Archive for the 'Adobe' Category
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
Making Adobe
Adobe is still made in Mesilla just as it was 150 years ago, with the exception that a machine is used to help mix and pour the mud.
First the dirt for the adobe is shoveled into a pile and mixed with straw.
Next water is added to the center of the pile and roughly mixed.
The mud is then shoveled into the mixing machine and mixed to the right texture. You can see the adobe building being repaired here.
The mud is poured into wooden forms that make bricks 10 x 14 inches in size.
The forms are removed and the bricks are not moved until they are dry. The drying process may take days.
Mesilla ordinances forbid the demolition of an adobe structure.
Tags: Making Adobe
Friday, October 20th, 2006
Adobe House
All the early structures in Mesilla were adobe, and many, many adobe structures remain in use. Here’s an adobe house a couple of blocks off the plaza that’s being renovated.
Before the arrival of Spaniards, Native Americans were building using dried mud. But they didn’t use bricks. They built by drying the mud in layers. Building with mud bricks was introduced by the Spaniards, and it’s structures built with these bricks which are called adobe.
Almost all the early adobe houses are long and narrow, or L-shaped like this one.
Two features that characterize adobe structures are recessed doors and windows with wooden lintels, as you see here. The recessing is due to the thickness of the walls, which can be two feet or more. The thick walls keep the interior cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Before hard plaster was available, the external and internal surfaces were plastered with mud. Hard plaster is vastly superior, providing a water-proof, durable surface.
In this case, it appears that the outside plaster below the top cap has been removed, probably because it was in bad shape. This will certainly be replaced during the renovation.
The smoothness of this wall, and the rounded corner, show it’s been exposed to the weather a long time
Tags: Adobe
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
Adobe Pulled Down
Yesterday afternoon, several miles south of Mesilla, I watched the last wall of an adobe structure pulled down. There were several good reasons the old home had to be demolished, including public safety.
Here’s the wall about to go:
I spoke with the owner, who told me the structure was not that old, having been built about 1950.
How do you date adobe? Here’s one way: 
Notice that the mortar used between the adobe bricks is cement. That is a practice that began in the late 1940s and largely defeats the advantages of adobe, because cement is an excellent conductor of heat. An adobe structure that uses cement mortar instead of the traditional mud will be hotter in the summer and cooler in the winter.
Here’s the wall going down:
Tags: Adobe Wall
