Grants--Home of much of New Mexico's pressed-earth block industry
— George S. Austin and Edward W. Smith

Traditional adobes (sun-dried mud bricks) are being challenged by pressed early blocks, made form similar raw materials, but manufactured by hand operated or hydraulically operated, gasoline- of diesel powered machines. The portable pressed-earth block machines produce blocks which are uniform at least in two directions. at the construction site using local soils, and at almost any time of the year. Finished blocks can be stockpiled for later use or conveyed from the machine directly to the wall under construction.

 

 Grants, New Mexico, is the home of two of the live manufacturers of pressed-earth block machines in the state and was where all but one of the 24 machines sold to commercial or non-commercial producers until the summer of l988 were manufactured. These machines, together with those of other manufacturers, appear to be viable alternatives to the traditional method of adobe-brick manufacture and should he considered by commercial builders and those who wish to construct their own homes- of earth materials.