Earthen floors (was: Cob in Snow)

[M J Epko]

>>BTW I am curious about Earth Floors...  Can you put them over foamboard
>>insulation like a poured concrete floor?  Would be real useful as a passive
>>solar floor thusly.

	The Steens have an earthen floors booklet available which suggests
straw-clay as an insulater. Bill told me he thought that foam sheets below
earth floors would lead to cracking of the floor at the edges of the
sheets, that the sheets would tend to crush there. Have to admit that I'm
skeptical of that contention, but he's smarter'n me... and my personal
choice would be the straw-clay anyway. He's said that it's hard to work
with, because it has to be well-tamped before the earthen floor goes on -
and that when you tamp it you have to do so sideways because if just
squishes out from under the tamper and nothing really gets accomplished.
Seems to me a person could make manually-compacted straw-clay blocks pretty
easily and lay them in before the floor starts. No prob.



   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Freewheeling autonomous speculation - Think!
      Personality #7 represents only itself.
    M J Epko - duckchow at mail2.greenbuilder.com
               Kingston, New Mexico
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       There is nothing lacking in you
       and you yourself are no different 
       from the Buddha. There is no other 
       way of achieving Buddhahood than 
       letting your mind free to be itself.
                                 - Tao Hsin