Some physical properties of soil used in traditional Croatian rammed earth houses

In eastern Croatia, houses were traditionally built using soil as the building material. The construction of rammed earth houses is carried out in layers within the formwork, and the choice of suitable soil depends on several properties, such as particle size distribution and plasticity. Unfortunately, the construction and renovation of such houses is almost non-existent nowadays since there are no regulations and recommendations for construction in Croatia. With the aim of forming recommendations, soil samples were collected from existing houses in order to test the physical properties of the soil. The comparison of obtained results with those published in literature and published recommendations, showed that bulk density and Attbereg limits are within the limits of the published values. However, particle size distribution differs from most recommendations and published results. Further research on soil properties from existing houses is needed in order to make recommendations for the area of Eastern Croatia.