Adobe Brick & Building Workshops Launch in the Verde Valley
by Annabel V Sclippa

For fast Release
Cottonwood, AZ

Design - In the perfect world everyone would plant a garden to know the precious procedure for allowing the sustainance we rely on. So too might it be ideal if we each knew the craft to build our personal dwellings, in a sustainable way, from your earth as well as the Earth, in a form of resillient and timeless beauty.

Beyond Adobe, a Verde Valley contractor for upwards of Twenty years, offers this using their new Adobe Brick & Wall Building Workshops, starting Memorial Day weekend, May 22-24.

Not only the Name, nevertheless the History

Beyond Adobe is an adobe block, also called adobe brick, supplier and green building construction company specializing in earthen-based methods and materials. Their history of earth stewardship, environmental consciousness plus a strong belief in sustainable communities, comes from their base in Sedona, and expands within their work throughout the Southwest.

Company President and Outreach Educator of Workshops, Adam Wayne, earned a degree in Environmental Science at Northern Arizona University, where he also helped start NAU Recycles. He continued this environmentally-based entrepreneurial spirit by doing work for, and creating, new ventures from building the Sedona Community Recycling Center to starting and running a local curbside recycling and waste collection company. In 2004, Mr. Wayne hand-formed Beyond Adobe in the clay soils from the Verde Valley. Today, he resides in Sedona together with his wife, Robin, and continues to expand Beyond Adobe's outreach in services and classes.

Building Homes Not Houses

Beyond Adobe's goal is to provide affordable, beautiful and sustainable answers to old and new homes from the world's most energy efficient and sturdy material: earth; and now expands to providing people who have their greatest tool of all: knowledge, to construct their very own.

Beyond Adobe maintains adobe production yards in Camp Verde, Arizona and Deming, New Mexico. They regularly work through the entire American West utilizing local soils for on-site adobe production, for both urban and rural projects. They love dealing with individuals and communities alike to develop, preserve and restore earth buildings. Throughout a 2010 project in Old Town Cottonwood, they'd the great pleasure of adding a bathroom addition to the now expanded Old Town Center for that Arts.

It's All in the Shape

Beyond Adobe is likely to make any size, shape, or kind of adobe brick you would like, and it is able to make custom colored bricks from specified dirt or special shaped adobes to meet architectural demands. They will use either pressed adobe, puddled adobe, or site made, with respect to the client and circumstances.

Design - Pressed adobe blocks, best known as compressed adobe bricks or Earth blocks, are manufactured employing a mixture of present day technology and traditional earth building knowledge. Enhanced by making use of hydraulic presses and machine automation, the bricks emerge almost totally dry and prepared for building. Pressed adobes provide significant increases in strength, in compression and modulus of rupture, providing for quicker and more efficient installation for their uniformity of shape and size. The hydraulic force increases soil density, which increases the bricks' thermal mass ratings. Pressed adobes can be made in most seasons because of the reduced moisture content.

Hand made, or puddled, adobe bricks begin when a simple combination of earth and water is mixed to a near mud consistency. A combination will be laid in forms on the floor to mold the mud in to the desired brick size and shape. The proper execution is lifted from the adobe once the mud dries enough to maintain the adobes shape without the form. After having a few days of sunshine, the bricks are set on edge to dry. The drying process can take from to four weeks to totally cure according to climate conditions. Puddled adobes lead to bricks having a more individual shape, size and appearance; no two bricks can be the same. They offer for any unique and pleasing aesthetic when left exposed inside a finished wall.

Site made adobe bricks vary widely. For rural sites and those with difficult access, site made adobes often perform best for logistics and shipping costs. Beyond Adobe has made bricks from the borderlands of Mexico to the farm country of Montana.

Finished to Fine Perfection

Earth plasters and natural clay plasters bring beautiful, appealing finishes of nature to adobe walls. Earth plasters really are a blend of pure clays and aggregates with coloring agents which come from natural, non-toxic oxides and ochre mineral pigments. The plasters create stunning moods of their own, along with a beautiful backdrop for art or wall hangings.

Natural clay plasters are organic and environmentally friendly both in their production and application. Their low embodied energy content makes then dependable when applying in their completed form. They are extremely energy-efficient and help control humidity and temperature fluctuations: providing cooler climates in Summer, and warmer in the winter months. Also, they are non-dusting, mold and fade resistant, and easily repairable.

Beyond Adobe produces their particular true, earth plaster. The plaster may be partially stabilized with lime or Portland cement. This earth plaster makes excellent base coats for both adobe and straw bale walls. In addition, additionally, it may function as beautiful final plaster.

Workshops - Beyond Adobe can also be an officially certified installer of American Clay Earth Plasters. Stated in, and taking advantage of materials from, the United States, American Clay uses natural clays, recycled and reclaimed aggregates and vibrant natural pigments.

Full Service

Beyond Adobe provides sub-contract services to contractors and Owner/Builders, so you may make your adobe walls per the structure plans. Construction services include footing through the bond beams, along with the installation of bucks and lentils, if needed.

Beyond Adobe also provides professionally drawn Adobe Home Plans. The house styles are traditional, contemporary, and modern, and range between 450 to 1650 square feet. Home plans come fully developed with all of necessary elements, and elevations ready for you to get started. From your fun one-bedroom modern Triangle House or perhaps the Little Square Adobe to two-story Farm Houses, Round Houses, and my way through between, these house plans consider land placement, views, and functionality to the eco-friendly max.

Beyond Adobe's true love is Design + Build Projects, where they assist clients from conception to completion; using knowledge in good design, combined with efficient utilization of resources and self-sufficiency strategies. As adobe brick makers, they take great pride and commitment to maintaining and preserving the indigenous methods and materials of earth building.

DYI

For your true DYI Owner/Builder, or perhaps individuals with curiosity for Mud Construction, that is long lasting, fire resistent and gorgeous, Beyond Adobe has launched their new number of Adobe Brick & Wall Building classes. These Weekend Workshops start out with basic brick and wall building on Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-24 through the entire Verde Valley, bringing the center from the company back to its roots.

Beyond Adobe supplies a selection of workshop opportunities like a green building educational resource, and has taught all age brackets and skill levels. They've held workshops for eager Owner/Builders throughout the Southwest, plus youngsters in Northern Arizona, high school teachers in Southern Arizona, and the Crow Nation in Montana. For sophistication information, scholarship opportunities, or register, please call Workshops Manager, Annabel Sclippa (928) 593-0827, email belle@beyondadobe.com, or visit www.beyondadobe.com.
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