Luxor4u

A friend has a mud brick house and she wants to put up some shelves, now before we two DIY "experts" start drilling holes, do we do it the same way as when drilling into brick i.e. with the rawl plugs etc?

You can try by making a large hole filling it with cement then drilling into the cement other than that the shelves will fall down,
from the voice of experience….
Ps: I also don't gaurantee my first suggestion.

Sounds like a no no then, but thanks for the advice.

Would it be easier or feasible to make free standing shelves that can be moved around? (Don't need drilling into walls then) - Just a thought

How about using wooden batons secured to the wall, using the method the Doc' suggested ?
Then fix the shelves to the batons.

The batons will spread the load..

I would go for the free standing shelves - piles of mud bricks near the ends and planks spanning them.

Cant put up shelves in a mudbrick house, full stop. Make them with scaffold planks, free standing. I have this type, as my house walls are rocks,straw and mud and the walls are not level anyway. Good luck ..

If you can put things up on a wall then your house cannot breathe as an adobe house made of mud sand & hay ect has the ability to breath and live, it keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer people who live in concreate have no understanding of an adobe dweller, even in this day and age this is Bam a city entirely built of adobe.

An awful lot of people in this world live in adobe houses…..

My ol adobe hacienda…enjoy!

The only method that I can think of is this. If your friend wants the shelves to be on a particular wall area then I first presume that the ceiling above has timber struts of some kind that span from wall to wall. Here they sell large self screw cup hooks that you could screw quite safely into the underside of the ceiling timbers. From these hooks you could use ether thin rope or chains to support the shelves by creating a triangular shaped support for the shelf. If a long span you would use three cup hooks, or carry the cradling down to how many shelves you require.

Blimey Dusak I am very good with a hammer can knock anything down, good with a drill love making holes in things but I think you are over estimating I and my friends abilities. Perhaps all you clever clogs, no insult intended, could start a series of lectures on simple DIY techniques, CE or who ever he is could spare time from his motor cycle club activities and give a talk on electrics. Bet he would save a few lives that way. My friend has a pool and is paying a fortune in maintenance would like to know how to care for that too. Come on you guys and gals take up the challenge.
I have just started to make home made yoghurt, that could be my contribution we start on face cream and soap next week.

Probably the main concern when living in adobe houses is to ensure if one has a roof water tank that all the water pipes do-not leak as this can lead to disastrous results, I have a thousand liters approximately a 1000 kilograms or an awul lot of sugar bags on my roof.
This is born from mine having leaked.
Regarding the swimming pool one can buy locally 'Shaba or Alum which has been used by the ancients as a purifyer, it also tightens the skin and is great for one's 'farmers.."alot of populus qui non sciunt"…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum

Spoiler

Farmer Giles = Piles = Haemorrhoids

If it is acceptable to hang the shelves from the ceiling it must be much better to place them on the floor. Some sort of strapping to the wall or ceiling will stabilise them.

As for water-tanks on the roof of a mud-brick construction, better to place it on a metal scaffolding of some sort!

That's why the ancient Egyptians kept everything in boxes, baskets and chests. Even today you almost never see a closet here, only wardrobes.

Glyphdoctor wrote:That's why the ancient Egyptians kept everything in boxes, baskets and chests. Even today you almost never see a closet here, only wardrobes.

There must be an abundance of closets here as folk are continually popping in and out of them. And where would we keep our skeletons?

carrie wrote:Blimey Dusak I am very good with a hammer can knock anything down, good with a drill love making holes in things but I think you are over estimating I and my friends abilities. Perhaps all you clever clogs, no insult intended, could start a series of lectures on simple DIY techniques, CE or who ever he is could spare time from his motor cycle club activities and give a talk on electrics. Bet he would save a few lives that way. My friend has a pool and is paying a fortune in maintenance would like to know how to care for that too. Come on you guys and gals take up the challenge.
I have just started to make home made yoghurt, that could be my contribution we start on face cream and soap next week.

carrie, if you or your friend would like to PM me with the rough sizes of the pool and state if it has a circulation/filter system I would be quite happy to advise her. It is remarkably cheap to maintain. I suggest a PM as I grow tiered of the usual suspects condemning me for contributing to the nations water shortage purely out of an act of self indulgence.