CEB Compressed Earth Block construction

[Greg Pettengill]

CEB - Compresssed Earth Block is regarded as the highest quality natural building method. It can be used in construction of Aquaponics Systems.  CEB lends itself to 100% onsite building material sourcing. The thermal insulation, sound insulation, and strength of the bricks are excellent.

CEBs can also be used in fences, cisterns, road paving, ovens, dams, thermal storage cisterns, silos, barns, dairy plant, bakery building, greenhouses, raised garden beds, etc..

 

[TCLynx]

What is the best way to seal them so that water can't seep into them or run away between the cracks?  How do you keep that coating from cracking where the seams are?

[Greg Pettengill]

There are various methods and materials that are used.  Un-stabilized CEB is often coated with stucco.  To make a pond watertight it could be coated with a bituminous clay.

The common way to stabilize them is with a small addition of cement.  A better way may be to use an enzyme such as...

Earthbind™ Stabilizer

Earthbind™ Stabilizer is a quality, versatile and cost-effective soil stabilizer. Earthbind™ Stabilizer is a bituminous modified biopolymer soil stabilization agent and was developed to meet the broad stabilization needs for a variety of sectors. for a quality and cost-effective soil stabilizer. read more

Other Earthbind™ Stabilizer Links:

• Product Overview
• Recommended Application Procedures
• MSDS

 

[Greg Pettengill]

One of the more interesting possibilities that CEB offers is custom shapes of bricks.  This is possible because an inexpensive die (A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create.) can be made and used in place of standard plain ones.

 

Here are a few ideas for new and different building bock designs...

[Greg Pettengill]

It would be possible to mold in things like pipes.

[Manuel Lynch]

You might look at the fibrous balls of Posidonia Oceanica as one of the best natural insulators.

[Greg Pettengill]

Thanks for bringing this up, I'm not familiar with it!  How do you see it in relation to CEB?