Building with earth - Gernot MINKE (1)

Floor tiles
Prefabricated tiles made with stabilised
earth can be used for flooring. One advantage
is that since they are already dry, shrinkage
only occurs in joints. Miller, Grigutsch
and Schulze (1947, p. 5) recommend the
use of Fe 3 O 4 , oxblood and tar in order to
stabilise these tiles and provide them with
surface hardness. Tests at the Building
Research Laboratory (BRL) showed that a
high degree of surface hardness could be
obtained by adding 6% double-boiled linseed
oil in conjunction with compacting the
surface and using floor wax as a polish.
Methods of increasing surface hardness are
described in chapter 14, p. 112.
Extruded loam slabs
7. 9
Illustration 7.13 shows extruded green loam
slabs consisting of a loam with high clay
content. They are extruded 3 to 10 cm thick,
50 cm wide and cut into lengths of up to
100 cm or more. -
7.11 7.13
7.8 to 7.9 Structural
elements filled with lightweight
loam
7.10 Infill loam elements
for floors
7.11 Load-bearing
cement-stabilised lightweight
loam infills,
Hungary
7.12 Load-bearing loam
floor slabs
7.13 Extruded loam
slabs, Germany
7. 8
7.10 7.12
71
Larger blocks