Whenever I start a project the first thing I do is turn to Amazon.com and see what kind of books they have on any topic. The next thing I do is see if I can get them through my local library, even if I have to pay for interlibrary loan. Books on adobe structures run the gamut and of the dozen I've read only a few are actually useful for someone contemplating a house renovation.
- Adobe Conservation A Preservation Handbook, Cornerstones Community Partnerships 2006
- Run, don't walk, if you are even thinking of restoring an adobe house, and buy this book. For each section it has a list (and drawings) of the tools you will need. It starts with things you might not even think of -- like how to determine why an adobe wall is having problems and how to prevent the problem from reoccurring before you repair the adobe. If I have any qualms about recommending this book, it is that all the examples are monuments, such as churches, and the restorers have an infinite amount of labor and money. I would never buy an adobe in the shape that some of these churches are...but I understand why the community would want them restored. The other issue is that this book deals with strict restoration -- adding a bathroom or an updated kitchen is not part of their plans. Their website is at http://www.cstones.org/projects/
- Ageless Adobe History and Preservation in Southwestern Architecture, Jerome Iowa, 1985
- After a more-than-usually useful description of architectural styles of adobe structures, this book has chapters on restoring walls, roofs, porches and woodwork and doors and windows. Missing is what to do about floors. Chapter 12 (3 pages) is about adaptation and additions including solar energy. Page 117 has a detailed illustration about the difficulties of adding insulation to a flat dirt roof.
- Adobe Notes, Chapman & Stewart 1930, reprinted in 1966
- This charming 20 page book is well worth the quick read if you can find a copy of it. Handset with linotypes. I was all excited to install a mud floor in my 100 year old adobe when their gentle nudging suggested "Perhaps the idea is that one can quite happily add a sophisticated detail to an older structure, but not a primitive element to one of a later time". That strikes me as being in good taste, so now I'm just musing about how to replace the wood-on-dirt floor.
- New Mexico Style, A sourcebook of traditional architectural detail, Warren 1986, 1995
- This book is a collection of black and white (mostly) photographs of doors, windows, fireplaces, etc. Not immediately useful for restoration, but it did jog my brain so that I recognised that a window in a addition I wanted to tear down was actually from the original house and well-worth saving and reusing.
- Adobe Building and Living with Earth, Romero & Larkin 1994
- If you had never read a book about adobe structures, this is a fine place to start. Lovely color photos. Interesting that they picked for the cover a photo of a church with cement plaster with cracks under the snow -- enough to send shivers down a remodelers spine. Images at the end of the book make me laugh. Which crystal chandelier would you pick out for your adobe?
- The Adobe Story, A Global Treasure, McHenry, 1996
- Not useful for remodelers. Mostly international adobes -- middle east, France, South America.
- Passive Solar House Basics, van Dresser, 1977
- Not useful for remodelers. I need a book about solar retrofitting -- this is a book about building a house from scratch.
- American Adobes, Rural Houses of Northern New Mexico, 1986
- Nice pictorial history of non-flat-roofed adobe houses. One rather wishes the photos hadn't been taken in the middle of winter with snow on the ground. Since I'm south of Albuquerque my house is in no way "of Northern New Mexico" but it does have a pitched room. Not very useful.
- Adobe, Built it Yourself, McHenry 1985
- Don't buy this book. It has a two page chapter on Restoring Old Adobes which is summarized by "Don't do it".
- The Small Adobe House, Reeve & Reck
- A flaky Santa Fe take on largish and expensive adobe houses. This book is just about the most shallow introduction one could find to adobe home design. It is basically a collection of photos of posh homes (some of which aren't even adobe -- while the preface confesses, the captions don't reveal) with a text that strings together architectural blandishments -- I laughed especially at the quote that "white plastered adobe walls serve as blank canvases for...exotic artwork". Anyone who has lived with adobe knows that hanging something on a wall made of dirt is a bear.
