RammTeck. Bringing the past into the future

Rammed Earth (pisé) rammed earth walls are constructed by ramming a mixture of selected aggregates, including gravel, sand, silt and a small amount of clay, into place between flat panels called formwork. Traditional technology involved repeatedly ramming the end of a wooden pole into the earth mixture to compress it. Modern technology replaces the pole with a mechanical ram. Stabilised rammed earth is a variant of traditional rammed earth that adds a small amount of cement (typically between 5 and 10 per cent) to add strength and durability. Stabilised rammed earth walls need little added protection but are usually coated with a permeable sealer to increase the life of the material – this varies with circumstance and there are thousands of unstabilised rammed earth buildings around the world that have given good service over many centuries. Most of the energy used in the construction of rammed earth is in quarrying the raw material and transporting it to the site. Use of on-

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 fin

Rammteck gauteng pilot project Our first rammed earth project in gauteng

Rammteck KZN pilot project This is one of the documentaries on our buildings just a repost on u tube very informative

  Rattray foundation head office O ur most challenging project yet where we had to build on a gradient and the base was all clay Obviously rammed earth adds some additional challenges to this type of construction Embedded in the clay was huge granite rocks that had to be burnt and cooled to break before we could get Down to foundation level All foundations in the basement are reinforced 1m x 0.8 with 16 mm rebar Olso tied to these vertically where tie bars for the retaining wall  this had to be done as  three sides of the wall are holding back the clay The vertical bars that will run up the retaining walls to create a stressed member Shows the bars that will run all the way through the wall to the top of the slab Then two lines of bricks 300 mm apart with our Steal  in the cavity we can lift three lines at a time and then Fill with concrete The following pic shows how the s

n Tswinga village  This was going to be a challenge with no local knowledge a totally new crew Very bad soil conditions as there was only a clay type of soil to be found I only put two of my experienced staff onto this project.  With my two site leaders so far from home for so long they became  Very friendly with the locals and that lead to a management breakdown Wich was costly to the business Some nice coloring in the wall panels The soil problem lead us to import a lot more soil than we thought necessary We had to breakdown the clay as much as 75 percent this we did with a blend of riversand and cement to achieve the desired hardness issues Getting the patching right on any rammed earth wall is an art but really makes or breaks it  with all the pin holes there are a lot of these visible marks I have a secret remedy for that but drop me a mail After a long ramming process and a lot of intricate brickwork on the ins

Projects that RammTeck has consulted and worked on Mablomong pilot project admin block             Mablomong phase 2 three classroom block    Buthlebamangwe 4 classroom building            Mamphunga admin offices and 3 classrooms   Chebelihle admin offices and 4 classrooms     Ntalantala school 3 classrooms and computer room   Mamphunga full service building Rattray head office building Buffels hoek trust  staff accommodation Hoyo hoyo curio shop Nourish library Thorny-bush group packing house Nedbank ablution block Funani creche classroom Backup water project for Buffelshoek Trust  Funani Crèche Ablution blocks for Aspringofhope of hope

  Mamphunga full service building coming to completion Having two rammed earth buildings next to each other very unique Another beautiful building built by the community for the community some finishing touches inside the building  Above the entrance to two consulting rooms The activity room  Storage area Kitchen with serving hatch into open area  Building conventional building into Rammed earth is a challenge as the rammed earth is always moving so there is no keying into the rammed earth  When joining up against a rammed earth wall  we make a very clear brake point or join The join should be cleaned out with a bolster chisel making a nice clean movable join And showing the plaster where to crack So the end result a complete building with 400 m2 of space tiled with bathrooms completed for less than 1.5 million  try and beat that anyone Another David Rattray inspired building by Rammteck  completed

Mamphunga full service school building This building the first of its kind it is a new government initiative  to have one of these types of buildings in specific areas throughout  the country  Well here it is ...... This building is unique in that it uses passive heating and cooling   to control the temperature internally  a lot more brickwork was used internally to divide up the rooms  In all our other buildings we have just divided into class rooms This building comprises of    Entrance hall and reception area Large open plan admin office space A 80 m2 activity room 2 large consulting rooms   30m2x2 1 x sick bay Male and female toilets Disabled toilet with a shower A strong room and large document store Once again built by the community or the surrounding unemployed  people We try To employ a good balance between men and women  We have trained over  one hundred people so far in the three years we have been busy

The fact finding committee that was sent by the MEC for education was taken aback by the work that Rammteck has done on the KZN schools where we have had the opportunity to build our green buildings The group consisted of the Chief architect of KZN public works as well as the Chief architect for the DOE and the KZN provincial director of education The day started off with a technical meeting covering our soil mixing technique, Ramm process, community staff usage, raw material use, carbon footprint statements A big thank you to the people that have fine tuned the rammed earth model  These are Ben Henderson,Rob Taylor,Peter Taylor and Mike Beukes The so called rammed earth model is the way in which we start a project run a project and complete it using local staff and local material and maximize community involvement and minimize the effects on environment and carbon footprint To say the least the delegation was blown away at what we have created with the local communities and

The Kzn MEC for education was very interested in learning all he could in the short time we had to speak but was quite surprised that the work was being done in the community By THE COMMUNITY . If all goes well with the inspectors and engineers and architects it looks quite positive that the government will fund future buildings Our examples of what we can do with unskilled labour and material harvested on site are exemplary

Mr. Edward Senzo  Mchunu MEC kzn Education History was made on the 15th of may as the MEC visited one of Rammtecks eight buildings. The community at Chebelihle school went all out to prepare for the visit and really did a good job of making the minister and all invited delegates feel welcome.As in Zulu tradition a beast was slaughtered the previous day as well as fifteen zulu chickens  and cooking went on for 24 hours before the visit I was very privileged in having the honour of showing the minister around the building and explaining all the positive attributes to building with rammed earth. For some one who has never seen rammed earth it is quite an eye opener and the minister was taken aback by the community involvement the quality of the build and obviously the costs involved  Rammteck and its affiliates Beyond the line and the Rattray foundation have designed a model which encompasses all the problems we currently have in South Africa these being  Backlog in the number of

Rammed earth low cost housing is now a reality with the Municipalities  running out of funds!!!  Now building your own low cost house could become a reality. Empowering people to build their own houses the perfect solution  ? We have proven that you can move into any unskilled, unemployed community and they can be up skilled and ready to build their own homes in two to three days. We have proven the cost to build is so low that official markups etc included  you still end up with a product that is superior and more cost effective ,bettering communities and creating true wealth distribution

One of the most attractive aspects of our green buildings The ceilings made by the locals Seven months ago we started  Ntalantala secondary school  We are building three classrooms and a media center occupation early February   Final green touches the home made ceiling panels being installed