixer. i think ill be shooting for whispering ranch once the housing bubble pops
Sounds like a fine idea. I haven't done any research on how the properties of a long continuous run like that would hold up to compressive forces, cracking, weather, etc. It's possible there could be a drawback to making a continuous run like that, so hopefully that's not the case. What you're describing is very similar to earthbag and hyperadobe construction, but they just leave the materials inside of the form (the bag). I suppose if you plaster over the whole thing before they have a chance to get exposed to too much weather, the end result would be pretty much the same? Good luck!
@@MidlifePrices i did a little digging and the idea is not new....sad im not the inventor. joy, its been done and tested haha. there is 2 ways they did it. one is using forms to do sections at a time like a castle crenellation. leving gaps in the run. then filling those gapes as a part of doing the next run....."cast in place" and i saw one do a slip form with plywood and a runny mix they pored with a cement mixer and did a 4ft tall run at a time. tho it had alot of cosmetic voids they just filled with stucko mix.
Never let it be said that you two are an "Earthy" lot. Cheers, Mate.
😂👍❤️ We definitely are. Thanks for watching.
A dry mix is just that...dryer. You can remove the mold immediately with a dry mix and cracking is typically less. With "wet' mixes you have to leave the forms for 18-24 hours which requires your having multiple forms on hand.
Oh ok. Interesting. Thanks
Pam ad Brian - That looks something like Adobe in Action's formula for a "wet" mix. Will you also try a "dry" mix? I will probably try both to see what has best compression strength with my soil when I get there. You can put plastic over the top to slow evaporation to help mitigate cracking. I can't wait to see your finished bathhouse!
I can’t wait to get started also! I haven’t heard of dry mix. I’ll check it out. We did watch Adobe in action. Good eye. 😊❤️ Thanks so much! Pam
Just made my first 3 bricks. No straw, so I used pine needles. Not very fun to mix with bare hands lol.
I have no idea if mine will work or not, but I was able to take my mold off right after packing them and they have held their shape for 30 minutes so far. I really hope this works cuz I have a ton of materials and hate spending money!
Seems like I needed a lot less water then I thought
Interesting substitution! Sometimes, you just have to work with what you've got. Hope that does the trick for you. Having to use less water in your situation makes some sense to me, as I imaging the pine needles would absorb less water than straw would. There are actually a lot of different fibers that can serve the purpose you're looking for to give the mix additional strength. My only concern would be that the needles not really being "absorbent" would limit their ability to "bind" the mix together, but I don't know. Love to hear how it works out! Good luck!
@@MidlifePrices huh, makes a lot of sense when you say the needles may not absorb enough water to bind. That is kinda my problem now lol, made 3 bricks, mold broke on first brick so shapes are all a little different. Thin paver cracked a few days later (dog stomped on it) but the other 2 are doing well. Not dry yet though. The chunk that broke is like concrete in places, but flaky kind of in others. I do have some chopped straw for my garden, maybe I will try some of that for the meat batch.
Hi Pam and Brian, the bricks look really good. 💕 NonnaGrace
Thanks so much!
I've seen a number of videos about this now, and nobody seems to say where they get their straw. Is this something you'd go to a feed store for? Or a landscaping company?
We got ours from a local feed store.
I've watched many many earthen building videos and this is the first that left the mixture in the form after pouring. That would take forever to build an inventory of material, no?
I guess it could take a while, depending on how many you want to make. Of course, you can always make multiple forms, too!
This might be a dumb question but do you not need to fire those up? What if they get rained on?
Excellent and valid point! These are not really meant to stand up to prolonged weather exposure on their own. We fully intend to cover anything we build with these with some form of earthen plaster that will contain some form of weathering prevention.
How do you stick them together? What takes the place of mortar?
Guess you could do just about anything you would do with normal bricks. Depends on what they're exposed to. If indoors, could just mud them together, but if exposed to weather, would probably have to use some cement in the mix or cover the whole setup with a waterproof plaster.
Whoa! I seriously doubted that would be enough liquid for 14 measures of soil and sand but look at that! If you just got into a habit of doing this everyday you would accumulate enough bricks for your shower and toilet room PDQ! Once you get the habit of the small batch larger batches would look easier too! Well maybe once in a while you could do larger batches lol Easy for me to say eh? Since you have a willing partner now you just have to develop a system and breaking it up will speed the process (I image lol). I have to have a system to make real progress. Maybe a LARGE pile of sand and another of loose soil always at the ready for daily brick mixing. Some boxes or bags of chopped straw so it is easily contained but not having to make it for each batch... Hmmm I would help if I was a neighbor!
You got it! Systems are what it's all about. You sound like an engineer, too! Definitely all valid points. Just gotta get it on the to-do list now.
It's real awesome that most of the materials come right from your land! I was surprised that you guys didn't do the mud stomp mix with a tarp and your bare feet, maybe next time. LOL Thanks for sharing. Shalom Tom from Mesa
We have used the tarp way before and I prefer this way. However we will be getting a concrete mixer soon since we need to make a LOT. Thanks for watching. 👌🏽😀❤️ Pam
@@MidlifePrices A concrete mixer is a SMART idea! Love your intro and your videos all the way from Mesa!
Will hay work instead of straw?
Valid question! There are a few key reasons you would NOT want to use hay instead of straw. Andrew Morrison answers that very question here: www.strawbale.com/straw-bale-houses-not-hay-bale-homes/, but I'll try to sum up quickly:
1. hay is food, straw is not
2. hay is baled with a much higher moisture content, which can lead to decomposition and possibly fire
3. hay can continue to grow after bailing, while straw cannot
Summary: Hay is for horses, straw is for houses.
Hope that answers it. Thanks!
What is best season / weather to make
Can we make more bigger around 12 inch x 5.5 inch
What is best material composition and ration for adobe bricks ?
With clay sanf we also use hay shredded and cow dung also here in India
I would think you could make them anytime, as long as they're not getting rained on directly. Other than that, it should only affect the drying time. For the size, ours are 10" x 14". The mix should be good for just about any size, within reason, as long as adequate drying time is allowed. I suppose the best thing to do is just make a couple of test bricks and see how they come out. Just remember that they will only have to withstand a compression force from being stacked, so any sort of "drop" test isn't necessarily the best way to test their strength. Our ratios are listed in the description and mentioned in the video, but every soil is different, so again probably best to do a test batch. Best of luck!
Does it require water curing ?
And how many days are required to dry them.
Summers at my location are may June 36 to 22 degree, Jan Feb Winters are 6 to 22 degree
Ours pretty much dry overnight, but we're pretty dry and warm here.
Any update on what they're like today?
Yes. Just put a video out on my other channel. Thanks so much.
I have a video that I made today on the bricks. They are holding up well. Thanks!💗😊
which is faster, economical, stronger & aesthetic - cob vs earth bag vs adobe earth
Tough to answer. All have plusses and minuses. I think largely personal preference.
How waterproof are your bricks ?
They aren’t waterproof. But they are still intact and standing. 😊❤️ thanks so much! Pam
@@MidlifePrices do you think I could use the same type of bricks in an environment that snows and rains ?
@@JaguarPriest I think so, but then again I’m not an expert. There are ways to plaster that will protect from water. Lime plaster is a great way. We will be covering that in the future. Hopefully the very near future. 😊 thanks, Pam
Thats the long way of doing it. Should remove the mold right away and make as many as you can. Not wait 24 hrs before you hit the next batch.
We weren't sure if we could pull them right away, but I think you're right. Thanks!
@@MidlifePrices you are welcome
That bucket is not a quart. It's got to be somewhere between 2 and 3 quarts, possibly 4 (making it a gallon), but not likely. Easy way to measure this is getting a 1 quart Ball jar, fill it with water, and see how many of those will fill that bucket.
It's been a while, so I don't remember, but the real key to all of this is being consistent from batch to batch.
Good video I mixed with my feet 👣 and it’s very delicate 👣
👍
Awww... you white folks make bricks so cute, like watching your kids mix and bake a cake for the first time ! Brick came out sufficient I guess. There are several tests you can do on the bricks to check strength of your mix tho. Work it into the form a little bit more and you won't have those ugly choppy edges ! Don't stop. Solid A for effort 👍!
Thanks for the comment and advice. Interesting that it matters what color we are, though. 🤔
White folks? 😮
Lose the music!
No thanks 😃!
Annoying!!
That's constructive 🤔. Thanks.