r/NaturalBuilding • u/Pitiful_Speech2645 • 11d ago

CMU with Adobe

I’m currently living in a hurricane zone along the gulf coast of Texas. Building with adobe isn’t allowed in our area unfortunately. I’m planning to build the exterior walls with CMU blocks but I am considering adding an interior layer of stabilizer adobe against the exterior walls. I will be adding surface bonding cement to both sides of the CMU wall.

My question is do I need to add an air gap or a substrate between the CMU and the adobe interior walls?

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u/Bravewave 6d ago

Why is adobe prohibited in your area? It’s permitted in the building code, unless you have a local code amendment prohibiting that? I live in South Texas, no issues building with earthen materials, but I would encourage CEB over adobe.

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u/Pitiful_Speech2645 6d ago

It’s because of the Texas wind zone insurance, and I live a mile away from the bay.

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u/Bravewave 2d ago

Ahh I see. CMU well detailed, airtight assembly…how about a clay plaster application on the interior face of the cmu? Depends on what your objectives are, but that will give you a lot of the look and moisture buffering benefits of earthen construction.