[Greenbuilding] Sprouting Floor?

[natural building]

I agree with Lance that adding salt to clay could be a a very bad  
idea. Clay attains its strength (and thus hardness) through an ionic  
bond. If you introduce anything that interferes with that ionic bond   
- such as salt - you will very likely weaken the clay.

However, materials such as cow manure have been used for centuries to  
increase the strength and durability of clay plasters. This is  
documented in Gernot Minke's book (Building with Earth) where, in a  
waterjet test, the addition of a mere 3.5% cow manure increase the  
earthen plaster's resistance to erosion from 4 minutes to 4 hours!

Regards,
Steve Satow

www.naturalbuildingsite.net
naturalbuilding at shaw.ca

On 13-Jan-11, at 11:42 AM, Lance Collins wrote:

> Hi Kenn,
>
> This might be a really bad idea,   I vaguely recall from making  
> adobes many years ago reading that salt and clay made for crumbly  
> blocks.  Also salt would make dry clay hydroscopic rather than  
> hydrophobic.
>
> Cheers
>
> Lance
>
> At 04:06 AM 14/01/2011, you wrote:
>> I just had an idea. You could use salt that you feed livestock, mix  
>> it into the mud that you put into the wall. It will dissolve  
>> temporarily into the wall then dry rock hard, and will not sustain  
>> insects, plant growth or insects. My borate is labeled for pest  
>> control.. It doesn’t matter to a do it yourselfer.
>> Kenn Brown
>>
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