Drying the Adobe Base Layer

Sorry, I know I'm behind, but as the next few posts will show, there has been another deluge of activity at the practice house.  Here are a few photos showing the drying process for the adobe floor:

After four days, the floor had developed some cracks.  Typically that means the mix was too rich in clay, or that there wasn't enough straw in the mix, or both.  I'll have to fine tune the next layer.

After seven days, a few grains of wheat had spouted, like in the Light Straw Clay walls.  (This was the only cluster of sprouts--there were probably only 20-30 total, with most being a single blade.)

 On day nine, I filled the cracks.  For the larger cracks in the photo, I used a mix of clay and sand in the same 1:2 ratio as the floor and brushed this dry material into the crack.  Using the spray bottle, I wet out the dry mix and used a magnesium float to work the material around to blend the filler in with the two sides of the crack.  The floor was way to soft to walk on, so I was kneeling on 2" thick foam blocks. Note that the clay had been run through a window screen to make sure it was very fine and would enter the crack.  I'm not sure why this photo doesn't reflect the brown color of the adobe, so don't dwell on that.

This shows the floor after smoothing out all the cracks.  Small cracks that couldn't be filled with the dry mix were simply smoothed out with the magnesium trowel after a light spray from the water spray bottle.

After two weeks, the cracks have opened up again, although not as wide as the first time.  This shows the floor as repaired the second time.  I've also just finished the interior wall framing, walking on 2" foam boards the whole time.

While I have no photos, the floor has subsequently endured many trades-people.  After roughly a month of drying, it's now dry enough to walk on gingerly but is still easy to scratch/dent with fingernail or if you drop something onto it.  I didn't think it was fair to ask the contractors to be that careful, so I laid out plywood boards for them to walk on.  They were cool about it, and while the floor's surface is now somewhat haggard looking, it's still in fine shape for what comes next.  Basically, all I need is a reasonably level surface to which I can attach the hydronic heating tubes.  It doesn't need to be pretty at this point.