Pallet Floors

We recently discussed Eleven Earth Floor Methods. Here’s another low cost floor method to consider. The drawing above is pretty much self explanatory, but here are the basic steps and a few options. First, create a level, stable base with tamped road base, subsoil or crusher fines. You could use scoria or pumice in cold … Read more

How to Make a “Doma” Tamped Earth Floor

“If you are looking for a cheap way to make a hard floor in a foyer, in a shed, or barn, you may want to consider a tamped earth floor, or what is called “tataki” or “douma” in Japanese. Japanese buildings have all historically been tamped earth or wooden flooring. Some temples have earth floors … Read more

Terracotta Tile Floor Instructions

Ziggy, over at The Year of Mud blog, has done it again. Over and over he comes up with some of the clearest, most in-depth blog posts on low cost natural building techniques, and his photos are always superb. Here’s a snippet from his blog about how to lay terracotta floor tile using clay mortar … Read more

Geopolymer Pavers

This new idea comes from two recent blog posts. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to read the blog post about How They Built the Pyramids. Geopolymer is a subject I’ll be returning to again and again because it makes so much sense on so many levels. In addition, the blog post last … Read more

Soil Cement Pavers

This video is by David Easton, the well known owner of Rammed Earth Works in California and author of The Rammed Earth House, the best selling book on the subject. Here’s Wiki’s description: “Soil cement is a construction material, a mix of pulverized natural soil with small amount of Portland cement and water, usually processed … Read more