Why Rammed earth
Rammteck was formed as one of South Africa's first rammed earth building companies . Not only to promote the art and science of building in rammed earth but to get out there and design, engineer and build it cost-effectively. To bring rammed earth from the status of a "forgotten art", not practiced in South Africa , into the mainstream of the building industry. Rammteck rammed earth is now a modern, structural, load bearing, durable, waterproof, beautiful, artistic, breathing, green, cost-effective, environmentally-sound building material.
There is an inherent attraction of rammed earth walls to most people. Nearly everyone who sees a rammed earth wall, and almost certainly those seeing one for the first time, walks up to it and touches it or rubs it, since it is such a tactile material. All people comment on the attractiveness of the look and feel of a rammed earth wall. When walls are being built and the raw earthen materials are laid out on site most people find it staggering that such plain simple earthen materials can be built into such dense, hard, strong stone-like walls and into a completed building that is totally functional, waterproof, structural and extremely long-lasting.
Human occupation in earth-dug caves has been dated back more than 50,000 years, and occupation of earthen buildings to nearly as long ago. Currently, some 50 percent of the world's 6 billion people still live in unfired earth dwellings. Unfired earth has stood the test of time – it is tried and proven, and rammed earth is a modern and viable construction system using the medium of unfired earth. In areas of France including Dijon and Lyon to the south, the bulk of all old houses are made from rammed earth and most are still successfully occupied today even though all being well over a century in age. Whilst most other modern buildings built with other modern factory produced materials are generally budgeted to last for 70 years, rammed earth buildings can be expected to last for hundreds of years. History has proven that rammed earth buildings are extremely durable.
If you are considering not building in rammed earth, then you should take the trouble to ask the manufacturer of your home the longevity of buildings of a similar material to what is proposed, preferably spanning several centuries.
Now with the move towards more sustainable dwellings, less greenhouse emissions, smaller ecological footprint... rammed earth buildings have all the qualities we are seeking. There is a new move back to the earth.
The advantages of rammed earth are numerous with materials generally available on site or close by. Natural earthen materials and the colour of the surrounding landscape, are generally used.
Rammed earth has exceptional strength, durability, and fantastically high thermal mass to moderate the fluctuations in temperature. Rammteck rammed earth is likely the most cost-effective source of high thermal mass walling material currently available in the building market in South Africa .The thermal properties are well known to all occupants of rammed earth buildings not only today, but also over the centuries and creates a very comfortable living environment. Rammed earth has also been used for its low allergen properties and to produce truly healthy homes.
Rammed earth, as currently constructed, generally contains a small amount of cement to give even longer durability and even greater strength and to assist in gaining approvals by our local municipal councils.
Rammed earth is naturally sun dried.
Whilst aluminium may be considered as congealed electricity (due to the astronomical quantities of it required to refine aluminium), so too can fired clay bricks be considered as fused energy due to the enormous amount of energy required to fire them. The amount of embodied energy in products such as fired clay bricks and aluminium is quite scary given that we are clearly in a world of depleting energy resources and excessive energy use. It has been widely reported that the embodied energy in a house can represent half of the energy used by that house over its lifetime.
By comparison, the energy taken to create a rammed earth home is less than forty percent of the energy to create a traditional fired clay brick home. Some commentators give the embodied energy of rammed earth as over 100% less than the same mass/volume of fired clay brick. Only now with accounting being called for, of embodied energy and greenhouse gases release and the legal implementation of "carbon credit" schemes for products do we have some established major manufacturers (including aluminium manufacturers) saying that some of their products are no longer financially or practically viable. With their demise we should see the rise of "new" viable products such as Rammteck
Rammteck rammed earth walls have a great feel to them, and the buildings made from rammed earth have a calming attractive and wonderful ambience. Ask any occupant of a Rammteck building. Once people have felt the ambiance and warmth in a rammed earth building they dont want to live in anything else. The ancient past is definitely becoming part of our near future .
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