I heard from my friends that you can build a clay bathhouse from adobe. Honestly, my imagination immediately drew a possible picture... An ordinary bathhouse, only its walls inside are not covered with clapboard, but covered and coated with clay.
However, my assumptions turned out to be extremely far from the truth, because a real adobe building looks completely different...
What is adobe
Adobe is not produced in factories, nor is it purchased abroad. Its production does not require any special substances or materials.
Adobe is a multicomponent mixture that consists of a plastic base (clay, sand, earth), reinforced filler (straw) and water.
Translated from the Turkic language, adobe means straw.
Rye or wheat straw is perfect for adobe. It should be a good, healthy color, without the slightest hint of rot or mold.
Is it possible to build any building, much less a bathhouse, from such material?! It must be said that people erected buildings from a mixture of water, clay and straw back in the 4th century BC!
The most interesting thing about this is that I myself, with my own eyes, saw such outbuildings and know how they were erected. Only I could not even imagine then that it was adobe.
Material classification
Modern production methods, which are based on the traditional use of clay soil in Asian countries, make it possible to obtain this material of two types:
- Light adobe is its most common variety, the production of which does not use sand. It is considered warmer and easier to manufacture, which leads to lower cost. After installation, you should wait about 2-3 months, and the use of clay as a base requires good protection of the constructed walls from moisture. That is why surfaces created from this material are covered with wood paneling.
- Heavy adobe - made using sand. In this case, sand makes up approximately 80% of the total composition, and the rest is clay and straw. It is quite difficult to install, which requires certain skills in handling it. However, there are also positive qualities: it dries quickly thanks to the use of sand as a base, and its ability to hold its shape allows you to create buildings with walls of various shapes.
How I met Samana
My acquaintance with him began in the Belgorod region, where my grandfather in the 80s of the last century began construction of a new barn.
In the courtyard of the house, a horse was walking through a pile of clay, sand, straw and horse manure, and my uncle was sitting astride it. This is how the unusual building material for the future barn was mixed.
When a lot of adobe was needed for construction, horses were used to mix the mixture. If the amount of work was small, then they kneaded the adobe themselves - they simply walked on it, trampling and mixing straw, clay, sand and horse manure.
By the way, horse manure has always been added to adobe, but you can knead the mixture without adding manure.
In the North, we have never had problems with building materials in the form of wood - there is enough wood. But in the central region of Russia, using wood to build an entire barn is an unaffordable luxury.
For this reason, almost all of my grandfather’s outbuildings were made of adobe.
There are two types of adobe: heavy and light.
Types of dome structures
According to the method of construction, there are the following types of domes:
- geodetic;
- stratodesic;
- sprayed.
The so-called sprayed dome is an object characterized by simplicity, reliability and beauty. Most often, insulation is performed with sprayed polystyrene foam. A frame made of fiberglass reinforcement is mounted on a lightweight base, after which a pneumatic frame is placed inside it, then a layer of polymer foam is applied. The technology, as you can see, is extremely simple, but unusual.
It won’t be difficult to build this miracle with your own hands. But some experts argue (and I completely agree with them) that this type of dome should not be used to build a bathhouse. The reason is simple: polymer walls allow air to pass through extremely poorly, which is not good. This type of building is perfect for gazebos, summer kitchens and greenhouses.
Stratodesic domes are famous for their exquisite and graceful appearance. Their assembly is carried out on the basis of ribs (bent) having a meridional direction. Doors and windows are extremely easy to install in such a dome, and a veranda, terrace, gazebo, etc. can also be easily added. However, the price of bent-laminated timber is incredibly high.
The geodesic dome has been popular for many years. The geocell (the second name of this design) was invented in the 40s by the American inventor Fuller. The basis of geodetic construction are equilateral triangles. This dome structure is incredibly strong and rigid.
In order for such a creation to please with reliability, it is necessary to ensure the quality of fastening in the nodes and fix the basis of the structure. This type of dome is the best for constructing a health resort, as it demonstrates first-class technical and amazing aesthetic characteristics.
Spherical houses of purity will decorate the countryside and delight the owners with healing steam!
Heavy adobe
These are real brick blocks made of dried clay, straw and sand. In order to make a brick, you need to independently build a mold from planed boards without a bottom. For small blocks it may contain several sections.
The inside of the mold can be lined with polyethylene for easy removal of adobe bricks. For the same purposes, you need to fill the ends of the molding box with handles.
There are no exact proportions for heavy adobe mixture; it is prepared experimentally.
The mixture should be homogeneous, thick and mushy; it is collected in a heap and allowed to stand for a day.
Then the mixture is filled into the mold and the already formed brick is taken out of it.
The blocks need to be dried in a place well protected from moisture; good ventilation is required. When the blocks have dried, you can check their quality.
You should not form all the blocks at once; to check the quality, it is enough to prepare one brick.
- If the adobe brick is broken by hand, there is not enough straw.
- If the brick crumbles, there is a lot of straw and little clay.
- The brick block is covered with cracks - a lot of clay and little sand.
Preparing heavy adobe is a longer and more labor-intensive process. The blocks take a long time to form; in addition, they must dry out.
It is better to start building buildings from heavy adobe in the spring, when weather conditions allow it to dry well.
Heavy adobe makes interesting, sometimes intricate buildings, since the blocks can be shaped into very different shapes.
A bathhouse can be fashioned as if from plasticine and even without corners, but this type of masonry requires experience and skills in construction. If you don’t have the skills, you can practice on a small structure, such as a doghouse.
Light adobe
A strong frame is the key to a durable building; without it, it is impossible to build a barn or a bathhouse from light adobe. That is, trees must be used for support.
When the walls of a building consist of a wooden frame in the form of shingles made from dry driftwood and branches, the voids are filled with light adobe. In this case, adobe does not play the role of a load-bearing wall, it is its filler.
Light adobe is prepared in almost the same way as heavy adobe. The difference is that blocks are not formed from it, but the prepared mixture is rubbed and hammered into the frame of the walls.
The result is a clay-straw monolithic wall that fastens and holds the wooden frame of the building.
The straw is impregnated with clay milk and reliably connects the fibers.
Light adobe buildings do not require pre-drying; they are open on both sides. High air temperature, low humidity and a good draft will dry adobe walls in a matter of days.
Construction technology
When considering the technology of building a bathhouse made of adobe, the following main stages can be distinguished:
- A strip foundation should be used as the foundation for the building. It is ideal for such a structure and can provide the necessary degree of reliability. However, before choosing this type of foundation, you should make sure that it is suitable for a particular site (the presence of unstable soil or rocky terrain makes it impossible to use the type of foundation in question).
- A wooden beam is laid on top of the strip foundation as a strapping and a wooden frame is installed. Almost any tree can be used. It will serve as a reinforcing element of the structure, which will be filled with adobe.
Materials for building a bathhouse - see here
In conclusion, we note that a do-it-yourself bathhouse made of adobe can be built using formwork or monolithic masonry. The use of formwork occurs using light adobe, and monolithic masonry is carried out using a material in the production of which sand is used. The second option is the most difficult to implement, but the work can be done much faster. To use heavy adobe, you must have experience handling it. Therefore, it is recommended to practice in advance on the construction of, for example, a small decorative fence or other structure.
Source: https://postroimdoma.com/Bany/vidy-ban/osobennosti-bani-iz-samana/
Bathhouse made of adobe
It is possible to build a bathhouse from adobe, construction experts assure us of this. You don’t need to have a lot of knowledge in construction; everything can be learned during the construction process.
To build a bathhouse, you will need a solid foundation, and a massive brick stove and chimney are optional. During the work, it is necessary to leave small holes for pipe exit and ventilation.
It is important to consider the climate of the area where you want to build an adobe bathhouse.
For example, if we talk about our Far North, then, most likely, such a construction will not justify itself and will be unreasonable.
Clay is an amazing building material. Like wood, it is capable of absorbing and releasing excess moisture. That is, the clay bath will not be too humid, it breathes!
Only with all its undeniable advantages, the lack of resistance to water casts doubt on its use for building a bathhouse in a rainy, humid climate.
The enemy of adobe is high humidity and rain.
Even if there is a high-quality roof and wall protection, the constant humidity from the proximity of the sea will do its dirty work and the adobe will soften.
Even my grandfather’s buildings are all reliably protected from adobe, the walls are sheathed and upholstered with slate.
The inside of an adobe clay bath can be lined with clapboard and a small metal sauna stove can be installed. It's only up to your imagination!
Possible problems of an adobe bath
Of course, humidity will do its job over time and the lower rows of the adobe wall will begin to wash out. This is the problem with all bathhouses, be it a clay building or a log building.
In my bathhouse, the lower rims of the logs were turned into dust by ants and had to be replaced. Raise the bathhouse and change all the lower crowns.
In an adobe bathhouse there will be no such global construction costs. It is enough to start repairing damp adobe in time; it must be replaced with a new one.
The key to protecting an adobe bathhouse is a high-quality roof. The roof should cover the walls from rain as best as possible, that is, be low and wide. Therefore, if you do not have construction experience, it is better to entrust this part of the work to professionals...
People have been building from adobe for a long time; it is an affordable, natural, environmentally friendly material. Buildings made from it do not require the use of special tools, equipment or chemicals. All family members, young and old, can participate in this unusual construction!
Chock, clay and straw - do-it-yourself eco-sauna
The technology for constructing a bathhouse box, in which only a block of building materials is used - clay, straw and a little cement, at first glance looks like a joke or a prank. All materials are traditionally used in the manufacture of one-story adobe buildings, but how to make a steam room from them so that the walls, floor and clay ceiling do not collapse from moisture and steam requires experience and skill, and in some ways even ingenuity.
The roof of the bathhouse should be sloping; the walls made of clay and lumps will not hold the high roof
