Should it have been built on a foundation? A: All houses throughout the world and across the eons need a good foundation and a good roof. My own home has a section built in the 's before postwar money began to flow where I think they did little more than sweep off loose dirt before they began laying adobes.
I am lucky in that the house has remained stable and I have been able to add an attic over that area. I guess the soil here served as a good foundation but I am about sixty feet above the level of the Vallecitos River. Your house may be a step up with a trench filled with stone or gravel under the adobes. That is not recognized by the New Mexico Earthen Building Code as a proper foundation unless it had an architect's or engineer's stamp.
Houses like this with no permits or stamps have lasted hundreds of years in NM. It is hard to determine what should have been done under adobe walls at particular locations and built at particular points in history. Adobe codes began with Albuquerque a few years before or after The State of New Mexico adopted and adapted that code around The Law of the Indies followed most of the time by the Spanish settlers of New Mexico warned against building too close to a river and insisted that all homes should be above the acequias.
Floods and leaking pipes is a double punch that's not fair. I am sorry you have to face it. A: Rubble trenches are fine but are not the hill to die on in many jurisdictions. Besides, there have been torrential, Biblical rains in many places. So, a footing with stem wall that gets well above the finish grade level on a well sloped site might not be that much more trouble than rubble with a grade beam on top. My own home has some rubble with adobes right on top - no grade beam.
That was P. McHenry's style. Frank Lloyd Wright came up with the grade beam idea and look where that got him. Q: I have a 90 year old adobe in Albuquerque..
Should I have any issue using sandstone as a stone foundation with bagged mortar mix for the look of it more than anything. The addition wall would be 7 ft long and 9 feet high. A: Sandstone and bagged mortar will make a fine foundation. It worked for buildings built in the era of your original building. It should be 6-inches above the exterior grade and 4-inches above the finish floor level.
Most likely it will not be approved by building officials but perhaps you are not planning to go that route. NM has the Existing Earthen Building Materials Code but now requires that the building be certified as a historic building. It sometimes takes a bit of a search to find. You could print it out and wave it in front of building officials who most likely have not read it and that might make them happy. Can I make a Stabilized Rammed Earth structure my the foundation for the building? If so, how better it could be than a Rubble Trench foundation?
A: My viewpoint is that a Rubble Trench is the better option. Most codes will not allow anything other than concrete or stone or cement based materials for foundations. Since they have lots of interstitial space they mostly drain water downward and away and what moisture remains can expand by freezing into the spaces rather than frost heaving the buildings.
Should you be in an area where the ground never freezes this point is of no concern. Still codes and Quentin do not want you to do any construction with earthen building materials below the finished grade. If you plan to make your career building earthen houses it does not hurt to learn several techniques but for the once-in-a-lifetime builder, you have two systems to learn not to mention the acquisition of equipment for two very different systems.
Q: I have a 40 year old adobe home with a few issues. Mainly, the slab wasn't a raised form, it seems the builder dug out the shape of the floor into the grade, before pouring the slab. The problem now 40 years later is, the road and property around the house is 4 to 8 inches higher than the lowest parts of the adobe wall. In monsoon, there is always standing water. I am toying with the idea of putting a vapor barrier against the exterior side about two feet high and adding a 4 inch thick masonry wall of some kind against the adobe.
This would begin below frost line and rise up to two feet above grade. This would be finished tapering back to the original wall and then all re-plastered. At this point raise the grade higher than the road and low areas of the property and steeply slopping away from the house. I have not seen any other way to address this problem. A: Somehow, moisture always gets into adobe walls from somewhere. It needs to get out and the route is often moisture vapor moving out of the wall through the interior or exterior surfaces.
With the system you propose, the vapor barrier may very well keep moisture out but that one little bit that gets in has its exit obstructed. If your interior surfaces are mud plaster, gypsum plaster, no plaster, they have high moisture vapor permeability and then moisture can get out in that direction.
However glossy paints or many coats of paint can really cut the permeability. If that happens, then moisture moves up the adobe wall and you may find a moisture level evidenced by efflorescence crystals or just a damp mark just above your vapor barrier and cement based wall.
I don't know why soil levels keep building up around a house, but they do and that includes my own home. Another solution would be to remove the dirt back down to or a bit below the finish floor line so the adobe is a bit above the grade.
Better yet, 1" per foot. The low spot becomes a ditch and hopefully it can be routed around the house in a continuously sloping manner to the steep slope you mention to provide a runoff route for that monsoon water. You might think that moving the finish grade down would move the frost line down. The temperature isoclines from six feet down where the year round temperature stabilizes come right up to the slab including its edges.
For most of New Mexico that grave digger's temperature is 57 degrees to 60 degrees and that temperature comes right up to the bottom of the slab. Q: This is a follow up to a question about building a foot tall adobe courtyard wall in Albuquerque using semi-stabilized adobe bricks.
I am hoping to avoid using any concrete in this project. If I use a rubble trench foundation, and lay the first course with fully stabilized adobe bricks, would this be a reasonable alternative to a concrete grade beam. If so, should I paint the top of the bricks with asphalt? Do the first two courses with fully stabilized bricks. There is no need to paint the tops of the bricks with asphalt in my opinion. Bedding the first course in fully stabilized mortar spreads the load onto the gravel and is the thing to do.
Same mortar between the first two courses. Finish up the semi-stabilized bricks with a semi-stabilized mortar. It should all last many years. Q: I am building a foot adobe courtyard wall in Albuquerque and I am getting some estimates from contractors to build either a rubble trench or concrete foundation, and some of their proposals have left me confused, in particular regarding the depth of the foundation, the substrate to be used and the need for drainage.
From reading about rubble trench foundation, my impression is that it needs to be 2" deeper than the frost line, which in Albuquerque is officially16".
One contractor said it would be fine if the foundation is only 12". Can one get by with a foundation above the frost line for a foot wall, or am I missing something? Also from my research, the substrate for the fill should be crushed stone, but the proposals I have received include either a mix of stone and sand or a layer of compacted base on top of the stone.
Finally, my site has very little grade to it. I have been assuming I would need to slope the bottom of my trench and dig a dry well for the trench to empty into. One of the contractors I spoke with said he never does that and has never had a problem. Is that reasonable or is my plan for a dry well a necessary precaution. The aggregate should be one size and not a gradation.
This allows lots of space around the stone for water to move and if there is any water in the trench it gives space for expansion in the case of freezing. Compacted base, especially in the old formulation which included clay, will hinder the movement of water through the matrix. Gravel of one gradation does not support capillary action. This stops any upward migration of water due to capillarity when there are a lot of fines in case the ground is damp due to high water table or flooding.
I would think that in all soils known in the Albuquerque area there is sufficient percolation for any water in the trench from rain to disappear downwards in a short amount of time. I just don't see the need for a dry well and sloped trench.
A twelve-inch depth is fine as long as the bottom of the trench is undisturbed earth. If the trench is over-dug it should be filled with gravel and not dirt.
It is not necessary to get down to the frost line since there is nothing to freeze if the percolation does its job. I am planning a rubble trench foundation, but part of the foundation will need to be concrete because the sides of the trench are in an area where they would not be bordered by stable soil. I have spoke to a few contractors who said I would be crazy not to include a concrete stem before the first course of adobe.
Do I need that or can I just end the foundation at ground level and make the first 2 courses of adobe fully stabilized like I am going to do with the rubble trench? If that is OK, should I paint the concrete with asphalt? If I need a stem, how high does it need to be?
It's always good to get six inches above the surrounding ground level with a stem wall. Yes, it should be painted - twice - with emulsified asphalt to stop upward migration of moisture into the adobe. On the gravel filled rubble trench there is no capillary action through the gravel so no asphalt is needed. If you are going with fully stabilized adobe bricks for the first two courses on the rubble then that will work on the concrete also.
However there might be frost heaving under the concrete so you might consider getting it down to the frost line and then the stem wall would be useful to get up to grade and six inches beyond. Would it be unwise if rubble trench foundation and the concrete part abut each other so that the second course on the rubble trench ties right into he first course on top of the concrete section's stem wall.
Could the two sections settles differently over the time causing the wall to crack? I could always separate the two sections with a doorway, but that would not be optimal. For the concrete foundation, do I need to do anything to attach the adobes to the stem wall, i.
The wall should stand well over time where it crosses the rubble trench and concrete footing and stem. Tamp the bottoms of both sections very well and tamp the gravel once it is in place. Your idea to bring the second course on the rubble into the first on the stem wall should work well. There is no need to use rebar to attach adobes to the stem wall. That is sometimes a solution in high risk seismic areas but not in Albuquerque.
You might consider a ten-foot piece of Durowall placed horizontally in the mortar joint of the first three courses bridging the rubble to concrete intersection. This is the ladder shaped reinforcing used in the concrete block wall construction process.
Part of the wall will parallel my property line, with the wall about a foot in from the line. My neighbor has a large mulberry tree with its trunk about 15 feet from my property. This section of the wall will have a concrete foundation. If the foundation is 16 inches wide and deep, will it be safe at this distance from the tree?
I don't think there is much concern for a tree that is fifteen feet away. I don't know enough about mulberry trees to be sure that they don't have extra powers of root invasion. I have Russian olives and an elm tree within two to three feet from my garden wall.
After 30 years there is no upheaval of the wall. Kelly I have a mature mulberry tree in my yard and excavated a root cellar about 15 feet from it and have a stone patio right next to it and there have been no problems with upheaval from tree roots.
Q: My adobe home was constructed between to Additions were added. It is also possible to remove all of the soil within five feet of the home and replace it in layers mixed with lime to discourage expansion.
Since it is impossible to completely eradicate soil expansion, your foundation needs additional support. A concrete apron with a moisture barrier sheet that extends three to five feet from your foundation is an ideal way to protect it from water. Plastic and rubber aprons can also help. Talk to a foundation repair company for advice on keeping yours in good condition.
We can correct drainage problems and help keep your foundation in good condition. Call us at and let our team of experts recommend the right foundation solutions for your property. Problems in Expansive Clay Soil Environments Unfortunately predicting the behavior and movement of soil can be difficult. While contractors and….
Not sure if your home sits upon clay soils? After several days without precipitation, go out and look at the ground around your home. In dry seasons, clay soils will exhibit deep cracks formed in a polygonal-type shape or pattern. You also can consult with a qualified foundation repair specialist who works with clay soils and foundation problems. Drought conditions also cause deep cracking of expansive soils and can contribute to house foundation problems.
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