Cob:smashing Brick

[Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder]

using human labor to smash a brick that costs 20 cents ( or even free) 
to get the red color  could more easily be served by buying a sack of 
red pigment for ~$3.00 ( these are meant for cement base mixes and can 
usually be used for lime too.)

also broken bricks can be rubbed together to get the red powder, but 
adding it to a plaster will damp down the color to pink. I have 
collected broken red bricks and the powder resulting from sitting in a 
pile, and it makes a nice pozzolanic additive to my plasters.  any fired 
brick that is ground up is a binding agent in a lime plaster, making it 
harder.  but this free brick dust was just scooped up into a pail, no 
smashing.

red clay, added to plaster can also give a red color, but if it is a 
lime plaster the color will lighten due to the lime, to a nice pale 
orange or paler red/pink again.

Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com    http://www.papercrete.com
PO Box 375, Cutten (Eureka) CA 95534 707-441-1632     tms at northcoast.com