Crushing It - Rammed Earth strength test

We were up at Exp Testing Services Inc. at the request of the City of Ottawa to prove that a 6" wythe of rammed earth can hold up a 2 storey residence. The walls are a total of 18" thick with 6" of insulation in the middle. Let's just say its a bit overkill! This is the result of the compression test of 18" tall 6" wide prism of rammed earth. According to the engineer's first calculations it crumbled after 29.6MPa which puts it in line with concrete but with only 10% cement and 35day curing. This was far higher than anticipated and we look forward to the next 4 tests to confirm this great result. In non seismic zones we typically use only 4% cement to lower the embodied carbon of the rammed earth walls