This image shows the newly poured adobe floor drying in this passive solar house in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were told that this home was designed by one of the first passive solar adobe builders in the area, sometime around the 1970’s. The house was in good shape, naturally, but the small office area was in need of topcoat repair on the poured adobe floor. The top surface of the floor had shown wear and tear and has some crumbling areas.

When we set about to demo the existing floor, it came up in uneven chunks, which indicated to us that the sub-floor was not poured with a close to perfect level (which is ideal, of course). Therefore when we poured the new top coat, we had to adjust the depth of the new pour. Luckily the room was only 200 sq. ft. however, the depth going to well beyond a 1/2″ depth designed for the mix, we had to be on our toes.

Seen here is the wet floor that has been hard troweled and is drying. Once the floor has dried completely through, several coats of linseed oil will be applied in sequence. The result will be a water proofed very durable floor. We love the look and feel of earthen floors which are easy on the feet and legs, and look like one large floor tile. The rich tones which also appear when the mud floor has been sealed are really beautiful.