Rammed earth UK.
Garden / Landscape designer in Devon and Multi regional and national award winning Jackson's Landscape Design (JLD) is a garden design and in house landscaping company based in Newton Abbot, that also specialises in creating and installing contemporary rammed earth garden structures with an approach to building durable, bespoke solid garden components like no other.
Green and eco-friendly garden structures built to last
...No bricks, no blocks, no timber nor mortar.
Rammed earth garden designer, Devon.
Granted, many of us recycle, JLD does more and goes one step further by designing and building garden structures using one of the oldest building material known to man - earth.
We produce bespoke structures that are simple to construct, fire rated, thermally massive, incredibly strong and durable. The process is clean, cost effective and environmentally friendly, all rammed earth structures typically have low embodied energy and generate very little waste or carbon emissions.
The availability of sub-soil for the local climatic conditions are the factors which favour rammed earth use. By recycling the waste sub-soils in rammed earth garden design and construction has mininmal environmental impact, which makes rammed earth highly affordable, soundproof, non-toxic, biodegradable, fireproof and viable for all who require environmentally friendly garden structures.
Rammed earth garden divider.
JLD have the facilities to sift and install 50 tons of pneumatically compressed waste sub-soil per day, on site sample testing, highly trained team of operatives with a quality control manager to ensure that the finest results are guaranteed time and time again for all your rammed earth projects through out the UK. The entire team pride ourselves to be the only rammed earth installers in the South west of England who offer an extremely high end service and product to all our clients.
Rammed Earth Water Feature Devon
Check out these blogs:
And also these older documents relating to the method of rammed earth construction:
Rammed earth, bottles and lighting.
Videos by Jackson's Landscape Design
Sifting the "waste subsoil" for rammed earth.
Rammed earth pneumatic compression
The process:
Without giving too much away, the construction using rammed earth involves a process of compressing the correctly tested mixture of damp earth that has suitable proportions clay, sand, gravel and a very small amount of cement as the stabiliser into an externally supported frame, called shutters or form work.
The shutters mould the shape of a wall section creating a block of earth, for large seamless walling / structures the shutters must be fabricated to the desired shape and length, as the rammed earth layers increase so will the shutter until the correct height is obtained.
On a concrete footing the shutters are erected and a concrete splash plinth is poured within and vibrated, it is imperative that all UK rammed earth structures have this plinth and capping stone as the concrete will eliminate erosion from rain splash backs.
Once the plinth is set damp mixed earth is poured with in the shutters to a depth of 150mm and our pneumatic rammers compact the earth to 50% of its original volume, further layers are included and the process is repeated until the wall / structure has reached the required height.
By introducing rapid hardening cement to the capping the shutters can be removed immediately and the process begins again. All structures require covering to strengthen and cure. Over all the curing process can last as long as 2 years ...the more rammed earth cures the stronger it becomes...window frames, door lining arehung from rammed earth . When the curing process is complete, it is much like a man made wall of solid rock!
Explore the natural elegance of a unique and individual earth structure, built to last and be at one with size, shape, and any colour pallet you require for your project or design.
To find out more about how rammed earth can work for you feel free to contact me, Kerry Jackson, Jackson's Landscape Design, Devon. 01626332533
itectural education, building, design, architecture, architectural design, building engineering, civil engineering, GGgGtg
Check out the 4 Scapes magazine
What other designers have to say.......
Talented Multi RHS Award winner, Garden Designer Gaynor Witchard writes a weekly garden design column for the Western Mail every Saturday, heres what Gaynor has to say about my rammed earth garden structures in Saturdays edition, 12/03/2011.
"A designer in any trade, be it in fashion, home interiors or in the garden means keeping up with new innovations, materials and trends. I have come across one lately in garden design, and you may have heard about it or even seen it before - but in the garden?
We’re all familiar with recycling, but there’s a designer and landscaper who has taken it a step further by designing and building garden structures using one of the oldest building materials known to man - earth.
Multi regional and national award winning Kerry Jackson, of Jackson Landscape Design in Devon specialises in creating and installing contemporary rammed earth garden structures.
Green and eco-friendly garden structures built to last...no bricks, no blocks, no timber or mortar.
From the technical aspect, the structures are simple to construct, fire rated, thermally massive, incredibly strong and durable. The process is clean, cost effective and environmentally friendly and all rammed earth structures typically have low embodied energy, which generates very little waste or carbon emissions.
By recycling the waste sub-soils in rammed earth garden design and construction, it has minimal environmental impact, which makes rammed earth highly affordable, soundproof, non-toxic, biodegradable, fireproof and viable for all who require environmentally friendly garden structures.
The construction using rammed earth involves a process of compressing the correctly tested mixture of damp earth that has suitable proportions of clay, sand, gravel and a very small amount of cement as the stabiliser into an externally supported frame, called shutters or form work.
From the garden design aspect, these structures could replace traditional fencing and wall boundaries, and also be a contemporary piece of artwork. Dyes can be used to colour the soil, and materials such as glass can be added to the mix to create a truly individual and unique structure. Raised impressions of favourite flowers, plants or animals add another unusual dimension.
Although rammed earth structures are really well suited to a modern, contemporary garden, they can also have a place in a more traditional setting too. Clever use of colour here will blend a wall into its surroundings for a more natural look, and rammed earth benches and tables are an interesting option to the usual patio set. These are permanent structures though, so if you feel like a change it’s not just a case of throwing them out!
Larger garden projects that last a lifetime (literally) also offer imaginative solutions - a shed, summerhouse or home office that won’t require any treatment or preservatives, or an interesting and unusual garden arch as an entrance to the garden.
Rammed earth is not only an economically viable construction, having aesthetic beauty together with a touch of the contemporary, it gives a natural elegance to solid garden structures. There are some examples of it being used in the UK - the walls to the entrance of the Eden Project in Cornwall is one.
I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of these products, and is set to take off in the garden design world."
Gaynor Witchard............Western Mail, 12th March 2011....
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