In the summer of 2013, the team travelled to Rwanda to install earthen floors at two pilot sites in Kigali. We recruited a natural building expert from the US, Scott Howard, to help lead our first round of earthen floor building workshops. We found that masons were really interested in learning new skills and were also quick to pick up the techniques. The product was also very well received - the locals that we talked to were particularly interested in the low cost compared to concrete and in the customizability of the floors.
Building on the success of these initial prototypes, EarthEnable entered into a year-long product development phase. We're very proud to share our early results from this pilot phase:
19 FLOORS
BUILT
32 PEOPLE
WITH SANITARY FLOORS
5 JOBS
CREATED
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Over the past year, we have been systematically experimenting with small variations in the building technique and in the floor composition. Our goals is to perfect our product and to continuously adapt it to the conditions and preferences of Rwandan households. Here is a sample of a few elements that we have been testing:
ADDING
NATURAL
PIGMENTATION
ADDING NATURAL
STRENGTHENING
AGENTS
TWEAKING THE
CONSTRUCTION
LAYERS
MAKING
PRE-FABRICATED
EARTHEN TILES
USING
CONSTRUCTION
AIDS
Meanwhile, our Co-Founder Rick Zuzow was hard at work in the lab developing an affordable and locally-sourced alternative to linseed oil. Linseed oil is the drying oil traditionally used to seal earthen floors, creating a plastic-like resin that makes the floor waterproof, but it is prohibitively expensive for our purposes and not locally available in Rwanda. Rick came to Rwanda in the summer of 2014 to set up our oil-production facility and train local staff to manufacture EarthEnable's proprietary oil at scale.
