Poured Earth
  
     
  Quite a few of my bricks ended up being a bit below grade, so to make up for the loss I decided to make a couple of poured earth walls.
The following are some examples of using the poured earth technique in different situations:
  
     
 
  Bathroom wall  
  Laundry wall  
  Top plates  
  Extra bricks  
  Bottom of walls  
 
     
 
 
   
 
Bathroom wall
  
     
1) The first wall will be between the bathroom and the laundry.
Here's the formwork for the first pour.

And after the formwork is removed.... Looks good.
   
 
   
2) The second layer of formwork was a bit more tricky to erect and a lot harder to lift the mud unto.

And so on.....
   
 
   
3)
4)
5)
   
 
   
 
 
   
 
Laundry wall
  
     
1) A formwork wall in two stages. The second stage was more difficult to set up the formwork and pour the mud into.
   
 
   
2)
3) 4) 5)
   
   
             
   
Spare mud goes into temporary moulds.
   
   
 
   
 
 
   
 
Top plates
  
  The space between the last course of bricks & the top plate ended up being too small to insert a brick, and cutting the bricks length ways would be near impossible. So a poured earth strip was an easy solution.  
     
   
     
 
 
   
 
Extra bricks
  
  Drilling holes in the bricks for holding down rods was made impossible due to the ironstone rocks the brickmaker put in the bricks. When a drill bit hits a rock in the brick, it will jump to the side causing the brick to crack (or breaking the bit). As the bricks couldn't easily be drilled, a solution was to pour a brick around the holding down bolt.
Likewise... cutting bricks with odd shapes was difficult due to those pieces of rock in the brick, so forming up bricks with cut outs, or 'L' shaped bricks, was the best solution.
  
     
 
 
   
 
Bottom of walls
  
  To allow for the step down in the slab I had to do a thin poured earth strip on some internal walls. This proved easier than trimming 30 plus bricks.