Rammed earth wall underground?

Could a Rammed earth walled be used on a earth berm home?

Perhaps in  but not on.   Such walls do not have tensile strength; meaning the force of berm against them could make them collapse.  Such walls are intended for internal division and additional mass to control temperature swings.

I agree with Hans, also moisture is the enemy of rammed earth, when soil is piled against it.
Have you thought of old tyres loosely filled, not compacted as it is done sometimes?

Hans Quistorff wrote:Perhaps in  but not on.   Such walls do not have tensile strength; meaning the force of berm against them could make them collapse.  Such walls are intended for internal division and additional mass to control temperature swings.

I was unaware that rammed earth wasn't bearing i guess more information is needed
rammed earth sounded free and healthy

John C Daley wrote:I agree with Hans, also moisture is the enemy of rammed earth, when soil is piled against it.
Have you thought of old tyres loosely filled, not compacted as it is done sometimes?

wofati was my first thought but the ants n termites are bad here. i already dug the area out . I also thought tires buts a lot of work for one person. i was going to  try cutting the side wall off of one side to make it easier but idk if that would hold ?

We used stud framed walls infilled with cob for a partially bermed house. For termite mitigation we treated the wood elements with boric acid, painted the exterior sheathing with an elastomeric coating and wrapped the building in rockwool comfort board. Here are some videos I posted about the build:

This one covers why we infilled with cob and how we planned to deal with the various forces at work on the structure:


These two cover prepping the exterior for backfilling and building the berm:  

Rammed earth may be structural above ground when protected from water, but underground with earth backfill, it will get damp to some degree, and will not hold as a retaining wall against lateral forces.

Hi, am curious on people's thoughts on rammed earth underground away from earth and not as load bearing. So without filling the space between earth and rammed earth( which would just be walls as stone column s would be load bearing of roof. As it's on a hillside,one side earth, two sides sloping down hill and one facade all windows.
Ventilation windows on top of rammed earth on earth side . Two sloped roof one  vegetal and the other polycarbonate for light.. just checking out the whole idea as I'd like to not build great big concrete walls.. thanks for your advice

Noon Baldwin wrote:Hi, am curious on people's thoughts on rammed earth underground away from earth and not as load bearing. So without filling the space between earth and rammed earth( which would just be walls as stone column s would be load bearing of roof. As it's on a hillside,one side earth, two sides sloping down hill and one facade all windows.
Ventilation windows on top of rammed earth on earth side . Two sloped roof one  vegetal and the other polycarbonate for light.. just checking out the whole idea as I'd like to not build great big concrete walls.. thanks for your advice

If you're sure it will stay dry, and that the load is vertical from above, in my opinion, rammed earth is great. If there's any lateral load (pushing from the side, or filled on one side with the surrounding earth), then rammed earth is unlikely to hold for the long term. And in the event of a flood, unstabilized rammed earth risks turning to mud. Have you thought about all possible weather events and decided that flood is not possible?

Rammed earth is wonderful in the appropriate place, both for exterior and interior walls. I've lived with unstabilized rammed earth buildings for a few decades (unstabilized means no cement or lime, just earth). I love its thermal mass property, its feeling of warmth in the room, its hygroscopic properties (it absorbs and releases humidity), and its acoustic properties (absorbing sound, but not too much, and not being echoey and harsh).

Hi Rebecca,

Thanks for your response.  The rammed earth walls would not be load bearing at all  and would be between 80 to 50 cm away from the earth... The vegetal roof would go 1 m further over the gap onto the ground which is flat.  I suppose a french drain between the earth and rammed earth wall  at its foot would be clever?
Ventilating would need to be an important aspect...
A run off away from the vegetal sedum roof also on the outside .. it doesn't really flood as I live on a hill water stays in a few Puddles but mainly rolls off down the hills