murs de grès bâtis à la terre

English translation: walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth

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French term or phrase:	murs de grès bâtis à la terre
English translation:	walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth
Entered by:	Una D.

08:38 Apr 10, 2024

French to English translations [PRO]
Construction / Civil Engineering / construction d'une ancienne grange

French term or phrase: murs de grès bâtis à la terre

Hello,

I have a text for an exhibition catalogue describing a 19th-century French barn with "murs de grès bâtis à la terre". I'm not familiar with building techniques so I'm not sure that "sandstone walls built with earth" makes much sense. Maybe just "earth and sandstone walls" or "sandstone and earth mortar walls"?

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

Una D. KudoZ activity Questions: 61 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 0 France
Local time: 17:11

walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth

Explanation:
In days gone by, earth was an inexpensive material for holding stone walls together. If built properly and protected from rain by a coping, they did their job. Various names for the technique in French.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourdage

"En France, le mortier de terre a été appelé quelquefois mortier ordinaire ou bauge.
Dans le toulousain, en Camargue, dans la Crau, on l'appelait mortier d'agasse4, en référence à la pie bavarde, et en Périgord, mortier d'hirondelle, pour l'usage particulier de la terre qu'ont ces oiseaux dans la construction de leur nid.
Dans les pays industrialisés, il a été remplacé par le mortier de ciment à partir du XIXe siècle."
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortier_de_terre

The Wikipedia article on bauge here https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauge
gives the following as English terms :

"clay dab, clay dabbin, clob, clom, cob, dab, daubin, dung wall, korb, mudwall, mud walling, puddled earth, tai clom, tai mwd, tai prid, witchert, wychert."

Of those, 'puddled earth' is the word I'm most familiar with, ahead of 'daub' which is Norfolk (a friend and neighbour had a fishing lake near here in Normandy, the track to which he often described as 'dauby'), and there is also 'rammed earth' which is a more recent term.

So I'd say "wall of stone and rammed/puddled earth" (probably no need to specify 'sandstone'; French has distinct words for grès, calcaire, etc., we have a prefix with 'stone', and that is really all that matters in such cases).

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Note added at 3 hrs (2024-04-10 12:17:33 GMT)
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@ Mpoma - Thanks for the vote of confidence (Discussion).

Selected response from:

Bourth
France
Local time: 17:11

Grading comment

Very helpful, thanks!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +2

walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth

Bourth

Sandstone walls built with earth or clay

Johannes Gleim

sandstone walls built at ground level

Annette Fehr

sandstone and mud/clay mortar walls

Kartik Isaac

earth/earth-based mortar

Bartosz Pelka

4 -2

Soil/earth-backed sandstone retaining wall

Andrew Bramhall

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

9 mins confidence:

sandstone and mud/clay mortar walls

Explanation:
Perhaps ‘sandstone and mud mortar walls’ or ‘sandstone and clay mortar walls’?

Kartik Isaac
Switzerland
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

11 mins confidence:

earth/earth-based mortar

Explanation:
There doesn't seem to be any clear answer but there are both earth and earth-based mortars used with stones so you can choose. Here's an article explaining it a bit

https://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/earth-mortars/earth-mortars.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=earth-based+mortar+for+sandstone+walls&sca_esv=e07b2adea2552111&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_h-VlU5Kp_fCTJXcxi7K89

Bartosz Pelka
Poland
Local time: 17:11
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Polish

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): -2

Soil/earth-backed sandstone retaining wall

Explanation:
https://www.finegardening.com/article/build-a-dry-stacked-st...

Andrew Bramhall
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:11
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 35

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth

Bourth
France
Local time: 17:11
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 93

Grading comment

Very helpful, thanks!

10 hrs confidence:

Sandstone walls built with earth or clay

Explanation:
Le grès est une roche sédimentaire détritique, issue de l’agrégation de grains de taille majoritairement sableuse (0,063 mm à 2 mm) et consolidé lors de la diagenèse. Les grains qui constituent le grès sont généralement issus de l'érosion de roches préexistantes, qui déterminent en grande partie sa composition, principalement constituée de quartz et feldspath. Selon le degré de cimentation et sa composition, il peut former une roche très friable ou cohérente[1]. Le grès se rencontre dans une grande variété de milieux de dépôt, depuis le domaine continental (rivière, plage) jusqu'au domaine marin (turbidites). Son équivalent non consolidé est généralement appelé sable.
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grès_(géologie)

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.[1]
Linked to:
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandstone

Johannes Gleim
Local time: 17:11
Works in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 189

1 day 5 hrs confidence:

sandstone walls built at ground level

Explanation:
It's clear that "grès" means sandstone, but I'd like to suggest that the walls are not built OF earth ("batis EN terre" or "batis DE terre") but built directly at the level of the ground (batis A terre) due to the preposition.

In the area where I live in France, the traditional building technique using packed earth is very common and is called "pisé". It's not the same thing as mortar, which goes in-between the stones.

It would be useful if the source sentence was accompanied by a photo or diagram.

https://maisons-paysannes.org/boutique/recueil-technique-bati-de-terre-crue/
https://www.asterre.org/la-terre-crue/matiere-et-architecture/comment-construire-en-terre/le-pise#:~:text=Le%20pis%C3%A9%20est%20un%20proc%C

Annette Fehr
France
Local time: 17:12
Native speaker of:

English

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murs de grès bâtis à la terre

English translation: walls of stone and puddled/rammed earth

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