How to Install an Earthen Floor
Earthen floors are not just about "building green" and using natural materials in your home, they are a means of bringing a natural beauty into your home that also has some amazing heating and insulating properties. Earthen floors are flexible and dustless and can be swept or lightly mopped like any other kind of floor. They also retain heat and act as a natural insulation in your home. They are not difficult to install, taking no more time than a concrete slab floor. They are labor intensive though, because you will have to do all of the installation by hand. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Hand tamp
- Clay soil
- Fill sand
- Shovel
- Water hose
- Mixing tub
- Plastic tarp
- (2) 3-foot 2x4s
- Wood concrete float
- Concrete knee sleds
- Magnesium concrete float
- Sponge mop
- Bucket
- Linseed oil
- Concrete color (powder or liquid if needed)
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Instructions
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Tamp your foundation soil so it is solid and hard. You will want the surface of your foundation soil to be 1/2 inch below where you want the actual surface of your finished earthen floor to be. Your earthen floor will act as a "top coat" to the foundation soil much in the same way that a top coat of concrete is placed on foundation soil to create a concrete floor.
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2
Mix your earthen floor. Figure out the amount of mix you need to cover the entire area by calculating the volume (length times width times height). Then add 30 percent more to your calculation to take into account the volume of the mix you will lose as you pack and finish the floor. Then, mix that amount---using a 1:4 ration of clay soil to fill sand---with water to make a damp mix. Use a large mixing tub and shovel to mix batches of the material. As you properly mix a small batch, empty the tub onto a plastic tarp and cover it so it will not dry out. Keep mixing in small manageable batches so the volume of the materials is easy to work with. You should be able to scoop out a handful of your mix and pack it into a ball easily. If your ball is not dry or if water does not come to the surface of the ball as you pack and smooth it, then your mix has the right consistency.
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3
Install your earthen floor. Start in a back corner and work out. Lay two 3-foot 2x4s down on the ground so they form a right angle and create a 3x3 square. Shovel the damp mix into the area contained by the boards. Use a wooden float to pack and smooth the mix down to the thickness of your floor (3/4 inch). Remove the boards and place them at a right angle to the wall and the mix you just installed to create another 3x3 square. This will keep the area you are working in manageable so you will not have to walk on the damp mix to level and smooth the floor. Keep doing this until the entire floor is covered.
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4
Finish float the floor. Wait until the floor has cured enough to be hard, but not so hard that you cannot smooth the surface with a magnesium concrete float. Keep testing a small corner of the slab by pressing the float down onto it, when the float no longer sinks into the floor but can still smooth it (if you press hard enough) then it is ready to be finished.
Wet the bottom of your concrete knee sleds so they will not stick to the floor. Knee sleds are metal "sleds" that you kneel on and have a bar that you hook your toes behind, they allow you to walk on your knees on surfaces like curing concrete or curing earthen floors without sinking into them because they help to distribute your body weight evenly. Use the sleds to "walk" to the corner where you began installing the floor and begin to float the surface smooth with the magnesium float.
Hold the float so the face is lifted up very slightly in the direction you are moving it and swing it in arcs over the surface of the floor. Do this over the entire floor and then let the floor dry-cure for 12 hours before going onto the next step.
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5
Seal the floor. Pour an inch of linseed oil into a bucket and dip a sponge mop into the oil. Squeeze the mop to get rid of the excess oil (just as if you were getting ready to mop with water) and "mop" the floor. When you have applied the linseed oil to every inch of the earthen floor surface, let the floor absorb the oil for 24 hours before allowing anyone to walk on it.
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Tips & Warnings
Color your earthen floor by adding a liquid or powder concrete color to your clay/sand mix. Make sure you do some sample pieces first because you will not be able to see what the color will be until the clay/sand mix is completely dry.
Some soils release radon gas when exposed to the air. Only use fill clay and sand to avoid creating a potentially poisonous environment in your home.
