Adobe is a construction material composed of sandy clay and (usually) straw, which can be cast into bricks or shaped directly into walls using wooden frames. Adobe structures are easily damaged by excessive moisture, but offer significant advantages in hot, dry climates, as they remain cooler than alternatives based on more "modern" materials.
Adobe can be pronounced ah-doh-bee or uh-doh-bee. It can refer to either the bricks, the material used or for a building made of adobe. Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in the Middle East, North Africa, and in Spain (usually in the Mudejar style), but Adobe had been in use by Native Americans in the Southwestern United States and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of rock are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings.
This method of brick making was imported in the 16th century by Spaniards from Mexico and Peru. A distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines, some of which are as much as from one to two yards long.
In more modern usage, the term "adobe" has come to mean a style of architecture that is popular in the desert climates of North America, especially in New Mexico. Cf. stucco.
Adobe is from the Spanish adobar which means "to plaster" and is traceable through Arabic to an Egyptian hieroglyph meaning brick.
Adobe, sometime abbreviated 'dobe, soil or land is land, such as sometimes encountered in the San Luis Valley of Colorado which is a hard packed clay. During or immediately after a rain, a road in such land is quite slick, although not muddy as the rain does not penetrate the clay very quickly
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2 Adobe bricks 3 Good insulation |
Composition of adobe
Adobe is a mixture of clay and sand. Too much sand and the
material crumbles; too much clay and it will crack. To find the right combination experiment with the materials at hand until your bricks come out right. The same combining of sand and clay is used by Pueblo Indians to made the raw material for production of pottery or even to make molds for the casting of jewelry.
Use the same mixture you use to make bricks for mortar when laying the bricks and for plaster on the interior and exterior walls. It is sometimes
useful to include occasional pieces of wood as you lay a wall to give something to nail insulation onto.
Bricks can be made waterproof by adding emulsified asphalt to the mud. To test bricks for waterproofing immerse them in water for 24 hours. A good brick will not soak up more than about 16 mm (1/16th of an inch) of water. To test for strength, drop a finished brick from a height of 0.9 m to 1.5 m (3 to 5 feet) to see if it breaks. Sometimes if the sand is too fine, the finished bricks will be weak. Straw is sometimes, even traditionally, added to the mix when making adobe bricks, but offers no particular advantage.
The biggest structure of the world made of Adobe (bricks), is Bam Citadel, which sufferred a seroius damage, up to %80, by an earthquake on 26 Dec. 2003.
Adobe bricks
Bricks are made in an open frame, 25 cm (10 inches) by 36 cm (14 inches) is a reasonable size, but any convenient size is fine for your own use. After the mud is
put into the frame the frame is removed. After a few hours the bricks are put on edge to finish drying. Bricks should be dried in the shade.Good insulation
Because an adobe wall, either with bricks or using a rammed earth technique, is massive it will hold heat or cold. That means insulation
needs to be put on the outside of your wall so once your wall is warmed up it will maintain the stablity of the temperature of the building. A south facing adobe wall may be left uninsulated in order that it can collect heat during the day. It should be thick enough that it remains cool on the inside during the heat of the day but should be thin enough that the heat can be transferred through the wall by evening. Such a wall can be covered with glass to increase heat collection. Used in a passive solar home such a wall is called a Trombe wall.