Economical stabilization of clay for earth buildings construction in rainy and flood prone areas

Abstract About one half of the total world’s population resides or works in buildings made of earth. It is a cheap and thus one of the oldest building materials known to mankind. Water is the worst enemy of raw earth buildings. To make it water resistant and durable, different stabilizers are added to the clay in building construction. Cement, lime, bitumen, fibers (natural and synthetic) and certain other chemicals are used worldwide. This research is aimed at finding desirable and effective means of construction material, which is economical as well as easy to handle. For this purpose, protecting earth buildings from the ill effects of rain and flood, cement, lime, gypsum and natural straw from wheat (all in different combinations) were used as stabilizers in this study. The samples produced were subjected to two different nonstandard and relativity based tests in order to examine the durability of the materials used under rain and flood. The samples were also tested under compression and tension and the results obtained were compared with the published data. From the test results analysis and comparison, it was found that using 4% cement with 1% straw would show excellent results for construction in rain and flood prone areas and appeared economical as well. Therefore if a house is constructed with this combination of stabilizers in rainy and flood prone area, will be more resistant to weather and would be economical as well.