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Earthen floor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An earthen floor is a floor made of dirt, raw earth, or other unworked ground materials. It is usually constructed, in modern times, with a mixture of sand, finely chopped straw and clay, mixed to a thickened consistency and spread with a trowel on a sub-surface such as concrete. Once dry, it is then usually saturated with several treatments of linseed oil.
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Earthen floors were predominant in most houses until the mid 1300s in Europe, and persist to this day in many parts of the world.[1] In medieval times, almost all peasant housing had earthen floors, usually of hardpacked dirt topped off with a thin layer of straw for warmth and comfort.
In China, most cottages and smaller houses also had earthen floors, made of rammed earth and sealed with olive oil or raw linseed.[2]
In modern times, most earthen floors are often laid over the top of a subfloor of tamped gravel and then a mixture of clay, sand and fiber are mixed and leveled onto the tamped subfloor. These layers can be 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick. The thinner layers will dry faster but require a better subfloor for strength or more layers. Earthen floors can be laid over the top of previously installed wood floors but, as always, weight can become an issue.
- ^ Gies, Frances & Gies, Joseph, Life in a Medieval Village
- ^ Mitsu,Ahn , Developments in History: China
- http://www.landerland.com/efloor/efloor_inst.html
- http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/articles/mudandstraw.htm
- http://caneloproject.com
- http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=45372
- http://www.housealive.org/articles/article_earthen_floors.htm
- The Natural Building Network - find natural builders, teachers and resources.
- Gelles, David, "Down and Dirty", The New York Times, February 8, 2007
- A Sourcebook for Green and Sustainable Building - A guide to earth materials.