Home CONSTRUCTION Building Tile Capped Mud Walls Using Primitive Technology

Building Tile Capped Mud Walls Using Primitive Technology

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I built Mud walls and capped them with roof tiles to protect them from rain. Mud walls if left uncovered in wet weather will dissolve in the rain and collapse. I wanted to test a solution to this problem by covering the walls with roof tiles. I start the video firring the roof tiles made in the previous video before making another batch to dry out ready for firing.

source.image: Primitive Technology

Then I started building the mud walls by digging a foundation trench and filling it with rubble. The rubble was then capped with large stones completing the foundation. This was done so that water at ground level wouldn’t wick up the mud wall and weaken it.

The mud was then made from water and soil around the build site. The mud was then piled in layers about 5 cm thick and 25 cm wide to form 2 opposing walls 2.25 m long. When the wall was 75 cm high, the bricks were laid on one side of the tops of the walls and the tiles put on these in such a way as to give them a 30 degree slope.

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It then rained on the walls without ill effect. The tiles can be taken off and new layers added periodically. The mud wall capped with roof tiles seems to be a good process for building mud walls in a wet climate. Hopefully, it will work before a roof can be built over the walls.

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