Assessing the perception of compressed earth block (CEB) among contractors in the Piedmont region of North Carolina

• Main Author: Hughes, Evan G
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2015
• Subjects: Architecture; Behavioral psychology; Sustainability
• ISBN: 1339016036; 9781339016030

The earliest earthen dwellings in the U.S were made by manually pressing a mixture of moist earth and straw into roughhewn blocks. This method, known as adobe, is durable and environmentally benign but requires more time and manual labor than most conventional materials, and as a result has been largely ignored by U.S. contractors with the exception of those working in New Mexico. This is true of most earthen building techniques, including compressed earth block (CEB). CEB retains many of the environmental benefits of adobe and can be produced with automated machinery, allowing for rapid and consistent block production in large volumes. With the advent of labor and time-saving technology, the practical barriers presented by traditional earth building methods have been greatly reduced, necessitating an exploration of the non-technical barriers to CEB acceptance and adoption in the U.S. Studies conducted in Africa and Southeast Asia have shown that home-buyers often associate earthen structures with poverty, transience, and poor performance. Research performed in Midwestern states have indicated similar results. The current study seeks to determine what, if any, perception barriers to CEB acceptance and adoption exist among contractors in the North Carolina Piedmont region, which lies between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coastal plain and possesses ideal soil for earth building. Despite these favorable conditions, the North Carolina Piedmont has yet to develop a significant market for earthen architecture and virtually no research has been conducted to investigate this phenomenon. To address this gap in the research, a survey instrument was designed and piloted in New Mexico. Pilot data and feedback were used to refine the survey instrument, which was then distributed to general contractors in the Piedmont. A third survey was distributed to select contacts in the researcher’s professional network. These surveys aimed to assess contractors’ awareness of CEB, their experience with CEB, and their perception of CEB’s practical merits and drawbacks. Two telephone interviews were also conducted, one with a North Carolina contractor who specializes in CEB construction and another with a Texas-based manufacturer of automated CEB block presses. Quantitative data gathered from the two survey distributions revealed disparate opinions of CEB’s cost-effectiveness, aesthetic value, and structural worth. Respondents with no CEB experience provided largely neutral opinions in these areas, indicating that they may have been unable or unwilling to provide definitive positive or negative opinions due to their lack of experience with the material. Respondents who had used CEB were either neutral or positive. Qualitative data gathered from these two survey distributions indicated a similar divergence of opinion between the two respondent groups. Both phone interview subjects recommended increased education and exposure to CEB to overcome skepticism and lack of knowledge among the construction industry and the general public. The results of this study assist building professionals and their clients in understanding how non-technical barriers (i.e. barriers not related to time, infrastructure, technology, or capital) may impede the acceptance and adoption of CEB and other non-conventional materials. Identifying and addressing these barriers is a necessary step for increased market penetration of CEB in the North Carolina Piedmont and elsewhere.