How to Build Adobe Indian Houses
In the American Southwest, homes made of adobe are a common sight. Adobe is material made of clay, sand, and straw that was a natural choice for Native Americans. The soil already contained much clay and sand, and the dry air of the Southwest dried the mixed material to a hard consistency. Making these adobe Indian houses took a great deal of labor, and large groups of people worked together to build new structures and repair the older ones.
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Things You'll Need
- Sand
- Clay
- Straw
- Trough for mixing
- Trowels
- Molds for bricks
- Water
- Motor oil for molds
- Logs for roof
Instructions
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How to Build Adobe Indian Houses
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1
Decide the size and location of your house and mark off the dimensions on the soil.
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2
Pour your adobe foundation. Adobe is a mixture of 50 percent sand, 35 percent clay, and 15 percent straw. To make the adobe a pourable consistency, you must add water to make it more liquid. This should be poured two inches thick as your foundation. Smooth evenly with trowel. Then, allow the poured adobe to dry thoroughly to a hard surface.
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3
Calculate how many bricks you will need. For instance, if you will need a wall 96 inches tall, 180 inches long and 10 inches thick, start by dividing the height of the wall (96) by the thickness of the brick (four inches), to get the result of 24. Divide the length of the wall (180) by the length of the brick (14 inches), and round off to 13. So you will need 13 adobe bricks laid end to end to get one line 180 inches long. Now you must multiply the number of bricks for height (24) times the number of bricks for the length (13). That result is 312 bricks to make one wall. Multiply times for the whole house. That makes a total of 1,248 bricks to make a house 15 feet square.
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4
Make molds for the adobe bricks. You can make these out of wood or by cutting down cardboard boxes to a size of 14 inches by 10 inches by four inches. Mix the adobe in the proportions given above and pour into oiled molds. You can use plain motor oil for this purpose. Allow to dry a bit, then remove from mold. Continue the process until you have a sufficient amount of bricks. Allow the bricks to dry in the sun for several days.
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5
Lay the bricks to make walls, applying mortar between and on top of the bricks. Adobe mortar is the same mixture you use for the bricks, but thinned slightly with water. Start at the corners and work toward the middle of walls. Leave openings for door and windows. Allow the bricks and mortar to dry.
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6
Smooth an adobe coating over the surface of the set brick, if desired. The coating is not necessary but will make for a more attractive, finished appearance on the house. The coating is made with the clay and sand, but without the straw. Make the mixture moist enough to smooth like plaster. Cover both the inside and the outside walls. Allow to dry.
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7
Place logs across the top of the walls. Fill tightly with mud. Allow to dry. Smooth another coating of mixed adobe thickly over the surface of the roof, and allow to dry.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Doors and windows will reduce the number of bricks needed, but make the additional ones anyway to make up for unusable bricks.
References
- Photo Credit garraf6 image by Jaume Felipe from Fotolia.com
