How we made an Earthen Floor at Orchard Barn (video made by Daisy)

During the Summer of 2024 OBee Volunteers dug up an old concrete floor that had been INSIDE the Long House since the 1950s. It had served a useful purpose but now we wanted to lay an earth floor. Rather unusually we hired a mini digger to break out the concrete, but it was human power and wheelbarrows that trundled tons of the concrete outside! A long and dusty day.
Below the concrete was the yummiest orange clay. Moist from being under the concrete for 75 years. We dug that out too. This time with spades, buckets and more wheelbarrows. Regular Volunteers were very grateful for the help of Architecture students from the Bartlett, University College London for muscling in on this activity - especially Ramona and Roland.
Enter Jeffrey from The Earthen Floor Company, and another group of UCL Volunteers.
Jeffrey tested our clay and came up with the right recipe for us. A mix of local sand, our own clay and chopped straw.
We used 8" of Foam Glass for the underfloor insulation. This is recycled car windscreens. Then we laid breathable membrane and under floor heating pipes - YES - under floor heating - to be run off the Masonry Stove. We protected the pipe with mounds of locally sourced sand.
Following this we hired in a Dragon Concrete Crusher and spend another full day crushing the concrete that had come out of the floor! The crushed concrete went (carefully) back on top of the pipes.
Then we were ready to make and lay the earth floor.
Six weeks after laying this floor it was dry enough to walk on and receive its first coat of Linseed Oil.
It is now February 2025 and the Masonry Stove has been built, and the pipework connected up to the floor. The floor has now had a coat of Beeswax and is becoming a wonderful heat sink that contributes to keeping the fabric of the Long House at around 16C.