Building a shed with rammed earth

[stelios5tsiolas]

I would like to build a shed made out of rammed earth? Did anybody else do it? Please advise.

[redracer01]

Hello @stelios5tsiolas 

The first thing that comes to mind is size. How big will your shed be? Do you have enough space on your property. Do you have enough material or will you be having it trucked in to your property. My only other concern is do you need a plan and permit for the council for this particular type of building? I have seen a few videos for rammed earth buildings and definition from the Ozgov is :

"Rammed earth walls are sometimes known as pisé walls — from the Latin origin pisé de terre. First used in Lyons, France, in 1562, the term applied to the principle of constructing walls at least 500mm thick by ramming earth between two parallel frames that were then removed, revealing a completed section of compressed earth wall"

- credit to : https://www.yourhome.gov.au/materials/rammed-earth -

On a general online search there's a mob out in Victoria who do it on a professional level. That might give you a better idea of the scope of work that is involved when doing this kind of project. Here is the link to their site : https://www.rammedearthenterprises.com.au/construction-of-rammed-earth-walls/# they have a video showing how the walls are made. Lets give your query a shout out to our members and see if anyone has attempted to build one on their own. To be honest I don't have any experience with this type of building material. But if you do go ahead with it,  please document your building journey here on workshop. I'm sure the information you post will be invaluable to all the members of the site should they decide on doing a more earth friendly form of construction! : ) Good luck and stay safe.

Cheers,

Red

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @stelios5tsiolas. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

I'll be looking forward to hearing from any of our members that have constructed a rammed earth building. If you'd like to read through the link @redracer01 provided on rammed earth, you could then come back to us with questions you had. It's great to see alternative and sustainable building techniques encouraged by the Aust government, and I'll be interested in following along with your project.

Mitchell

[BelindaDonovan]

Yes, I'd like to learn these skills, perhaps over a series of weekends. Looking to have the skills to become a member

[EricL]

Hello @BelindaDonovan 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us.

I recommend starting with a search online for a rammed earth workshop in your area. There are also workshops that do mudbrick, low density earth, earth render, cob, wattle and daub. These are excellent alternative building techniques and are earth friendly. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric