Here’s a great, low cost way to build floors with compressed earth blocks. This Instructable is by Velacreations. Visit their website for more great ideas.
When considering what material to use for a floor, few people look beyond a concrete slab, with something like tile or carpet as a finish. For us, however, there were several factors that made a stabilized compressed earth brick (SCEB) [or just CEB for short] floor far more appealing, including cost, skill, and time required.
Read the rest of the article for free at Cheap and Easy Brick Floors Instructable
We were lucking enough to have someone producing these locally, so we bought them at about $.15 a piece, and they are 1/2 a square foot.
I’ve seen a local of manual presses down here, and a few machine presses. I recently saw one that produced 16 bricks a minute.
Making them yourself is a decent option is you have decent soil and some extra hands to help with the labor.
I like the idea of buying CEBs already made if you can get them at low cost. Construction is quite time consuming and so I look for ways to speed things up. Buying them also means you don’t need to invest in another machine or tool.
That was a beautiful floor. Owen, Do you have a Brick Press?
I have been looking at the open source ecology project and they have a press. I was thinking of getting one done and have in thailand.
http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/CEB_Prototype_1_Fab
I saw they are selling them for $8000. I was thinking more getting one fabricated in a metal workshop somewhere.
We plan to shoot a CEB video this coming week at Phu Phan Research Center. Their press is made in Thailand and it’s way better than the open source design. Keep in mind that Thailand has been at this over 30 years and has thousands of small shops making CEBs. I highly recommend buying this same brand. In the video I’ll note the brand and contact info for readers. Stay tuned.
Wow, I didn’t know that. I have to say that your videos and sharing info is gold stuff.
Is there any way someone on the other side of the world can contribute. Im going to give you a visit when I go down to Khonkaen this summer.
Sure, stop by for a visit. Maybe we can go to the Phu Phan Research Center. This is just one reason why I love Thailand so much. There are several thousand Royal research projects like this employing the best minds over several decades. It’s so inspiring. Most people don’t know about this because the information is in Thai. I’m trying to figure out how to make it more widely available in English.