Ground Up Earth Builders natural rammed earth walls are straight and clean as a result of their technologically unique and simple approach to this ancient environmentally sensible building practice.

Soldiers / Whalers / Forms Inbetween

Ground Up use a unique soldier and whaler system to achieve straightness and dimensional integrity in earth built walls. Soldier and whaler systems are a basic principle employed by qualified tradesmen for centuries but not always applied.

Plumb & Square

The external aluminium soldiers hold the horizontal whaling beams in a vertical plane. This holds the internal forms exactly where they must go and keeps them there through the ramming process leaving a straight wall exactly where it should be.

Clean Ramming

This process requires minimal through ties which allows better quality ramming without interference and also easy placement of insulation and in-wall services.

Respecting The Build

Our unique soldier and whaler rammed earth system allows us to encase pre-built stud walls and ram an earth veneer to the inside or outside of the wall. The studs are at 400mm centres, 15 mm ply is fixed to them with 50mm galvanised clouts at 300mm spacings and ties are screwed to the ply at 1000mm centres which gives an exceptionally strong combination of stud wall, ply and rammed earth.