Building with earth - Gernot MINKE (1)

8.28
Wall types
Due to shrinkage of 3% to 5%, long elements
are not recommended. Illustration
8.28 shows several possibilities for internal
and external walls using shorter elements.
Solution C in this figure is only intended for
exterior walls. The space between the two
extruded loam walls can be filled with lightweight
bulk material such as cork particles,
expanded clay, pumice etc., to increase thermal
insulation. Structural elements can also
be positioned in this space. If the other walls
illustrated need to be provided with thermal
insulation, a common solution is given in
8.31, the U-value of the illustrated wall
being 0.295 W/m 2 K.
Illustrations 8.27, 8.29 and 8.30 show work
done on a residential house in Germany,
with smaller extruded loam profiles
obtained from a brick manufacturing plant.
Due to the production process, this loam
had to have higher clay content, causing
a large number of shrinkage problems;
repairing the cracks that occurred turned
out to be very time-consuming.
8.31
8.29
8.30
79
Direct forming