But more seriously, I can't imagine this is a good idea.  Historically, adobe houses in the southwest had dirt floors for the same reason they had dirt walls--it's the most available building material, and that way you can save the wood for the roof beams where nothing else will really work--but, of course, people had much less furniture (and in some cases none at all), and went barefoot or wore leather-soled shoes without dramatic heels.  They also were unlikely to spill anything worse than a pot of soup on the floor.  

Given our modern lifestyles, furnishings, cleaning products, etc, I think the environmental costs of flooring are well worth it.  Also, historically dirt floors were bound with ox blood, which allowed them to be polished fairly smooth and hard, and that's hardly environmentally fabulous, not to mention the ethical issues for those of us who believe there are ethical issues with that sort of thing.

One thing I'd easily believe is that dirt floors are pleasant to walk on barefoot, so I guess they might be appropriate for, say, a bedroom.  Still, they sound awfully high-maintenance with the wax and everything, so I'm guessing it won't be long before people are covering them up with rugs and mats, which kind of defeats the purpose, not to mention seems likely to encourage mold.

I've thought for a long time that floors can/should be easier than they are to reconfigure and replace parts of.  Specifically, since radiant floor heat (solar, natch) is such a great thing, but the tubing doesn't last forever, I've wondered if you couldn't just compact a layer of crushed gravel, put down the foamboard foundation insulation, lay the PEX tubing in a layer of sand, and put a sanded-brick floor down, without fixing the bricks in place in any way.  I guess you'd want to put a barrier of some sort between the PEX and the brick in case you spilled something on the floor, but then you'd have the problem of condensation caused by the barrier...it's a far-from-complete idea, but I like the concept of being able to take individual bricks out and put them back, no sawing of grout needed.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

Dirt floors do indeed require a certain amount of maintenance, which proves they belong to traditional cultures, require thought and work, and should not be assumed to be the pre-human default.

I would think that in places where furniture with legs that get a lot of movement is to go, for example a kitchen or dining area with a table and chairs, it should be easy to cover that piece of floor with ceramic tile.  There is plenty of precedent for that in Spanish architecture, in the US Southwest and elsewhere.

Area carpets are one of the glories of residential design, and it strikes me as short-sighted and even a bit inhumane to try to get rid of them.  Not only are they (at their best) pleasing to sight and touch, but they also moderate the acoustics and air flow of a room.  In the great carpet-producing cultures of Western and Central Asia, furniture is little more than low tables, and everybody sits on the floor, which is either of prepared dirt or tiled, or even just flattened earth in the case of the Bedouin; so far from being squalid, the rich carpets and cushions can make this a sumptuous experience.

It surprises me that the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose residential architecture is in many ways very attractive, seem not to have used carpets.  But their furniture was not all that wonderful either.  I love the private houses of Pompeii, especially their interior courtyards, with gardens, fountains and porticoed walkways -- the tradition persists in Spanish architecture -- ; but the question might be asked, Was there a comfortable place to sit down, to enjoy it?

Ancient and medieval European floors are mercilessly hard.  And yet Europeans had to wait till the Crusaders started returning from the Middle East, bearing carpets, for any relief.

One of my favorite shops in Santa Fe, Willa, is that large Asian import store a few blocks SW of the Plaza.  I am sure there are a few Southwestern-style homes in the area that have Central Asian carpets bought at that store.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I think I'll give this one a miss.

Global Business Watch http://www.gbwatch.com

"...She told about a period in their lives when they lived in the Caribbean. In their early and less prosperous days, they made a cow-manure floor just as they had known in India. When they became more prosperous they moved into a fancy home with a wooden floor. In their new home, they had a problem with snakes coming in from time to time. But snakes had never come in across the cow-manure floor, even though it would have been easier for them to enter, since it was closer to the ground."

"It is normally used on the floors which are made of dirt most often in hut-like homes. The mud floors are permanent therefore the cow dung is applied directly with bare hands. It is spread all over the floor about half inch thick and left to dry and stays permanent. The manure is wet, therefore easy to apply, and can be gotten from the ground."

Yes, only the very Greenest can see it!  It's right there.  For the roof, a clear bright solar powered atrium.   For walls, only the most energy efficient gas membranes.  For the floor, pure Earth for insulation.

Yes, sign here...and be sure to invite me to your first party at your new house.

Coming as we do from a high-energy, high-consumption society, we have formed tastes and attitudes that reflect that background. As we seek to reduce our consumption, either from idealism or necessity, we will experience a clash in cultures... culture shock.

Sarah's reaction is pretty common -- "floors made of dirt?"  As we know, "dirt" is bad -- it has germs in it, it's "dirty", it's what poor people live in.

Others of us prefer to think of it as "soil," as the basis of life on the land, something that is sacred.  I'm not sure that earth floors are suitable for everybody, everywhere - but I think it's worthwhile to question our assumptions and look carefully at traditional practices. Most of our ancestors lived with earth floors. As the NY Times says:

It is hardly a new or chic movement: millions of poor people around the globe use natural materials like dirt for their homes whether they want to or not.