What is C.E.B.?
Expert Interview with
Lisa Morey, Colorado Earth
C.E.B.stands for Compressed Earth Block.
You might also see S.C.E.B., for stabilized compressed earth block. And the word stabilized means that it has either typically lime or cement added to it to give it higher compressive strength and also some water protection values.
You will also see interlocking compressed earth blocks and interlocking stabilized compressed earth blocks and those are more Lego shaped blocks that are fitting together with minimal mortar.
So other terms that I’ve heard and sometimes use are like a modern adobe.
We’re basically using the same raw materials as that traditional ancient mud brick and compressing it under hydraulic press.
The rammed earth is also cousin of ours.
So that’s taking, again, mostly the same mixed design raw material and ramming it in a form as part of an in situ wall and getting these beautiful strata.
So we are all connected in terms of the cob builders, the adobes, the rammed earth, compressed earth block.
We all fall under this umbrella of using clay as a binder.
How we’re different is that we’re regional. We’re pulling different mixed designs based on where we’re producing.
And our stabilizer also can range.
In New Mexico, they’re using asphalt emulsion. And that’s not adding strength. It’s adding water protection values.
A lot of people are adding Portland cement.
And I am now adding lime, only lime, to the earth block as a small percentage.
So how I would answer what is a CEB to the general population is that it’s a load bearing reinforced masonry wall system using low embodied carbon materials. It’s unfired and provides a lot of protection to us through resiliency, which leads into the next question.
Why would people want to consider using this material?
And that is its resiliency factors. Anything from bullets to seismic activities, to strong winds, fires, more notably also like health and indoor air quality, this material, especially with the inclusion of lime, has a pH in which mold can’t grow.
So we’re seeing a lot of value propositions to the product, environmentally being ideally a localized material.
This is a more permanent wall structure.
It’s a heavy, solid wall structure that’s intended to be there for thousands of years as they historically have been.
So this is not a fast, temporary structure this is meant to last.
And I think that’s why we should be building with it if we’re going to build something that’s going to be here and help our next generations come.
Listen to the full interview below
To contact Lisa please visit her website at Colorado Earth
MORE IMAGES AND INSPIRATION WITH COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS (images Courtesy of Colorado Earth)
