![]() The material’s great thermal mass cannot transfer heat without a relatively long input of sun exposure, keeping the interior cool during the daytime when the sun burns intensely. Perhaps not surprisingly, adobe is an ideal building material for the climates in which it is most commonly found, such as deserts and other regions typified by hot days and cool nights. Today, the use of adobe is still widespread across the American Southwest, North Africa, West Africa, western Asia, South America and southern Europe. Two such examples are the San Miguel Mission of Santa Fe, New Mexico, thought to be the oldest church in the country, and Pueblo towns and villages that have withstood the winds of the American West since 750 AD. Even within the United States, many of the oldest buildings, indigenous and European, were made from adobe. Entire cities have been made from the material and many adobe buildings have seen continuous use for thousands of years. Even the word “adobe” has existed for around 4,000 years, with little change in its pronunciation or meaning it can be traced from the Middle Egyptian word for “mud brick” and was borrowed by Late Egyptian, Demotic, Coptic, Arabic, Old Spanish and, finally, English. ![]() In most cases, the ancient earthen materials do the job better than modern ones Crocker warranties his mud plaster for up to 10 years-better protection than what’s given for most cement-based stucco finishes in Santa Fe.Due to the abundance of its constituents and ease by which it is produced and shaped, adobe construction is truly ancient and universal. ![]() Attached along the bottom of the wall just below grade, the material conducts water away from the footing through a drainage pipe. Finally, Crocker and his team break capillary action along the foot of the wall with a 12-inch-wide strip of polypropylene covered with filter fabric. “When the straw is parallel to the ground, water running down the wall splits and doesn’t create a rivulet,” he says. This orientation is key it forces rainwater to sheet down the wall, rather than create channels, which eventually eat into the plaster. ![]() He adds it to the mix, then carefully trowels it onto the wall with horizontal strokes to align the straw pieces horizontally on the surface. Ordinary straw is also a key ingredient Crocker chops it into pieces up to 1½ inches long. “We prefer mud plaster because it is vapor-permeable, allowing moisture to escape.” The mix must be 20 percent clay and 80 percent aggregate, which can range from simple masonry sand all the way up to 3/8- or ½-inch gravel. The next step is a new coat of plaster, and though most clients specify cement, fearing maintenance issues, Crocker lobbies hard for earth. Using these batts together with mud mortar, Crocker then rebuilds the wall. He’ll patch eroded areas with adobe “batts,” small sections of premade mud bricks (seen at left) that are broken with a hatchet to the needed size. The historic-preservation contractor is renowned throughout the Southwest for his work with earthen materials, including so-called “true adobe” (that is, bricks made without asphalt additives) and mud plaster.Ĭrocker and his crew first strip off an adobe wall’s existing-typically cement-based-plaster to assess its condition. But had moisture found its way in-typically either via poor drainage at the footing or a crack in the plastered roof parapets-some restoration would be in order.Īmong purists, that means a call to Ed Crocker. Thanks to a combination of careful upkeep and luck, the adobe walls of the Canyon Road house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, were in remarkable shape when contractors removed the windows, doors, and roof.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |