Plastic mesh in an earthen floor

Two friends and former students have started their own natural building/plastering business (@earthlight.build). I was watching them put an earthen floor in at our friend’s place in Reno and they did some cool things I wanted to share.

First, they troweled on a floor that was 1” thick. Then, they laid out a plastic 1/4” mesh across the top and lightly troweled that down into the top of the floor material. They brought the mesh all the way to the walls. On top of this goes a last 1/4” layer of floor material. It was immediately clear that this will make a super strong floor very resistant to cracking.

Yes, there’s now plastic in your earthen floor but if cracking is a major concern, or, like in their case, this is a job for a client who lives far away from them and you don’t want to risk cracking, this might be a great method to employ. I want to try it out with jute, a natural product, to see what results that gives.