Construction portal. Adobe brick: do-it-yourself production technology Water resistance and thermal insulation characteristics

If the conversation starts about production, they mostly imagine: a fleet of vehicles, a lot of equipment, thousands of workers, areas with huge premises. A large number of CIS industries are built in this way, but these plants are not entirely optimized. High profitability modern production created not by size, but by suitable and the latest equipment with a short payback. Modern optimized factories are replacing the previous type of factories.

Business ideas related to the production of inexpensive but effective products are constantly relevant. building materials. For any entrepreneur, whether a beginner or an established businessman, the more attractive an idea is, the easier it is to implement and the less expensive it is. The production of adobe bricks fully meets these business criteria.

Its indicators speak in favor of adobe:

low price of adobe brick;
energy efficiency;
environmental cleanliness;
easy technological accessibility of production and use;
good sound insulation;
adobe house with my own hands Even non-professionals can build it.

It's easy to make adobe brick!

The technology for making adobe is very simple. In a nutshell, it involves thoroughly kneading a mixture of clay with water and straw, followed by molding and drying. Over the millennia, the essence of this technology has not changed. Technological progress has made adjustments only to the means of production, which largely concerns industrial volumes.

Those who want to build an energy-efficient house themselves can make adobe for their future building with their own hands. To understand how to make adobe brick with your own hands good quality One day is enough.

This is how molded adobe is made

The clay is soaked in water, kneaded and straw 10-18 cm long is added, possibly with other cellulose additives. The container for mixing can be a hole dug to a depth of 40 cm, or a trough made from scrap materials. The size of the container depends on the volume of the mass being kneaded. This whole mixture is thoroughly kneaded with bare feet or horses. The indicator of readiness is the moment when the clay leaves the legs or hooves. Essentially, this is a ready-made adobe mixture.

To form bricks, use rectangular shapes from wood materials without bottom and top. Dimensions are selected based on a specific project or arbitrary, convenient for laying, usually 40x20x20 cm. Bricks are formed on prepared flooring, sprinkled with fine straw, or sand.

Typically, sectional forms are used, designed from 2 to 4 bricks. It should be taken into account that during the drying process the linear dimensions of adobe bricks decrease by approximately 10% in relation to the dimensions of the mold. More accurately, changes in size can only be determined experimentally, since it depends on the quality of the raw material and its proportions.

The molds are easily removed if their walls are moistened with water and sprinkled with sand or straw. The finished adobe mass is pressed into them, the excess is removed from above with a moistened board. If the form is easily removed, leaving behind a strictly rectangular smooth brick, then the composition is mixed correctly. A day later, the bricks are stacked on top of each other in the shape of a well or pyramid with windows in which natural air movement will ensure further drying. Complete drying depends on weather conditions and occurs from ten to a month.

For commercial volumes, manual labor is not enough

The described method is acceptable for providing adobe material for your own construction. Commercial production cannot do without mechanization, because the number of bricks made manually will clearly not bring an acceptable profit.

The degree of mechanization can be different and depends on the planned volumes of sales of adobe bricks and financial capabilities, including attracting loans. Manufacturers have saturated the market various mechanisms for the production of molded construction products. Options are available for both purchasing equipment for the production of adobe bricks in a complex, and for selectively completing production. Many adobe manufacturers transfer only the most labor-intensive operation onto the shoulders of machines - kneading the adobe mass, and leave the rest for manual labor.

Quality control in adobe production

Every production needs quality control, and adobe brick is no exception. Fortunately, in this case, it is very simple and does not require special means and qualifications. Raw materials are subject to control, technological process and ready-made adobe bricks.

With straw everything is very simple - dry and not rotting. There are also certain requirements for clay. The most suitable clay is medium fat. Making adobe bricks from dry clay is unacceptable. Fatty can be used with the addition of a certain amount of sand. The simplest and time-tested way to determine the fat content of clay is to knead well with your hands (until the clay stops sticking to your hands) a ball with a diameter of about 5 cm and squeeze it until cracks appear. Optimal fat content is when cracks occur when squeezed by a quarter. The appearance of cracks earlier indicates too high a fat content. If cracks appear when compressed by a tenth, this clay cannot be used, as it is very dry.

During the manufacturing process, the quality of the mixture is controlled - it is impeccable when the mixture itself lags behind the mixer or the legs (depending on what it is used to do).

The quality of finished adobe bricks has been tested throughout the centuries. The simplest method is to throw a brick on the ground from 1.7-2 meters. With proper quality, chips or cracks are unacceptable. Otherwise, claims may arise regarding the raw materials, the amount of additives, or the quality of the batch. Another good way to check is to drive a nail. After this, the adobe should remain intact and hold the nail firmly in itself. When immersed in water, a good adobe brick does not become limp within a day.

What else is needed to produce adobe?

A prerequisite to open your own adobe brick production– availability of sufficient space for placing raw materials, drying blocks and ready-made bricks. It should be noted that straw can be prepared for the whole year only during the mowing period. Long-term drying of adobe bricks requires a large area. You also need a place to store clay, possible additives and finished products. And all this should be compactly placed, as close to the mixing point as possible.

Suitable clay is available in most parts of the country. Production requires large quantity water.

The most important condition is desire and entrepreneurial spirit!

Source: http://www.rabota-tam.com/proizvodstvo-samannogo-kirpicha/

Production of adobe bricks

Adobe is one of the most economical building materials. It consists of clay, sand, filler and water. Anyone can make adobe brick with their own hands if they wish, which is why it is so widely used for the construction of buildings. various types. The price of ingredients for building materials is low, and the practicality of adobe buildings is undeniable.

Houses made of adobe bricks are fireproof and in terms of durability and strength are not inferior to buildings for the construction of which building bricks are used. Since adobe building material has low thermal conductivity, indoors all year round a comfortable temperature is maintained.

Adobe house

Another positive feature of this building material is the presence of large pores in it, which ensures a normal level of humidity in the house. But, like any other building material, it has its own weak sides. One of the main disadvantages is the material's ability to absorb moisture.

When building a house from adobe brick, it is very important to limit the penetration of moisture onto the walls. To do this, it is necessary to veneer or plaster the walls, create an overhang for the roof and blind areas, and also pay attention to Special attention waterproofing the foundation and basement of the building.

Making adobe bricks

First of all, to make adobe, you need to prepare all the material. Brick is made in several stages, each of which will be discussed below.

Component Selection

Choosing clay

The percentage of sand content in it plays a key role when choosing clay for making bricks at home.

So, clay can be classified into:

oily (2-3% sand);
medium fat content (about 15% sand);
skinny (more than 30% sand).

It is better to give preference to medium-fat or fatty clay, since the use of lean clay can lead to crumbling of the adobe product. Using medium-fat clay is a fairly economical solution, because in this case you can do without sand.

However, it is not always possible to exclude it from the list of ingredients for adobe mass; it all depends on its percentage in the clay.

You can determine the sand content in clay different ways, here are two of them:

It is necessary to make a dough from clay, that is, mix a little clay with water. The mixture should be thick.

Then the algorithm of actions is as follows:

roll a ball (4-5 cm in diameter);
place it between two planed boards in a horizontal position;
press on the top board until cracks appear on the ball;

With an average fat content of the dough, cracks form when the distance between the boards decreases by 1/3 of the diameter of the ball, if the dough is fat, when this distance is halved, but if the solution is thin, the ball will begin to crumble at the very start.

We make the dough from clay (the instructions are the same) and start checking:

roll out “sausages” 15-20 cm long and 1-1.5 cm in diameter;
stretch them until they break.

Fatty dough stretches and leaves sharp ends when broken. Medium-fat dough also stretches well, but when it breaks, it leaves blunt ends, and the diameter decreases by 5-6 times. As for skinny clay, it breaks at the very beginning.

Sand selection

The most the best option Coarse sand is used to make adobe. It is not recommended to use river sand for this purpose, but sea sand is not suitable at all.

Filler selection

Filler for adobe

The filler in adobe plays a role liaison, so you can’t go wrong with his choice. There are many suitable fibrous materials. The most common components of adobe brick mass are straw (cut 6-10 cm) and clay.

The required amount of additives is determined by the degree of fat content of the clay:

fatty clay - 14-17 kg of filler;
clay of medium fat content - 9-11 kg of filler.

Kneading adobe mixture

First of all, you should dig a pit in which the adobe will be mixed.

Its dimensions depend on the amount of building material required, but on average they should be as follows:

depth - 35-55 cm;
width - 120-160 cm;
length - 200-270 cm.

At the next stage, you should line the bottom and walls of the dug pit. plastic film so that no soil gets into the mixture.

Then at the bottom of the pit it is necessary to lay a layer of clay, the thickness of which should vary from 15 to 30 cm. After this, the clay should be filled with water and left overnight. This procedure necessary to make it pliable for kneading.

Pit with clay

The next day, the clay must be kneaded (walk on it with your feet) to soften the lumps and sift out the slag. After this you can add sand. After mixing the sand and clay, filler should be added (it must be moistened with water before adding).

Then the mass must be allowed to stand for 1-2 days, after which it must be kneaded again. If necessary, you can add water so that the adobe has optimal thickness.

Welcome to the magazine about business and finance “Rabota-Tam”.

Business ideas related to the production of inexpensive but effective building materials are constantly relevant. For any entrepreneur, whether a beginner or an established businessman, the more attractive an idea is, the easier it is to implement and the less expensive it is. The production of adobe bricks fully meets these business criteria.

Its indicators speak in favor of adobe:

low price of adobe brick;
energy efficiency;
environmental cleanliness;
easy technological accessibility of production and use;
good sound insulation;
Even non-professionals can build an adobe house with their own hands.

It's easy to make adobe brick!

Those who want to build an energy-efficient house themselves can make adobe for their future building with their own hands. One day is enough to understand how to make good quality adobe bricks with your own hands.

This is how molded adobe is made

To form bricks, rectangular shapes made of wood materials without a bottom and top are used. Dimensions are selected based on a specific project or arbitrary, convenient for laying, usually 40x20x20 cm. Bricks are formed on prepared flooring, sprinkled with fine straw, or sand.

For commercial volumes, manual labor is not enough

The degree of mechanization can be different and depends on the planned volumes of sales of adobe bricks and financial capabilities, including attracting loans. Manufacturers have saturated the market with various mechanisms for the production of molded building products. Options are available for both purchasing equipment for the production of adobe bricks in a complex, and for selectively completing production. Many adobe manufacturers transfer to machines only the most labor-intensive operation - kneading the adobe mass, and leave the rest for manual labor.

Quality control in adobe production

Every production needs quality control, and adobe brick is no exception. Fortunately, in this case, it is very simple and does not require special tools or qualifications. Raw materials, technological process and finished adobe bricks are subject to control.

During the manufacturing process, the quality of the mixture is controlled - it is impeccable when the mixture itself lags behind the mixer or the legs (depending on what it is used to do).

What else is needed to produce adobe?

A prerequisite for opening your own is the availability of sufficient space for placing raw materials, drying blocks and finished bricks. It should be noted that straw can be prepared for the whole year only during the mowing period. Long-term drying of adobe bricks requires a large area. You also need a place to store clay, possible additives and finished products. And all this should be compactly placed, as close to the mixing point as possible.

Suitable clay is available in most parts of the country. Production requires a lot of water.

The most important condition is desire and entrepreneurial spirit!

Homemade adobe brick made from straw and clay is the oldest of known to mankind environmentally friendly building materials. It is used for economical construction of houses in warm climates, and adobe is ubiquitous for outbuildings. At the heart of the simplest homemade bricks- a substrate based on clay and plant materials, straw is most often used. The adobe technology is very simple, and you can do without any technical means and make your own straw brick.

Composition and properties of the material

1. Saman has been known since Ancient Egypt, but they did it not for the pyramids, but for the settlements of poor workers or slaves. Today, adobe is popular in rural areas around the world, especially where there are no alternatives. The methods of making it and the proportions are described in ancient manuscripts, and until now nothing has changed except the varieties of straw. Although production technology has gone very far in our time, in many places it is known as the most available material- adobe photo.

2. For centuries, in the Ukrainian and Kuban steppes, where there is little wood, people gathered as a whole village and kneaded the mixture with their feet under the adobe for newlyweds to build on. What could be simpler - straw, water and clay are everywhere, adobe brick does not require firing, but was kneaded by the whole community with their feet and with the help of horses. People on all continents know how to make adobe, and this method of obtaining the simplest environmentally friendly building material remains quite in demand. High-quality adobe brick and a house made from it last for many years.

3. Natural ingredients of this material are practically lying underfoot, which makes it almost free, not counting the labor costs and wooden forms for filling a mixture of clay, water and straw. Houses made of adobe hold heat well, they are quite fire resistant and quite reliable, thanks to the clay, but the outside needs to be decorated. In Moldavian and Ukrainian villages, the outer wall was additionally plastered with clay and whitewashed with lime-chalk mortar.

4. It has long been noted that adobe buildings are most beneficial for the health of asthmatics, allergy sufferers and other people with weakened immune systems. Moving to countryside for the sake of an old adobe house it often becomes a necessary necessity. It is believed that a “clay house” breathes, regulates humidity and temperature, and absorbs harmful gases.

5. There are varieties of adobe bricks - according to the type of straw and proportional composition, so they distinguish between heavy adobe (75-80% clay), simple (40-60%) and light (10-20%), and the rest of the filler is organic. Heavy adobe is used for formwork and in the form of bricks for outer wall and near the stove, light straw brick - in houses frame type or for secondary walls.

Materials for adobe

Do-it-yourself adobe is made using 4 simple ingredients:

clay;
a little sand;
straw;
water.

You can use ready-made proportions; they will be discussed further, but it is better to make several samples of different compositions yourself to find the best option.

1. Ideal building clay is almost never found in nature, and a certain percentage of sand makes it most suitable. River sand is added to the fatty clay, which is pre-sifted. The clay also needs to be sorted with a shovel, stones and impurities removed, and left to mature to improve quality.

2. Ideal sand - coarse-grained about 1 mm, too fine, with high content salt and dust are not suitable. The sifted sand is dried, it is important that there is no debris, roots, or shells left in it - it is important to remove this so as not to get hurt when kneading.

3. Any fresh straw will do - barley, wheat, rye. It is important that it is not rotten, rotten or moldy, as spores can take root in the house.

4. Water is an equally important component of the adobe mixture, since it chemical composition can be destructive. As is known, from acid-base balance The microflora of the mixture and the durability of the adobe will depend. For this reason, they do not take water from swamps and stagnant ponds, but only clean, drinking or technical water - from a well, spring or well.

How to choose quality components for adobe

Clay is found everywhere, and in many villages it was chosen from landslides near the river. In any area, you can ask where local builders, stove makers or potters collect clay. Clay samples can be taken from different areas when digging deep holes, foundation pits or wells to find the most suitable adobe technology.

Clay may vary in its content of sand, salts, organic matter and mineral fillers. IN different places it has a different shade, consistency, viscosity or fat content. This property is determined by your fingers - take a little moistened clay and knead it in your hands until a 4-5 cm ball stops sticking to your hands, like ready dough. The lump should dry on a smooth, dry surface for 2-3 days.

Oily clay - when large cracks have formed on the ball, and small grooves up to 1-2 mm indicate that it is a good construction clay, especially if the dropped ball did not fall apart. Fine sand is added to the fatty clay, and the proportions are checked using repeated tests with a ball.

The second way is to make a larger ball that will fit in the palm of your hand and dry it in the sun for 1-2 hours. The finished ball is dropped from its height onto smooth surface, and if the ball is slightly crushed, cracked and does not fall apart, then the kneading was successful. A flattened ball without cracks requires more sand, while a crumbling ball requires too much sand.

The optimal choice of sand is quarry-mined. It is multifaceted and large, in contrast to the river one, which is rounded and polished, therefore, it has worse indicator clutch. It is not recommended to take sea sand - due to the high salt content, but if there is no other option, then use any sand that is available.

Straw from spring wheat has a lower content of stem wax, so in adobe brick it is less durable than winter wheat. When choosing straw or other plant-fibre filler, wheat is preferred, but other plant fibers are gradually added. IN different regions horsetail, moss, rice straw, cotton, wood shavings, seed husks, crushed corn leaves, hard hay, horse manure, etc. are mixed into the straw brick.

Composition proportions for adobe

The most suitable material for making adobe bricks with your own hands is frozen clay, which was folded into piles under a film and overwintered there.

It should be taken into account that you will need a lot of clay - for 1000 adobe bricks it will take about 6.5-7 m³ of clay, into which 2-3 shocks of straw will be mixed. For 1 cubic meter of adobe prepare:

for very oily clay, mix 1-2 parts with 1 part sand and 15-18 kg of filler;
for oily clay, 1 part sand and 12-15 kg of filler are mixed with 2-3 parts oily clay;
if the clay content is low, 1 part sand and up to 10 kg of straw or other plant fibers are mixed into 3-4 parts.

Straw take 2-4 parts per 1m³ of mixture, and the proportions of clay and sand can be:

Mold for adobe bricks and place for drying

Whatever the technology of adobe, the proportion of the mixture or the plant-fiber filler, the production of any molded building materials cannot be done without special molds. The only difference between this method is that multi-cell or single-cell wooden forms do not have a bottom. They look more like a small ladder with thin partitions and identical oblong holes than the usual metal or plastic box-shaped forms. Homemade straw bricks are usually made using homemade wooden molds - like in the adobe video.

Do-it-yourself wooden forms are made from planed boards no thicker than 35 mm; the width of the board determines the height of the end part of the adobe. Having decided on the remaining dimensions, for example, 20x20x40 cm, it is important to make a drawing of the form in order to cut the boards connected with screws at the joint. The shape should be light to make it convenient to carry; usually the number of cells varies between 1-5, and its edges are provided with handles, like the adobe in the photo.

So that when removing products from the mold, the adobe easily falls onto a smooth surface for drying, the walls of the mold should be as smooth as possible, the corners should be precisely adjusted to 90°. The area for excavating bricks is sprinkled with a small layer of straw or hay - this way the clay will not stick to the surface, and plant fibers are part of its composition. In an open area where rain is possible, the finished adobe is covered with film or an awning. Until completely dry, it will be stored for up to 2 weeks.

Tip: Remember that when the adobe dries, the size of the briquettes will decrease by about 8-10%, so for exact dimensions you can make the mold a little larger. To make the formed mixture easier to remove, the boards inside the cells are moistened and sprinkled with fine plant substrate or sand, but this is not necessary when the removal process goes without problems. After compacting the mixture, remove excess with a smooth board.

Place for mixing clay and straw and methods for mixing components

The main methods of mixing adobe mixture:

legs,
with the help of horses,
concrete mixer,
walk-behind tractor or walk-behind tractor.

To choose the most convenient way To obtain a high-quality mixture, it is important to know how it was done the old fashioned way, without technical means. In the villages, everyone was invited to do the kneading with their bare feet in a special shallow hole, and upon completion, everyone was entitled to a treat from the owners of the construction site. The second method was to lead a horse with a guide through the kneading pit. At the same time, the man walked along internal diameter, holding the horse by the reins and the horse by the outside. In this case, the reins had to be pulled closer to you and moved towards the center so that the horse would change its trajectory, because to simplify its movement through the viscous mixture, it tries to get into the ready track. The assistants, following the kneaders, poured in new portions of straw. For large volumes, 2-3 horses were taken, which were changed in turns.

Today they use special devices, such as a concrete mixer, they use a walk-behind tractor or a walk-behind tractor, but this is problematic due to the mixture sticking to the wheel and soil getting into the mixture. Straw gets into the cutters of a rotary cultivator or walk-behind tractor, and you have to constantly clean it. It is impossible to knead clay in boots in cold weather, as the shoes become heavy, stick and fall off.

For kneading with feet, prepare a shallow pit - up to 40-50 cm, the width is arbitrary, but so that the bottom is covered with tarpaulin or film. Usually they make a circle of up to 2.5 meters, and for a horse - twice as much. You should not make a high layer of the mixture, otherwise you will not achieve high-quality kneading. On dense, heavy soils where water is poorly absorbed, they can do without film or tarpaulin, but the bottom of the pit must be perfectly smooth.

According to one ancient recipe, water was first poured into the pit, then clay was poured in and left overnight so that it soaked well, then sand and all the straw were added for kneading. There are other technologies, for example, when a mixture of sand and clay was poured with water before kneading, and straw was added gradually.

A mixture of clay, water and sand and 3-4 round stones weighing up to 10 kg are placed in a concrete mixer, which help to mix the clay. Straw is not added there, but mixing with the filler is done in a prepared place to continue the process - kneading with feet.

Tip: To prepare small portions of adobe, a mixture of clay and sand is kneaded in a trough with water, you can use a shovel, checking the viscosity - the finished mass looks like thick sour cream that flows from a shovel. Further vegetable filler mixed with viscous clay and thrown into molds with a shovel and compacted with hands, especially in the corners, and the top is leveled.

Stages of making bricks from clay and straw

1. Prepare vegetable filler, clay, sand, water, as well as a place for kneading the mixture and drying the adobe.

2. Prepare a pit for mixing adobe, up to 35-50 cm deep, with a flat bottom and steep walls.

3. The bottom of the pit is lined with a solid tarpaulin, awning, film or other waterproof fabric, securing the edges outside the excavation.

4. Water is poured into the prepared recess up to 1/3 of the depth, adding clay and sand in the correct proportion.

5. The kneading process is done with feet or with the help of horses. It is convenient to hold hands so as not to slip on the tarpaulin. In a small hole, you can lift the edges of the tarp by turning the edges of the mixture.

6. Check the quality of the sand-clay solution - without lumps, a homogeneous mixture is molded with your fingers.

7. Straw is poured in gradually, after the next portion is completely immersed in wet clay. You cannot add straw to the water - it floats and interferes worse.

8. Add straw until the mixture resembles a plastic thick dough with no puddles or dry straw left.

9. Also make sure that the mixture does not dry out or begin to harden - this makes it more difficult to put it in molds and take it out to dry.

10. The finished mixture is loaded with a shovel or fork onto a stretcher or into a wheelbarrow and sent for molding.

11. The finished forms are moistened inside, sprinkled with sand or substrate, and placed in the place where the brick was excavated. The cells are filled to the top with wet adobe, checking the filling of the corners, and the tops are leveled with a board or a wide construction spatula.

12. Remove the mold by holding the handles on both sides and tapping on the walls; remove vertically so as not to damage the mold. If the molded adobe does not fall out, you can gently push it out with your hand.

13. Before filling a new batch, the mold is cleaned, wetted and sprinkled again, after which it is placed parallel to the finished briquettes, but not too tightly so that it dries better.

14. Until the end of the adobe mixture, the entire molding process is repeated, make sure that the diluted solution does not dry out, losing its properties. There should be enough ready-made solution and the number of assistants to complete the entire process in a day. The remaining mixture can be used for repair work in outbuildings.

Advice: Adobe brick It dries in about a week or two; it needs to be turned over and placed on its edge. Then it is put away in a barn or under a shed, stacked until needed. If there is nowhere to put them away, they are placed in stacks on a board made of boards and covered with slate or a tarpaulin from the rain.

Checking the finished adobe

To test for readiness, take a couple of ready-made bricks and break them - the color outside and inside is the same when it is completely dry. High-quality adobe has no cracks or defects, it does not fall apart for a day in a bucket of water, and when dry it can be easily chopped with an ax. When trying to hammer a nail, it must fit tightly into the adobe and hold firmly. Throw adobe from the roof of a one-story building or barn - it should be intact or split in two, but not fall apart. Sometimes you can make good adobe on the second try by changing the proportions and mixing time.

What is needed to build a house? That's right - money. But if
There aren’t any of these in abundance, so it’s enough own strength and time.
The basis of all construction is wall material. Agree if there is
What to build walls from - then the main monetary costs disappear by themselves.
So today we will talk about our new construction business idea and learn
make not only reliable wall material, but most importantly, it will
completely free. Meet adobe brick, we have already introduced you to it in
review article "" (you can also see
video clip about the construction of a house from this building material).

How to make adobe
DIY brick (production technology)

Adobe is made by mixing clay, straw and water. This mixture
can also be poured into formwork ( monolithic construction), however we will
mold it into bricks. So, first of all, let's decide what kind of adobe we need
needed. It comes in two types - heavy and light. It all depends on the percentage
clay content. In heavy adobe, clay is the base, and its content
reaches 80%. Light adobe is characterized by a predominance of straw, and clay
occupies only 10% of the entire mixture. I will say right away that light adobe is used as
filler, with frame construction, so it doesn’t suit us, it remains
- heavy adobe.

Take clay, mix it with sand, add a little
straw, fill it all with water and - we get the right mixture. Exact proportions of all
components must be determined experimentally, based on the clay that you have
There is. Make several bricks from different variations of the mixture, dry them and
check for strength. The brick that is the strongest will point to the desired
mixture.

This is interesting: read our other articles -, and.

Well, the mixture is ready, it's time to make the molds. Get out the boards
a hacksaw and a hammer with nails is all we need. In general
the form is a box without a bottom, which is usually divided by a partition into
2 compartments (to make a couple of bricks at once). The adobe block size is better
taken from the calculation of the required thermal conductivity for a specific region. Usually
A thickness of 40 cm is enough. The width can be varied up to 20 cm, and the height up to 130.
There is no point in making larger blocks, because they will be more difficult
work, and they take a long time to dry. In general, knock together 4 boards into a square, and
inside, make an additional partition that will separate the bricks and
provide additional rigidity to the molding structure.

Make sure that the clay warehouse, mixing area
adobe, as well as wooden pallets, on which the bricks will dry -
were nearby. Constantly carrying a mold with wet clay to the place
Warehousing is not the easiest task.

Are the adobe mixture and molds ready? Let's start production
free wall material. Here's the nuance - if you put a wet
mixture into a dry form - you are unlikely to successfully extract it after thrombosis. To
the brick easily leaves the mold, it needs to be moistened generously with water and rolled (from the inside)
straw. Yes, it's not very convenient. Therefore, even before the start of knocking together boards in
form, cover them with plastic wrap (take the thickest one). That's it, now
adobe brick will come out great.

A few words about the process. When you're all ready,
Place the mold where the blocks are stored and load it with adobe. Not
Be afraid - load it with a slide, and then compact it. You can compact it with a shovel, but
it would be better to use a block for this purpose, which needs to be used to “pierce” the corners so as not to
there were empty spaces left. Place the excess mixture back into the general pile. Take it carefully
form by the handles (I hope you figured out how to nail them on the sides?), and lift them up.
If suddenly the brick does not come out right away, shake the mold slightly, just do this
low above the ground, and everything should work out.

It is recommended to pierce the raw block in two or three places at the top
with an iron rod. This will allow it to dry faster and relieve tension during
drying time. Don't forget to cover the blocks with film or tarpaulin if they promise
precipitation. After 36 hours, turn all the blocks on their sides and let them dry
one more day. Then the bricks are stacked on top of each other like a “well” (so that
voids remained to continue drying). That's all, we just have to wait 2 weeks,
after which construction can begin. Such a business idea
which is quite useful in private home construction.

Thus, in a few days of your vacation you can
make enough blocks to build an entire house. Will help speed up the process
a reliable comrade, or a concrete mixer. Homemade adobe brick is not at all
inferior in characteristics to modern ones building blocks, and in questions
thermal conductivity even exceeds some of them (ordinary brick is so
exactly). And the main advantage is that it is free! Can you imagine what
Can you make a house if you spend a week making blocks? All in all -
don’t listen to any “firms” who say “a house should be expensive”, but do
it according to the technology of our ancestors and be happy!

The main component of adobe is clay, so what kind of clay is needed for adobe, how to determine its quality, content in the soil, etc.

Composition of adobe block

In the area where you are going to mine clay, you need to take several control soil samples in different places on the site in order to analyze the soil for the percentage of clay. How to conduct such an analysis at home?

Soil analysis for clay content

Photo 1. Clay for adobe block

You can resort to this option for determining the percentage of clay in the soil in a selected area:

You will need 3 glass jars with a volume of 3 liters;
Water;
Salt or you can use liquid soap.

Using a garden auger in three places (it is possible in more places, I recommend from personal experience) at the intended site for clay extraction, make a control excavation of soil from a depth of at least 100-150 cm (in different regions, clay layers lie on different depths). Identify each hole (put a sign with the number of the hole).

Note: Now I live in the Yaroslavl region, three years ago I was digging a well on my site, the depth of the well is 8 meters, so if I wanted to take soil to make adobe, I would be left without raw materials. When digging, I came across a layer of clay about 15 cm thick, but the sand content in the clay was such that I could not roll a ball in my hands from such clay - the sand content in the clay clearly exceeded 35%.

But already after four streets approaching the river, when digging wells, layers of clay of medium fat content are already encountered at a depth of about 2 - 2.5 meters and up to 0.8 m thick.

And so, having drilled the soil, you take it from the last excavation for analysis. Place the crushed soil in jars (1/2 of the container volume). Make marks on the jars that correspond to the drilled holes.

Add 30-40 grams of salt or 200-250 mg to water liquid soap, pour the prepared liquid into jars with soil samples to the level of the neck. Close with nylon lids and shake the contents of each jar vigorously (about 10-15 minutes per jar). If pieces of soil do not dissolve, leave the jars for two hours until the soil is completely softened, and shake the jars again.

Afterwards, place the jars on flat surface(table, bench). After 30-60 seconds, the soil will begin to settle, the first layer of sediment is fine sand with impurities (for example, it can be silt), when this sediment settles, make a note of the level (with electrical tape or tape) after 10-15 minutes, coarse sand will settle without impurities. The clay settles last.

When the water has already settled above the clay and the soil has settled completely, you can see from the notes on the level of soil subsidence which jar contains more suitable components (clay and coarse sand) for making adobe bricks. Everything above the level of notes is the ideal composition of soil for adobe. Determine by the markings on the jar the place in the area where the larger layer is useful soil for adobe. This is where you excavate the soil.

This method seems simple, but it allows you to most accurately determine whether the soil is suitable for making adobe or not. Certainly, ideal option is if the soil in your place of residence contains deposits of layers of red clay (it is more plastic, has fewer impurities of fine sand and various organic impurities).

Clay deposits can be found near rivers or ponds, as well as by signs:

Slight swampiness of the area, since water does not pass completely through the soil, because the clay does not allow water to pass through, which forms a swampy surface of the soil;
If there are wells nearby, it can be determined by the water level in the well; if there are clay deposits, the water in the well has a low level from the level of the ground surface;
According to plants, the abundant growth of, for example, sedge or mint indicates that there are clay deposits under the surface of the soil;
The best way to determine clay deposits is, of course, to ask those people who either built adobe buildings or laid a stove; they will tell you exactly where the soil is rich in clay (we used this method when building an adobe outbuilding).

Straw selection

Photo 2. Straw for adobe block

The next component after clay is straw (or fiber filler). For adobe, the best option is to choose straw from winter wheat*, as well as spring crops such as rye or barley. The straw must be fresh, if there is no fresh straw, then last year's straw must be dry and not rotten. And if there is no straw, then you can use hay, preferably coarse grass, and not clover or mouse pea hay, for example. You can also use linen twine and ropes (not of synthetic origin) as filler. But still, straw (long) is the most ideal option for preparing a mixture for adobe bricks; chaff is also mixed into adobe.

* - straw from spring wheat contains less waxy substance enveloping the stem and is susceptible to rotting, unlike winter wheat.

Sand selection

Sand for adobe should be coarse-grained (1.8 - 2.2 microns), rough, multifaceted, and not round in shape. The optimal solution for this use quarry sand. Sea sand is not suitable for preparing a mixture for adobe; although river sand is not recommended for preparing a mixture for adobe, it can be used in this situation in the absence of coarse sand (quarry sand).

Note: During the construction of a utility block while living in Ukraine, we used river sand to prepare the mixture for adobe blocks; the use of river sand did not affect the quality of the adobe blocks; the blocks turned out to be strong, did not crumble or crack.

Preparing clay

Fig.3 Burt of clay

It is best to prepare clay for adobe in the fall, so that the clay breaks down into small particles under the influence of frost (large lumps are easily broken after “freezing”).

The clay is placed in a pile with dimensions of height 100 cm, width 150 cm, length 200 cm. A pile of this size contains approximately 3 m³ of clay (which is necessary to make 600 pieces of adobe blocks measuring 200x200x400 cm).

The clay should be laid in layers of 20-30 cm and poured with plenty of water; cover the clay on top with straw moistened with water. Before the onset of frost in a warm, dry autumn, straw moistened with water will prevent the clay from drying out. The pile is covered with roofing on top of the straw roll material(for example, roofing felt), you can also cover a pile of clay on top of straw and plastic wrap.

The burt must be left outside. With this method of storage, the clay loses moisture without drying out, does not become dry and freezes out better, which will further improve its processing when making adobe mixture.

In early spring, when the frosts have receded and the daytime temperature exceeds the zero mark on the thermometer, it is necessary to open the pile, remove all the straw and cover the pile again only with plastic film, create something like a greenhouse, so the clay will recover from the frost faster and at the same time not dry out, will not be covered with a crust upper layer. When stored in this way, clay perfectly retains its elasticity and stickiness.

Making adobe blocks

To prepare a mixture for adobe, clay and sand are first mixed, water is added to make the mixture thick. From the resulting mixture, take a small piece of the mixture and roll it into a ball the size of egg. When you roll the ball in your palms, immediately pay attention to whether it sticks to your hands or not. If it sticks to the palms, then there is a lot of clay in the mixture and sand needs to be added; if the ball does not roll, then the mixture contains a lot of sand - clay should be added.

Note: Clay - as a raw material for construction, of course, the most cheap option, but its behavior during drying does not have certain parameters, the range between degrees of compression is from 5 to 20%, and the determination of its fat content has a large gap in percentage from 5 to 35% sand content. So, when working with clay, although there are various tables and methods, the most reliable way to determine the quality of clay, its structure, its degree of compression is a practical, experimental method.

Having rolled the ball, let it dry for about an hour and, having thrown the ball higher than human height and dropped it on the ground, look what happened to the ball, if the ball has not changed shape, has not crumbled, and there are practically no cracks - the proportions for the components of the adobe mixture are maintained, if the ball is slightly flattened, there is not enough sand; if it crumbles, add clay.

Place for mixing adobe mixture

When practical work by check correct proportion two components of adobe are completed, you can begin kneading the bulk of the adobe mixture. To mix the components of the adobe mixture, it is necessary to dig a small pit, 45-50 cm deep, the width and length depend on how much space allows in the area where the adobe is being made.

The optimal solution would be a pit with a width of 150 cm and a length of about 250 cm. In such a pit, approximately 1 m³ or about 60-65 blocks can be prepared in one batch of the finished mixture.

In this case, the thickness of the layer for one batch should be no more than 30-35 cm in this method of preparing the mixture, otherwise the components will not mix well and the mixture will turn out to be of poor quality.

Before you start laying clay, sand and straw in the pit, you need to line it, for example, with plastic film (photo 4 under letter A), you can also use a tarpaulin. If the soil in the area where the mixing is carried out is dense (clay, slag rocks, etc.), then it is enough to simply compact the bottom and sides of the pit with a shovel and it is not necessary to lay down a film or tarpaulin.

First, a layer of clay 20-25 cm thick is placed in the prepared pit and filled with water, so that the clay is completely hidden under water, so the clay remains “overnight.” Overnight, the clay will become properly soaked, the lumps will dissolve and the clay will become more pliable for mixing with sand and straw.

Before adding sand to the prepared clay, you need to do a preliminary kneading, walking on the clay with your feet, you will thereby knead the lumps that have become soggy in the water and remove large stones that have fallen into the clay.

Usually the adobe mixture is mixed by walking on it with your feet. But if a large volume of mixture is required for more than 2000 adobe blocks, then they resort to mixing with the help of one horse or two or three horses. It all depends on the amount of work.

This process can be represented schematically:

Fig. 5 Diagram of the direction of kneading adobe with the help of a horse

Option I (for a pit with a diameter of 2 meters or more)

A - location of the person

B - direction of movement of the horse

Option II (for a pit with a diameter of more than 5 meters)

A - location of people

B - place for mixing adobe mixture

B is the direction of movement of the horses (one horse moves in a large circle, the second in a small circle).

Of course, at first glance, this method seems more attractive than mixing the adobe components with your feet. But here it is worth paying attention to the following:

When mixing the adobe mixture, the horse will always try to stand in the track it has already left, in order to make it easier to move through the mixture, you will have to constantly straighten the horse’s trajectory by shortening the reins and move with it (it turns out that you will still have to mix the adobe to some extent mixture with your feet!).

Mixing of adobe components is also carried out using special equipment (tractor, walk-behind tractor). Mixing mixture components for adobe blocks, mechanized way requires a large area for kneading and drying blocks, which is not possible in the courtyard of a house. To do this, you need to choose an open area where such production of adobe blocks is possible.

But a larger area is not one of the disadvantages of this method of mixing adobe mixture. When moving equipment through the mixture, it will stick to the wheels or tracks; when the tractor leaves the pit, the mixture on the wheels will mix with the ground. When the tractor drives into the pit again, the earth on the wheels will get into the mixture, and this can negatively affect the quality of the adobe blocks.

The cutters of a rotary cultivator will become clogged with straw and will have to be cleaned regularly, the same applies to the cutters of a walk-behind tractor.

If you want to use a concrete mixer to mix clay, sand and straw, then you should put three or four stones in the receptacle of the concrete mixer for the adobe mixture average size(up to 10 kg) so that the clay is better mixed. Otherwise, the clay does not mix well with sand in this version of the batch. In this case, straw is not added to the concrete mixer - the filler is added after the clay and sand are mixed, and the mixture is taken out to a specially prepared place to continue preparing the adobe mixture. So, as can be seen from the description, this process is more labor-intensive, and still requires kneading with your feet.

And so let’s note the ways of mixing the adobe mixture:

feet;
horse;
tractor or walk-behind tractor;
concrete mixer.

Which method is more acceptable for preparing adobe mixture, of course, everyone determines for himself.

Molding of adobe blocks

To form adobe blocks, it is necessary to make molds (preferably no larger than 20x20x40 cm in size, since even with such dimensions an adobe block has a rather long drying time until it is completely ready, about 10-15 days).

In one form (see photo 4 under letter G) you can make from two to four cells to form adobe blocks, large quantity cells will complicate the removal of the mold from the finished blocks.

To make the mold you will need edged board 0.3 cm thick and 20 cm wide, the board must have a smooth (planed) inner lateral surface to make it easier to remove the mold from the adobe block. We cut the boards according to required sizes. For one mold with two molding cells (taking into account 10% clay compression):

end board Y has a length of 88-90 cm (2 pcs.);
side boards X (2 pcs.) and middle dividing board X1 (1 pc.) have a length of 22-23 cm, height - 22-23 cm.

TO end boards Y, using self-tapping screws (a), boards X and X1 are attached, handles (b) need to be attached to the boards X on the sides of the form. Handles can be made from bars with a section of 50x50 mm.

Attention! To obtain an adobe block with dimensions of 20x20x40cm, you need to take into account the fact that when clay dries, it shrinks from 5 to 20% in linear dimensions. This means that before you start making molds, you need to make a control sample of the adobe block, make the block itself and let it dry for about seven days. After this period, take measurements of the adobe block - its linear dimensions will decrease.

For example, if a sample of adobe block had dimensions during its manufacture of 20x20x40 cm and the degree of clay compression was 8%, then an 80% dried adobe block will have approximately the following dimensions - height = 18.4 cm, width 18.7 cm, length 36.8 cm. Why do the length and width have no same value? Clay does not compress linearly evenly, so the values vary.

Before placing the finished mixture into the mold, the inner walls of the mold are moistened with water and sprinkled with chopped wood or chaff so that the mixture does not stick to the walls and the mold can be easily removed. The finished mixture is placed in the prepared mold (the volume of the mixture should exceed the volume of the mold by 15-20%), the mixture is compacted tightly, after which the excess mixture is removed using a specially prepared board.

When the mold is filled and the adobe mixture is compacted, you can remove the mold. Leave the adobe blocks for two to three days to dry, covering them from the sun and rain with tarpaulin, slate or roofing felt. The blocks should not touch each other; there should be a gap between them for air flow so that the blocks dry better (see photo 4 under letter B).

After two or three days, transfer the blocks to the place where they are until completely dry. This could be, for example, a shed or a barn (well ventilated), or adobe blocks can be laid on open place, covering them with waterproof material (see photo 4 under letter B).

But before you start making the entire number of adobe blocks for building walls, you need to make control samples of blocks made from a mixture with different ratios of components (clay, sand and filler).

Proportionality of components for adobe

Approximate proportional ratio of components for preparing a mixture for adobe blocks:

Table of components in proportions per 1m³ of adobe mixture

But this table does not reflect the accuracy of the proportions of the components for the mixture, clay + sand + straw. The proportionality of the components can only be more accurately determined experimentally - control samples of adobe blocks. For control samples of adobe blocks, make batches in the following proportions - clay + sand:

3:1,2:1,1:1,1:2,1:3, straw is usually 2-4 parts (per 1 m³ of mixture).

The practical determination of the quality of the mixture for adobe blocks is also due to the fact that it is possible to make a mistake with the determination of the fat content of the clay - for example, the proportions of the components are taken from the calculation for medium-fat clay, but what is the determination of the fat content of clay with a percentage of sand, as indicated in the table?

Note: When building the utility block, we tested the adobe for strength by throwing the block off the roof of the garage (height approximately 2.5 m, pitched roof). It was only the third time that we managed to make a durable, high-quality block.

For example, you determined that the clay taken to prepare a mixture for adobe has medium fat content. For the first sample, make a batch with the proportions indicated in the table for medium-fat clay and leave the block until completely dry. How can we then determine the quality of the block and whether the proportions are correct?

Reasons for low quality adobe block:

The adobe block turned out to be not strong and crumbles - it is necessary to add more clay to the mixture and reduce the volume of straw added;
A sample of adobe block, after drying, is covered with cracks - the adobe mixture contains a disproportionate ratio of clay and sand, it is necessary to add another 1 part of sand from the volume of clay to the mixture (this is exactly the case that was written about earlier - an error in determining the fat content of the clay);
The adobe block sample broke easily and required the addition of straw.

Another option for checking the finished block is to drive a 120-150 mm nail into the block, and the nail should fit into the block approximately like into dense wood (oak, hornbeam) and stay tightly in it. The block should not crack.

Note: When we drove nails into the wall when installing the sheathing, we soaked the nail in water before driving it in, this reduces the friction of the nail when passing through the wood and the adobe itself.