TWO Rammed Earth Walls Revealed PLUS Tips - Vlog 53 

Hey Bro what name did the ute end up with. I got Nigel the tractor, Wendy the Wacker, Billy the Bobcat, Colin the compressor, Daisy the dancing lady (the tamper). Great vid and you have been busy.

I like to take a piece of cinder block and rub the walls, makes them very smooth and gets rid of most blemishes

It really kills the monotony of just plain concrete or mortar the colors and the shapes are quite pleasant truly! The waves are very relaxing.

Good Job!! I live in Morelia, Mexico. This video know us, that our imaginación is all. Thanks for this.

That is so cool. Love the ridge you created to rest the roof beams on. Looks labor intensive and helpful to have heavy equipment. But so worth it. ❤️

Looks incredible !!!

Aesthetically it’s quite pleasing, worth it’s value already. Not to mention soothing, making you feel a little less in a box. More Harmonious with the rural environment.

Awesome work guys! Recently did a presentation on rammed earth, truly a unique method! Looking forward to the Q&A!

This is great stuff! Awesome skills and overall workmanship. From an architecture perspective, I think we are moving towards this style due to its longevity and thermal properties. I would like to see more on the construction such as how to keep it watertight and window/doors details and fixtures. This might already be on your list in the future, but I was thinking that would help a lot of people and most importantly, your channel's growth as we move more towards this method of construction. Thanks for sharing this content and may you enjoy the process.

Great work. As you learn, we learn.

Wow wow wow...we just found you guys, instantly connected--finding like-minded "Rammed-Earthers" who are willing and able to explain all of this is such a gift! You guys are living a dream that so many people have. Incredibly hard work plus your passion for sharing "earthy" wisdom is SO appreciated!! These walls are really beautiful--no worries about imperfections at all, those become tiny pieces of the history of your family, and your home, you guys will figure all that out. Nit-pickers and haters gonna hate, am I right? :) Trust us....its so gorgeous!! Now we've got to binge all the rest of the story up to #53 and beyond! Many thanks again :)

Nice work and colour palette! I can tell just by watching, that by the time you get to your house, you're gonna have all the little kinks ironed out and you are going to nail the house build! Enjoying your videos. Couple quick tips that you may or may not need :) Another way to improve your cold joints: before you vacuum, run a flatbar scraper along the form edge and the top surface to remove the crud that is just weakly bonded and wouldn't otherwise come loose with just the vacuum. And for attaching your bottom plates of your forms to the concrete, to avoid the blowouts of ramset, as well as the cost of tapcons, you can use duplex head nails. drill a hole the size of the nail, but insert the nail with a length of rebar wire along with the nail. the wire will wedge the nail in tightly, and a prybar will remove it easily after the build.

Good place to hang a picture. Beautiful wall construction.

Great work

Gorgeous beautiful walls!

love to see the finish product and like to see moisture

Great work so far! New fan and subscriber. Not sure if someone mentioned this yet. You can use body-fill (Bondo) on the inside screw impressions so the wall is nice and flat when you take off the forms. May be good to keep small batches of each colors to use for touchups later. Starting our home in a year or so. Thanks for all the great tips so far. Good luck with the rest of the build!

Arrechiiiiiisimo, los felicito.

I like the divots and irregularities of the walls. It makes then look more natural.

Excelente! muy buenos consejos. Extraordinaria aventura de construcción. Felicidades!

Good job!

I just found your guys's channel. It's great. Starting on my own real soon

Hi I'm from Australia, I always inspire by Rammed Earth, really wish one day I will use your tech to build! Your video help me a lot, thank you! Peace and Joy Ming

Just keep on doing Its nice what you are doing I enjoyed that

Hi, I am loving it. Maybe you can teach me how the rebar works someday. Anyway, try using tape to make the walls more even and smooth eg between the chamfer and the forming boards, between two adjacent boards where there is a vertical line, and even where the screws went in that you were hammering in or scrabbing with a stone. Let me know what you think

Could you post a video about full process of rammed earth wall from soil selection, mixing ratio, curing, etc.

good stuff. glad I looked for rammed earth today. great reveal!! : ),

Before I was born my dad and mom with a cement mixer made there own concrete basement wall with the forms being 2"x8"x 8 or 10' that took two cement mixers of material. not a crack or drop ever came through that wall. He prepared each for the next layer by putting in a 1"x1/2" wood strip to create a channel the day before. Before pouring painted pure concrete to the surface of the day before or week before pour as a bonding agent. This is an approach for a dry joint that may work for you.

Please, please, please keep notes on lessons learned and products tested for best practices. When you're done, you can put together an information product we can buy. 1. Take the SIREWALL course. 2. Use the RER course for the nitty-gritty. Whadaya think?

you're making awesome content!

Was just in contact with Joss at sirewall and have purchased our property to start our regenerative permaculture and house build journey. Love what you guys are doing and would really appreciate connecting to learn more. We are in planning phase and are interested in rough man hours per sq ft of wall and cost to build sirewalls yourself.

takeaway - chamfer corners, make the form airtight, clean up with a stone (relative hardness might be a factor?) and don't pound bumps with the hammer, Wej-It and TapCon might be good... the pressure washer cleanup made me flinch. I realized that stuff has got to be at least equivalent to 300psi concrete but I can imagine finding a vein of softer stuff and mining through the wall, heheh. Of course that would be a QC fail, so I guess ok.

Thats got to be the best feeling ever

Lovely and I'm looking forward to practice. My concern is joining those layers to look uniform, ofcoz i know it is not easy to fill the whole wall in a day

Good job guys! Please give me some tips on how made the forms. Like your form work.

Morning morning :)

Yeah!!! Hugs to Tug!

Guys, u recreated the pyramids of Egypt with rammed earth congrats u opened a new dimension into the art of building and engineers will be envy now.

Muchas gracias por el video saludos desde Argentina

Keep the good work going, i'm watching you from Egypt and hope one day am gonna do this . God bless you and your family ❤

once again I want to congratulate you for sharing this great work, I want to know if it is possible for you to give us a video where you share all the amounts of cement sand lime colorants and other elements that you have used according to this experience

congratulations red earth ranch family for this project, how long does it take to dry the walls

You can used u channel to slide between all the hole of the metal stud to stiffen the form up

I have brought ya'll some subscribers...I hope they enjoy as much as I do...love this channel

regarding the use of tapcon vs ramset to temporarily anchor your forms to the slab... You could also do what we call in the skatepark industry, "cat dicking." AKA pinch screw. Drill your hole like you would for a tapcon, but use a deck screw and a piece of tie wire in the hole with the screw. Usually bend the tie wire into a V so theres two pieces of wire in the hole with screw to get it to bite. Point the bottom of the V into the hole and leave some extra wire hanging out for easier removal later. Sometimes have use a second V of tie wire to get bite. Same concept as a pinch nail but easier to get out. IMO. Nice thing about cat dicks vs tapcons is that the screws are less expensive and you probably already have a drill handy with your deck screw bit of choice (F*** phillips head screws). You wont have to switch between 5/16 hex for tapcons and a star bit for your screws. one bit for all.

wow, this is amazing! i want to learn more. plz share more details abt rammed earth techs!

great work. mistakes made are learning experiences. its an insane amount of work. takes me a full day to form, mix and tamp 1ft section of 12ft wall by hand. what gauge of steel studs used? the ones at home depot dont look as strong. did you buy them at steel supplier?

Lightly rub bumps with a brick or sand stone , then pressure wash. Looks nice. Wanting to build one in Ohio.

love it

Terrific project! what type of work gloves did you recommend. Saludos!

Thanks for the great videos. I tried my first small bench project last weekend and though I like it, I still have a lot to learn. Did you do a trade on insulation vs no insulation for your walls and if so can you share the pros and cons? I would imaging the added complexity, labor, and cost all have to be significantly offset by the increase in home efficiency. I would also have to assume that the foam is a negative impact on structural strength, but at these thicknesses, maybe it does not matter. I am looking to do a house outside of Phoenix, AZ with several main rammed earth walls ~18" thick so I need to deal with the heat but not cold. Did you pick the insulation for protecting from hot, cold or both? Also, can you summarize the total labor hours per maybe square foot of wall area on average once you go into a rhythm?

Hey bud the problem with the corners pre-drill holes and use bolts and washers instead of screws then you won't have to worry about it separating under pressure when you pack it on the corners just an idea might help to fix the problem

Thanks , great content What is your mixture formula? Looking forward to see the end result

I was curios to test someone to hammer rammed earth wall and wash it with pressure. Thanks a lot!!!

You can fill the void on the form first so there's less clean up

Great work you both, I am about to start a rammed earth project in Canada on my mountain acreage. Love what you two are doing. Question, what is the hydro phobic admix you are using?

Parabens muito bom trabalho cometario do brasil

Thanks for sharing the tips. Must have some bullet resistance qualities too? Good build, share any savings on building / construction costs?

Sir it looks very nice. How many days it took to complete your project. Wall in this video.

Fantastic.Can we use the technology for bridges construction ?

Hey, can you tell me the brand of your screener on your felehandler? I've looked at a few different manufacturers and none of them have the 10" or 12" hole at one end. I'll be starting my own rammed earth project in a few months and that would be so much easier then the 'home-made' bucket we've used on the past for the telehandlers. Thank and keep up the great work!

Creative, what is the best mixture I reached

Impressive. Beautiful monoliths stacking up against the landscape. I think you should avoid hammering and nitpicking at the small defects until much later when you have time to consider all the best ways to do "finishing" work on the walls (perhaps take time to do a variety of finishing tests on a small test wall). I expect you'll come up with ways to sand or polish or fill, or just leave the defects alone as they collectively blend in to the whole thing and just add a lot of character to the finished house. And hey....if you really screw up you could just cover up the whole thing with drywall! 😁 (just kidding - that would be a sin) 😂

the colours are really beautiful, what type of soil gives this colors ?

Cool!

Would love to learn this whole process practically, in your presence

Have you all thought about bondoing the screw holes that’s on the forms? So that way you won’t get the bubbling from the screw holes.

Beautiful walls bro. Nice job. I am thinking to build my house in Pakistan. Keep sharing guus

After rammed earth has had a few days to set up, it should be sealed with concrete sealer, for more protection from the elements. Apply with a pump up sprayer. Goes on milky but dries clear.

That is pretty neat. What do you put over the wall? Like paint or sealer? That sure looks strong like concrete. I saw you had rebar in it, that should hold up.

Great video. Quick question: can the rammed earth be plastered and painted after completion? Just so it has a modern finish (for those who want it )

Your wall looks likes sandstone and granite in texture and look. I am impressed by your genius. Can you please share what exactly are all the raw materials that you have used to make these beautiful and hard rock walls. I am from India, I am thinking to make my own small house using this method. Your guidance will help me a lot to save my expenses

Where did you get the metal to build the forms? I love the video's!!

just wondering why most of the layers are seamlessly layered on top of each other, but then you can still see the long cracks / crevices on the surface? Is there anyway to make it all flushed without any of those cracks?

Can u explain how to put slab on rammed earth walls, and how structural support can provide. I like to learn about rammed earth

What are you using between joins between rammed sections any paste or wet concrete paste or nothing because when we ran it's in sections

Lindo parabéns Perfeito ❤

Tell more about electricity and plumbing ? I want to know if installation will be exposed or recessed?

Hi Sir. Am from India. Do you have any pictures of the tools and tackles used while doing the wall structure?

Nice wall. Use a piece of 2x4 next time when you Hammer the divots out.

come to Brazil to speak beautiful English like this, my friend. I will be waiting for you. One day I will speak like this

We too practice rammed earth construction in India, I want to know what hydrophobic admixtures you used. Thank you very much for sharing your experience

Great video! The walls look beautiful! How much approximately does it cost to build the forms?

Hi How cuold we protect the rammeed earth wall from the heavy rain and explain about low cost paint to protect the wall Please.

Beautiful project but a few questions. 1. Why pressure wash the walls? 2. Why are you looking for perfection ?

Seems to me, the imperfections what makes it beautiful

Good morning, from Argentina. Thanks for your videos. Where can I get more information to place the roof. I need to see how to put it on those walls, on concrete or on wood? Can you recommend a manual? Thank you so much!

Cold joints could you explain About cold joints for best joins for Next ramday

Beautiful! How did you do the electrical and plumbing?

Hi, super...but how you cunstructing lintel beams ,,what materials using...and windows door fixing

The Rammed Earth is recommended for seismic and tropical areas near the sea where it rains frequently?

Points of interest:- 1:32 Gap between end and beading 2:23 90 degree corner inner appearance 3:21 90 degree corner outer alignment 3:44 Appearance 5:15 Hydrophobic property 6:01 Centering 6:36 Form deflection at top 10:23 Beading above beading issue and remedy 12:52 Check for Hydrophobic tendency by pressure wash 14:25 Stains removal by pressure washer

If you get the mixture too wet, will it eventually dry out and look right?

Yeah I’m really glad that you’re sharing this because this is my dream home or to watch you guys making at yourselves is pretty impressive and this is only my first video on your channel I’m wondering if at the end of it all you’re going to share exactly how you made out financially in regard Wondering about your local government and how that might’ve been a challenge for you but there may be a video I need to look at

For your exterior side of the ram earth applied lin seed oil to keep it water tight it natural product

👍 👍 👍 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

will love to learn and see cost $ in a three bed room house

Him: This is my favourite corner of the house Her: It's the only corner in the house, love! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!

I'm just curious about the corner; couldn't you create a right angle form, brace it properly, and not have a problem with the gap? Just wondering.

can you give an insight into your foundation?