Adobe Homes (Albuquerque, Santa Fe, North Valley: lender, buyer, earthquake)

[NMDesertguy]

I'm in my second. In my opinion , the only type of home to have in New Mexico. And the homes themselves are a part of the real New Mexico.
I love a crumbling adobe casita that is in dire need of repair, as much as I do the modern solar homes.
As a young Hippie I built my dream solar Adobe in the mountains with my wife as a helper.
As an old man returning to the desert in New Mexico, an adobe was the only house I would buy.

[prosopis]

I live in a straw bale house.

If I had it to do over, I would build with structural insulating panels.

Adobe is nice though, a friend of mine built one of those.

[rruff]

Can old and crumbling adobes be repaired? I mean without basically starting over.

[Deserterer]

I've seen it done. Support the walls, replace the bricks. Its probably a job best left to professionals who know what they are doing.

[ABQConvict]

I wish. Stick built houses are at the mercy of the heat.

[NMDesertguy]

I thought about a straw bale. in the early 90's went to all of the alternative housing seminars I could. I almost built a tire house. But adobe was timeless.

[rruff]

What were your experiences building and maintaining your adobe house in the mountains?

I've been looking at alternative building for awhile... never built anything though. Whenever I get down to the nitty gritty, it seems that cob, adobe, rammed earth, strawbale, even tire houses are a lot of work. If you live someplace where it gets cold (which most of NM does in winter) then you need thick walls if you want it to be efficient. Which is why they cost a lot if you pay someone to do it. And the surfaces need maintenance now and then... compared to stone or concrete which I think I'd favor... but then those need to be double wall with insulation.

[NMDesertguy]

Well--all of them are hard work--and what do you want to end up with?, a charming hobbit Hole that you own forever,
or something that is desireable if you decide to sell. when I built my adobe I was in the prime of my health, and knew nothing of the problems involved in working on undeveloped ground. But I ended up with a total solar heated home, that at 7400 ft only used 2 cords of wood all winter long. Back then 10K would go a long ways on building materials, now LOL.

[NMHacker]

Originally Posted by rruff

Can old and crumbling adobes be repaired? I mean without basically starting over.

Yes they can. My home in Old Town Albuquerque is a 100+ year old adobe. We completely remodeled it 5 years ago. Everything was gutted except for the walls. We reinforced the walls, repaired and furred out the walls to accommodate new electrical and plumbing. My FIL whom I am a partner with in a construction company has been repairing adobe homes for 40 years. As someone stated, best left to the experts. But it can be done.

[prosopis]

Originally Posted by rruff

What were your experiences building and maintaining your adobe house in the mountains?

I've been looking at alternative building for awhile... never built anything though. Whenever I get down to the nitty gritty, it seems that cob, adobe, rammed earth, strawbale, even tire houses are a lot of work. If you live someplace where it gets cold (which most of NM does in winter) then you need thick walls if you want it to be efficient. Which is why they cost a lot if you pay someone to do it. And the surfaces need maintenance now and then... compared to stone or concrete which I think I'd favor... but then those need to be double wall with insulation.

None of those techniques are a good idea if you are going to pay someone to do it, most alternative methods work best when the builder is the owner.

Wall surface maintenance is minimal if you learn to use lime plaster instead of conventional portland cement stucco.

Stone is a pain because state CID makes you get engineering for the wall. Single oldest way of building anything, and they want engineering Build the same wall out of cinder block and you need no engineer.