INTRODUCTION

Rammed earth is a technique of constructing foundations, floors, and walls using

compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or grave. It is an
ancient method that has been revived recently as the sustainable building
method.

It has been used for centuries to create a durable and energy efficient buildings.
The process of rammed earth involves compacting a mixture of soil, gravel, sand
and sometimes stabilizers between temporary formwork to create solid walls.

Rammed earth are essentially manmade sedimentary rock. House built of

rammed earth have several advantages over wood frame construction. The walls
are fireproof, rot resistant.

DESIGN
Rammed earth houses are custom designed to make the most energy-efficient use
of the local available materials. They can be successfully designed for many
climatic regions including humid areas with cold winters. The size and placement
of the openings in this house play a crucial role in taking advantages of solar heat
and power in winter and cool breeze in summer.
ADVANTAGES
The many advantages of building with rammed earth include superior thermal
mass, temperature, noise control, strength, durability, low maintenance, fire
proofing, load bearing and pest deterrence, as well as its beauty and pleasure of
building.

1. Fire protection.
Rammed earth doesn’t burn. This is an ideal material for bush settings and
leafy shburbs. Rammed earth walls can carry up to four-hour fire rating. i.e
it’s resistant to fire for up to four hours.
This is because there are generally no flammable components in rammed
earth. The fire rating will depend the quality of the construction and the
composition of the mixture used, as well as wall thickness.

2. Noise control
Rammed earth walls provide very well thermal insulation because of their
thickness and density. For the same reason, they provide high acoustic
insulation and reduce noise transmission.

3. Durability
Rammed earth is extremely strong and weather resistance. It

4. Low maintenance
5. Fire proofing
6. Load bearing
 DISADVANTAGES
The disadvantages of rammed earth contain the following points:

1. It is labour-intensively to build, which makes them relatively expensive.

2. Some degree of carpentry skills are needed to built the framework.

3. The ramming itself is relatively time-consuming and hard physical work.

 PROCESS OF RAMMED EARTH
The advantages and disadvantages mentioned above clarify the how much useful
is rammed earth construction. Here is the brief step by step process of
construction of rammed earth.

1. PREPARATION OF RAW MATERIALS.

First of all, you need to prepare the the earth with the right. Kind of soil,
clay, sand, and gravel. It should be 50-70% of sand in it. Separate the big
stones from the raw materials to keep it. Homogenous and spread a
tarpaulin over it to prevent it from precipitation.

Mixing is the most essential operation to ensure homogeneity of

the soil used in the site. After that water was added gradually in the raw
materials. The mixture had to be turned over while water is sprinkled to
ensure that all the particles will be moistened.
The amount of water added to the soil is very important, because if the
mixture contains little water the soil will not be properly squeezed, and with too
much water the soil becomes too wet and water will resist compaction.

FIG. soil preparation for rammed earth.

To obtain optimum results, it is advised undertaking soil screening, crushing and

mixing as one continuous process. A soil ration for rammed earth should contain
about 30%-40% clays, and 60%-70% sand, gravels, and fines to obtain the good
soil mixture for the rammed earth. Sandy clays, gravelly clays, clayey sands are the
three suitable examples of potentially suitable soil types.

Fig. mixture of soil

2. FOUNDATIONS.
After that, foundations is designed as similar as the low rise building.
Concrete strip footings are the most common typed of footings in the
rammed earth. The size of footings depends on the type of supported
structure and the soil bearing capacity underneath the foundations. It is
important that the foundations is in sufficient depth to avoid forst
underneath and footings should be well protected from water infiltration.
The sufficient depth of the foundations of the rammed earth should be
1.5m deep and 75cm wide.

Fig. foundations of rammed earth

3. FORMWORK
Formwork in rammed earth is used as temporary support during the soil
compaction. Formwork can range upto simple to complicated system and
you can use plywood or steel ones. Like concrete formwork it is required to
have sufficient strength, stiffness and stability to resist pressure it is
subjected to during assembly, pouring and soil mix, and dismantling. The
formwork ranges in length from 600mm to 2400mm and in vertical height
of 300mm to 600mm.
Any formwork should contain:
a. Shutters form both sides of the form.
b. Ties and bolts.
c. Props or stays.
d. Wedges for adjustment of the formwork.
4. RAMMING
Now, the mixed soil is poured in the formwork creating a uniform level of
almost 15cm, which after ramming compressed to 10cm. As soon as the
first layer of soil was rammed properly another soil was poured to be
rammed. Both electric and hand rammers can be used for ramming process.

A layer was considered to be properly rammed as soon as an echoing

sound was heard from the rammers.

Fig. hand rammers.

 fig.: ramming the soil mixture in the formwork.

5. Plastering, rendering and finishing.

One of the advantages of using the smooth formwork is to achieve the
smooth and fair-faced surfaces. Rammed earth walls does not need
plastering, it is advisable to sponge the surface immediately after the
formwork is dismantled. In some cases there appear small small holes
which can be poured by the same mixture of soil by hand.

Once dry the surface, the plaster can be sanded and painted to create
the smooth and polished finish. Limewash is another popular finishing
technique for rammed earth walls.
 Fig.: finishing in rammed earth walls.

6. OPENINGS AND ROOF.

For the openings, arch and flat openings can be made from the formwork or
using structural lintels inside the wall formwork. Lintels can be formed from
wood, ply, steel, iron and stone. Lintels require adequate beeding length to
avoid bearing problems and preferred spans not to exceeds 3M.

For roof light timbers are preferable or mostly used for typical floor
ceilings and roofs.
7. MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS.
Maintenance of rammed earth buildings is not more expensive like other
materials like concrete steels. It is important that a suitable maintenance
schedule for rammed earth structures is set and sustained.
Water is major agent f decay in rammed earth buildings. Maintenance
should seek to protect rammed earth from water borne deterioration.
A good roof and foundations long less maintenance or repairs.

8. CONCLUSION.
The widespread uses of the rammed earth for building the houses can be
seen everywhere nowadays which is the success as a building materials. So
for the effective and low cost house, rammed earth can be the best choice
for building the dwellings which is nature friendly and echo friendly.