[Cob] about tiling on earthen floor

[Howard Switzer]

I concur with Tys on all this.

Regarding the linseed oil it is my understanding that you do not want to
mix oil into the mud mix becasue it is a water based material and once the
water dries out of it there are micro spaces for which oil is used to fill
those spaces hardening the floor.
If the floor is not as hard as you like it could be due to their not being
enough sand in the mix but there are limits.







Howard Switzer
668 Hurricane Creek Road
Linden, TN 37096
931 589 6513
www.earthandstraw.com

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model
obsolete.”
― Richard Buckminster Fuller
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/165737.Richard_Buckminster_Fuller>


On Tue, Oct 30, 2018 at 9:34 PM Tys Sniffen <tys at ideamountain.com> wrote:

> I'm just going to throw some quick answers/opinions here that might help
> clear things up for you a bit.  Others with other experience may have other
> opinions.
>
> 1. Tiling on an earthen floor in a kitchen.
> When we did tiles on top of earthen floor, we did not do it on the finished
> floor, but rather on the final subfloor.  The tiles simply were set down on
> DRIED, flat, raised-to-the-final-height-minus-the-tile-thickness, rough
> earthen floor with the typical stuff from the store - thin set, it's
> called.  Then, we did our finished earthen floor up to the same height as
> the tiles, so there was no lip.   We've not had any problems with these in
> the 7 years of walking on them. (they're in front of all the doors)
>
> 2. Tiling in a shower
> don't rely on any sort of earthen solution to hold up without real water
> barriers.  Look at a tiling book about tiling a shower floor and follow the
> correct instructions around a pvc/rubber sheet below the tiles.  You CAN
> put this sheet on top of rough, DRY, earthen floor.
>
> 3. Linseed Oil
> It sounds like you are talking about mixing in the oil INTO the earthen
> plaster for the floor.  that is NOT how I understand it to be done, and not
> how I did it.  we put down a smooth earthen plaster and when dry, put down
> many coats of hot linseed oil.  My floor is not as hard as I would like it,
> but it does ok.  Make sure you're clear on this before you start.
>
> 4. Sand and Clay content
> There's no way for anyone on the internet to judge your clay and sand.  Do
> the brick experiments, and every other experiment you can find out about.
> Then you'll know.  Take the time to do the experiments. It's worth it.
>
> Tys
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 30, 2018 at 10:00 AM <coblist-request at deatech.com> wrote:
>
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> > Today's Topics:
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> >    1. Tile layed over earthen floor (Alessandra Caprara)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2018 11:36:43 -0300
> > From: Alessandra Caprara <lelecaprara at gmail.com>
> > To: "coblist at deatech.com" <coblist at deatech.com>
> > Subject: [Cob] Tile layed over earthen floor
> > Message-ID:
> >         <CAOYPeGPwdCjWJor3n6LCQrnt=
> > XmN9ZuiWWz1QQ-3vEKPhXsRRw at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> >
> > Good morning!
> > I’ve made a search using “cob tile” words in my email and I was reading
> all
> > messages about it because I am looking for recipes to glue the tiles over
> > my tapped earthen floor. I want to do that in my tiny bathroom (1x3m to
> > cover - in the shower area we have a bath instaled) and in part of my
> > kitchen arround the sink and the wood burning stove. Not only because I
> am
> > concerned about the wet but also with the cleaning issues.
> > Well, I’ve found a 1:3 clay sand and lots of linseed oil. Here we have a
> > clay with lots of coarse sand and it gave me lots of questions: does have
> > the clay here sand enough? Being the sand a coarse and squared shape do I
> > have to screen it and mix another tipe of rounded and finer sand? How
> much
> > oil do I need to mix?
> > Another question I have is about the mix to fix the tile and to grout the
> > tile. I think this question is more about my problems with english
> > language. To fix the tile I don’t need to add oil and I must to do it in
> > the mix I will use to fill the gaps between the tiles. Is that right?
> > Do I need to use a really thin layer to fix the tile? And do I must to
> wait
> > it to dry completely? How do I know it is dry?
> > The tapped base floor is dry right now, but we are in the wet season what
> > means it’s raining almost every day.
> > I’m sorry so many questions. It is my first house I’m doing myself and I
> am
> > only a veterinarian.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > --
> > Alessandra Caprara
> >
> >
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