Buying an Aljezur farmhouse
Home Aljezur farmhouses for sale Contact Control of the red palm weevil Algarve west coast climate Heating options The truth about coastal property What is natural park Costa Vicentina? Building and renovating in western Algarve Portugal land scams Fishing on the Vicentina coast Western Algarve agriculture  AFPOP Utilities in Portugal Schools in Aljezur  Solar home heating plans		Taipa, adobe, or rammed earth constructions; These offer great natural heat and humidity buffers, and in the Algarve climate stay very comfortable inside. Unless they fall down. A new built one would have a steel reinforced concrete ring beam around the top, supported by steel and concrete columns. I've heard of such a thing, but it's pretty rare. I have seen one renovated with a ringbeam added; it still has it's old foundation though. 98% of taipa constructions are structurally mud. they can last a long time, but they simply are not safe in earthquakes, and Portugal is a seismically active area. Houses here really should be properly engineered, with adequate foundation and ring beam to support the roof. No one knows when the next big earthquake will come, but when it does, I'd sure rather be in a properly engineered and built house. One big positive, though; they offer good acoustic damping. They are quiet inside. The more common brick construction isn't very good in that regard. The Wikipedia article is very enthusiastic about it, but read it with a grain of salt. In reality, they are very expensive to build here, as they're very labor intensive. Yes, you save a little on building material, but the walls are the cheapest part of a brick house. Usually, taipa constructions here are old, predating the current building codes. Foundation unknown, no pillars, no ring beam. Unless built on high ground, they have a lot of trouble with damp rising up the walls, wicking into the hydroscopic clay  during the winter rains. A wall on such a house just off the main road in Rogil  keeps falling down. you can look right into the end room from the road as you drive by. If you have another view on this, and you actually live [through the winter] in a taipa house, I'd be pleased to post it here. Taipa house after a rainy winter in Portugal