Marty,

That's a good description of how this floor at my site in Richmond was
probably set. It was clearly poured and then generally levelled--perhaps
with a screed. In some places  near one end it had been patched at some
point and trowelled. It was certainly treated much as we would treat
concrete today, but clay was the major constituent--some small amount of
small sand and enough lime to make it all perk in weak HCL.

Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
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http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Martin Perdue wrote:

> Perhaps your clay and lime floor has its basis in local tradition, but there
> also seems to have been a great deal of experimentation with 'alternative
> building' around the mid-nineteenth century (pise & rammed earth from the
> 1830s+, Fowler's 'gravel wall' [concrete] octagon plan houses of 1848+,
> stacked plank houses of ca. 1850, the 'discovery' of log houses by
> architects, etc.).
>
> One example of a 'poured' floor from Charles Dwyer, _The Immigrant Builder_,
> (Philadelphia, PA:  Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1872):
>
> "If no flooring-boards, or rough boards of any description, can be had, the
> platform [essentially a raft of logs laid parallel and tamped into the earth]
> should be covered over, from two to three inches deep, with --
>      Three parts of washed sand;
>      Two parts of wood ashes; and
>      One part of clay;
> the mass well worked together and wet sufficiently to make a plaster.  The
> can be levelled off on top with a smooth, flat board of twelve or fourteen
> inches square, to which a long, oblique handle is secured by a cleat.
> Previous to finishing the surface, however, it will be advisable to roll the
> whole floor; and for this purpose a large, heavy log of bass-wood, about two
> feet long, and perfectly clean and even on the surface, should be procured.
> Into the centres of its ends should be inserted pivots of hard wood, and a
> square frame two by three inches should be then nailed together, having
> projecting cheeks with holes to allow the pivot to turn in.  With this roller
> the whole floor should be gone over, until a firm bed is formed for the
> finishing coat, or smoothing operation, which is then commenced." p.48
>
> FYI, Dwyer also described how to build a rammed earth chimney with a
> mud-and-stick flue plastered on the inside with "fresh cow-manure" which
> "grows very hard, and is not liable to crack when dry.  It also makes a
> smooth surface to the interior of the flue, and prevents the accumulation of
> soot and the consequent interruption of the ascent of the smoke." pp.27-28
> :)
>
> Marty Perdue
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>