Characteristics Earth Products

The clay is a type of soil that can be found all over the world. It is an inorganic soil type and has various applications. Oskam offers clay that is suitable for making building materials.

"Oskam’s clay products are fully coming from Dutch grounds."

Clay is a type of soil that can be found all over the world. It is an inorganic soil type and has various applications. Oskam offers clay that is suitable for making building materials. There is also clay for sealing ponds or stream beds, for example.
The clay comes from Emmen, a place in the North of the Netherlands. Locally, the clay is extracted from road construction or construction pits, Oskam buys this clay and processes the clay into plaster material, mortar or compressed earth blocks.

The clay from Emmen is a so-called boulder clay consisting of clay, silt, sand and stones. The clay is not processed by heating and so the quality that clay possesses is retained in the products. Unlike traditional blocks, for example, where the clay is heated and thus has a different composition.
Due to its unchanged quality, the clay is able to help promote a healthy indoor climate, without the need for all kinds of technical installations.

What applications are there with clay?
Compressed earth blocks:
Pressed building blocks suitable for use in load-bearing and non-load-bearing walls, accumulating walls, thermal walls and fin ovens.
Clay plaster:
A nicely pulverized mixture with a brown color to be used as a base layer. Also available with a fiber (hemp or straw) to mechanically reinforce the mixture. Suitable to apply on almost all surfaces.
Clay mortar:
The same material as clay plaster, but mixed with coarser sand. To be used as masonry mortar.
Clay Finish:
A diverse range of natural shades as a finishing layer over the brown clay plaster base. The maximum thickness is 3mm. Consider our beautiful Dante White or Canetti Grey.
Clay Paint:
Can be applied on almost any surface (gypsum, clay plaster, etc.). Available in more than 50 colors such as Wedgewood Green or Tiramisu. The clay paint can be finished with a protective layer against stains.

The qualities of clay include:
Regulate humidity
Clay can absorb up to ten times as much moisture from a room compared to the traditional blocks. The clay is able to bring the moisture back into the area when necessary.

Accumulating heat
Clay stores the heat from sunlight or heating and retains it for a long time, so that in for example wall heating, a very pleasant feeling is created in the room. In a Mediterranean climate or slightly more southern in Africa, the clay functions as cooling during the day and as heating during the night. The clay gradually releases the heat.

Good Acoustics
A thick layer of clay has a high absorption capacity.

No poison
Clay is a 100% natural material, it does not irritate the skin.

No Waste
Clay hardly produces waste. It can be completely reused without additional energy costs.

Chalk
Clay becomes waterproof by mixing it with lime.

Soft
Clay is a relatively soft material, so it is not suitable for everywhere usage. Clay can be made hard with natural material.

Interested?

View our product overview here. Or rent a color sample or order a sample by contacting us. With more than 30 years of experience, we are happy to give you professional advice.