My adobe wall crumbled after a summer monsoon - what now?

I was out in my backyard in Tucson last week, just checking the wall after that big storm. I tapped the adobe near the bottom to see if it was dry, and a whole chunk just fell out like a cookie. Turns out the moisture got trapped behind the plaster and turned the mud bricks back into literal mud. Now I've got a 3-foot section that's basically hollow on the inside. I patched it with some quick-dry mortar I had lying around, but I know that's not a real fix. Anyone dealt with this in their own place? What did you use to rebuild the core?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.olivia5d ago

Quick-dry mortar's too rigid for adobe, you'll want a mud mix with straw instead.

emma_garcia5d ago

Ha, I've been there... my wall's held together with more prayer than mud at this point.

mark_green5d ago

davis.olivia is right about the quick-dry mortar being too rigid. I used a mud mix with chopped straw and a little lime to rebuild my core and it's held up way better than the original.