Build An Adobe Dog House

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Build An Adobe Dog House

Adobe is a mixture of sand, clay, water and straw. It's a cost-effective building material and, when well made, can last a long time. Adobe is also very attractive if you take the time to stucco over it with an extra layer of mud, smoothing out the lines between bricks. An adobe dog house will be cooler during the day and warmer during the night than houses made of other materials. This is because the adobe absorbs heat during the day and will radiate the heat back out during the night.

Instructions

Making Adobe Bricks

1. Create a square enclosure of cinder blocks, two layers high. Line this enclosure with the tarp and either hold the edges down outside the enclosure with more cinder blocks or tuck the edges of the tarp between the layers of cinder blocks to keep it in place.

2. Mix sand, clay and water in the tarp-lined pit you made. The easiest way to mix it thoroughly is to take off your shoes and socks and walk around in it until there are no dry spots.

3. Lay out the other tarp and shovel several shovelfuls of the mud you just created onto the second tarp. Try to leave excess water behind in the pit.

4. Sprinkle loose straw over the mud you just shoveled, pulling out any stiff pieces that might be painful to step on or handle. Then mix the straw thoroughly into the mud using either your hands or your feet. Keep adding straw until the mixture is quite solid.

5. Lay your brick form on a flat wooden surface and fill it, pushing the adobe mixture into the corners and packing it down as firmly as you can.

6. Let the bricks dry in the brick form for about a half-hour, then lift the form away, place it on a flat surface and fill it again to make more bricks. As the bricks become solid enough to move, you can stand them up on their ends to dry faster. Depending on the weather and humidity they may need days or weeks to dry completely.

Building the Adobe Doghouse

7. Put a piece of plywood down to serve as your foundation. If the ground beneath the plywood is uneven, you might want to fill depressions with sand, dirt, gravel or even straw. You could also lay a more attractive gravel foundation if you prefer. The most important thing is that the surface you're about to build on be flat.

8. Lay a single layer of adobe bricks out on the plywood to form the perimeter of your doghouse. Don't forget to leave an opening where the dog will go in and out.

9. Apply the same mud mixture you used to form adobe bricks as mortar. Use at least a 1-inch layer. Add another layer of bricks on top of this, then mortar again. Repeat until the walls are as high as you want the dog's entrance door to be.

10. Place the 2-inch-by-2-inch-by-2-feet post on top of the walls so that it bridges the dog's entry gap. Continue putting down layers of bricks and mortar around and over the post. Keep doing this until the walls are built up as high as you want them.

11. Use the saw to cut a piece of plywood to the right size and shape for a roof. Plaster another layer of mortar on top of the uppermost bricks. Put the plywood in place, then use your remaining mortar as a stucco coating on top of the roof and on the outside of the walls. If the entry hole is large enough, you can also crawl inside and stucco the insides of the walls, too.

12. Let your dog house dry thoroughly, both inside and out, before introducing the dog to it. This may take days or weeks. Make sure to protect the doghouse from rain by covering it with a tarp, then removing the tarp to allow air circulation once the rain has stopped.

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