Mud Flooring
Mud floor is usually made in the Kutcha village house. This is the cheapest form of floor.
⇛ Materials required for making this type of floor are very easy to get at any place.
⇛ It is fairly hard, impervious, and easy in construction and maintenance.
⇛ This floor is ideal for locations where the temperature increases very high during the summer and falls extremely low in the winter. This type of floor helps to keep the house warm in the cold weather and keep cool even in the hot weather.
Method of Mud Flooring
⇒ First, about 25 cm thick, a layer of selected earth is uniformly distributed. Then the layer is moistened by sprinkling water over it. After moistening, the layer is compacted by a rammer to get a hard-consolidated layer of about 15 cm thickness. Ramming should be done frequently to get a proper hard level surface.
⇒ During ramming, if any place of the floor is found sits there should be filled with selected earth and if there is too much soil at any place then it has to be lifted. It should be remembered that no water is added during the process of ramming.
⇒ This layer may be cracked after it dries, to prevent this type of crack in the mud floor, moist selected earth is mixed with the chopped straw before ramming.
Maintenance of Mud Floors
⇨ This floor requires continuous maintenance for its upkeep. The floor should be given a thin wash of cow-dung and cement mixture at least once a week.
⇨ Cow-dung and cement wash consists of three to four parts of cow-dung to one part of cement. The floor is not good from a sanitary point of view.
Advantages of Mud Flooring
Main advantages of mud flooring are as follows:
- It is eco-friendly and very cheap.
- Skilled labour is not required.
- Required materials for this type of flooring is easily available at any place.
- It is easy to maintain.
- It is well resistant to fire.
- It is suitable for extreme acidic environment conditions.
- It has better heat insulation properties compared to other types of floors.
Disadvantages of Mud Flooring
- It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere.
- Its life is short without proper maintaining.
- Periodically, maintenance is required.
- It is less impermeable and not durable.
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