Earth Floor Sealed with Oil

A step by step tutorial on making an earthen floor, sourced from a mix of materials, such as clay, sand, and straw, similar to cob and adobe. In this video you'll see construction of an on-grade floor (sealed with oil), along with its foundation (insulated with pumice). The guest star Sukita Reay - author of Earthen Floors, who we're so happy to have join us.
For a lot more info, ready mix, and oil please check out Sukita's website -

Earthen Floor Book Links:
Support the small publisher: New Society and purchase here -
or Amazon:

Music mostly from Blue Dot Sessions
Valantis/Cauldron
Um Pepino/Orange Cat
The Rampart/Castle Danger
unna/Broke For Free
Some of the above links are affiliate links, which means we receive a small commission with each sale at no extra cost to you.

[TheNitoProject]

And don't worry, the plastic is optional.
We thought about simply leaving this out, but it felt more comprehensive to add more information than not. It's code in some places to have it.

The "because she is woman" part is just a story that inspired Sakita, there's no intention here to bash men or masculinity. It's feminine because it's flexible, it's not dangerous like cement, cement burns the skin when you're working with it, I wouldn't bring my baby to a cement pour.

[LAVirgo]

I had aunts in Mexico with dirt floors. It kept the houses cool during the hot desert days. They swept & wet the floors every morning. The dirt was hard and compact. Bare feet did not get dirty. It was amazing.

[sallywasagoodolgal]

During the depression, my Aunt Kate and Uncle Arthur lived in a tent. It was a plain dirt floor, but every day my Aunt Kate swept it, and damp mopped it. In about 3 or 4 weeks it turned into (almost) a big, single, tile floor. It was shiny, hard, and water-proof. They had no oil for the floor, and there was no plastic. They just did a French drain around the tent, and damp mopped every day. We live in farm land, not much clay about, so this was done
with regular, loamy, dirt.

[brucewayne]

Ahhhh, plastic- that centuries old Indian secret ingredient.

[atlguera]

My boyfriend told me of Earthen floors in Oaxaca that he grew up in... he said after his grandma would sweep and splash water on them, the smell was heavenly and that he does miss it terribly.

[artevious]

I grew up in Redlands California USA, when I was a child around 1970 there were some very old houses that my grandfather did a construction job on, I couldn’t believe I saw this lady sweeping, then washing her dirt floor! It was so shining! I was only 8 years old at the time and will never forget how clean and beautiful the red clay floors were, and how my grandfather explained to me that dirt can be clean if respected and treated with great care. I learned something special about life that day.

[normanshaw]

Love it! I work as a concrete finisher so I can tell that this is the exact same process you'd use for a slab on grade. Just subbed with natural and noninvasive material!

[Desthbest]

I love the stories that everyone is sharing.

[mistersydster]

Here in Trinidad, my Indian ancestors (including my grandmother) made floors by mixing cow poop and clay. The cow poop has a high fibre content (it becomes like cardboard when it dries) so I suppose it holds the clay particles together.
Also, when it dries it becomes odourless (believe it or not)

[KnightMirkoYo]

Was I looking for this? No. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Hell yeah.

[gregwarner]

The way to find out the particle size distribution in soil is : take a straight side bottle, cut the top off a 2 qt plastic bottle and toss in a couple of cups of soil. Add water until 3/4 full. Then stir or shake until completely mixed. Then set down and let the soil settle. The coarse material will settle on the bottom with finer materials grading until the silt settles on top. The clay will stay in suspension for days.

Then measure the thickness of the layers and that is the proportion of the soil components.

[perentee]

Out here in Outback Northern Territory, Australia, they used the massive termite mounds and crush them down, wet them then compact them and they turned hard like concrete, they even made airstrips out of it..

[terry]

We absolutely love our kitchen floor she installed 4 years ago. Holding up BEAUTIFULLY! couldn't be more pleased.
Thank you,
Terry in Medford Oregon

[gurudasbock]

I loved the stratigraphic column view throughout the video. Great job!

[JoshuaSmith-ccwf]

I really love the way you showed the cross section of what you were doing. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.

[farout]

I have been experimenting with making bees wax cloths to replace plastic wrap in the kitchen. I would really love to see you experiment with this type of thing to replace the plastic foil. Maybe a tougher cloth and more bees wax. It becomes more flexible if you add an oily wax like jojoba and extra antibacterial/antifungal and stability with pine tree resin ;-)

[gewgulkansuhckitt]

How many times do I have to lick the floor to get enough tongue oil on it? I've been going at it all week and I'm not seeing results. 9:20

[epyktdu]

I've walked on an earth floor only once in my life and my feet have missed it ever since.

[SomeoneCommenting]

Earth floor: the natural enemy of white socks lol

[johnsmead]

“its feminine because its flexible and isnt dangerous to children or your parents.”
jesus christ sukita, what horrible dudes have you run into?!