Rammed earth and pumice-Crete are wall construction with several things in common. Both have significant thermal mass, with relatively green and sustainable design are two voices in place with standard concreting methods.
Rammed earth is a very old building system. There are examples still in use in the United States from the 1850s and China in the 16th Mingth century dynasty. Today's technology for rammed earth uses high-tech, reusable concrete forms, form clips and snap ties, developed and stabilized soils and pneumatic manipulated to compress the soil mixture.
Shuttering can be re-used many times and are usually made of plywood, and 2x4s, which can easily be cut to any size taken. They are not as durable as custom-designed aluminum die cast panels, which are also used. The forms are all 16-36 inches apart massively thick outer walls form. The molding clips are set in the holding plate to the bottom of the plates are arranged and fixed at regular intervals snap bonds. The bonds that hold the spacer forms at the same time accurate distance from each other in resisting the pressure of the ground mixture, which is attached to and compressed in the molds.
Local soils are used from the site, if they will have suitable properties. You must have the correct ratio of gravel, sand, silt and clay, each defined by the particle size. About 5 percent Portland cement mixes for sandy or 7 percent lime are added for silty mix to be the life to stabilize the soil mix and increased. An exact amount of water is added to obtain a maximum compaction and density. The mixture is placed in molds in the 8 - to 10 - inch lifts and each stage is manipulated with pneumatic or hand compacted to nearly half its original height. Each time a lift is completed more mix, given to the forms and compacted, increasing the height of the wall slowly reached up to the storage height. A concrete bond beam is poured around the entire connection of all external walls and effectively tie them together to transverse forces. The roof is then built on top of the bond beam.
Pumice-Crete is a lightweight concrete mixture with pea-sized pumice for the aggregate and just enough Portland cement and water to lightly coat each pebble. When it mixed with the proper proportions and concrete forms it "honeycomb" air pocket in the wall between each piece of pumice. Too much water and Portland affect the insulating properties by in all air spaces with cement, although it weakens not enough water and Portland the wall.
Pumice is frothy lava that has solidified. It is very low density, approximately 90 percent porous and will initially float when placed in water. Pumice-Crete is dosed at the local concrete plant and delivered at regular concrete trucks. The walls are formed usually 14 to 24 inches thick used with the same type of forms for rammed earth.
Both materials are "poured in place" as known systems and have many beneficial properties. Rammed earth is beautiful by itself and does not require additional plaster on the outside or inside, and the textural surface of pumice concrete with little prop work to be plastered. They each offer a good thermal mass, keeping the internal temperature of the house stable helps: warm in winter and cool in summer. They have also both dampen sound between rooms as well as noise from outside. The materials are green, because they contain a relatively small amount of gray energy. Embodied energy is the sum of the energy in the mining, manufacturing, delivery, and of a product or material....
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