[Greenbuilding] (1850's Michigan) adobe question

[Rob Tom]

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:42:41 -0400, Alan Abrams  
<alan at abramsdesignbuild.com> wrote:


>    I' be interested to know how Adam's house was constructed to preserve  
>   the adoble walls.

>>     An interesting note, maybe, was that my last house I lived in  
>> (Michigan) was made of adobe, circa 1850. It's still standing, the  
>> outside looks real good actually.


I would suspect that the manner in which Adam's Michigan adobe house was  
configured would be similar to other houses made of moisture-susceptible  
materials have survived the Test of Time-- keep wetting to a minimum and  
detail so that wetted materials can dry.

Clay has an enormous capacity to suck up and store moisture and when  
allowed to get wet and store moisture in a climate where long periods of  
freezing temperatures are a common occurrence, spontaneous  
self-destruction is inevitable.

Perhaps what might be more interesting than the configuration of the  
building, would be to have some information on thermal comfort and the  
fuel expended to provide it.

My *guess* is that the comfort level/energy consumption to achieve it  
would be similar to that of solid masonry buildings (ie uninsulated) of  
that era, and perhaps a lot better than the air-leaky wood-framed  
(plank-on-plank or balloon-framed ?) buildings from that time.

The question that naturally arises is :

      "Given that 1850's Michigonads (and other Northerly-climes people)  
probably had
     the materials and technical knowledge required to build earthen-walled  
buildings,
     why did people (including farmers in the countryside) choose more  
costly and more
     difficult materials like stone or fired clay brick over compressed  
earth " ?

Surely it couldn't have been due entirely to notions about status ? (ie  
dirt walls are for dirt-poor people)


=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply