Removing the forms involves undoing the through-bolts and pulling them out of the walls leaving a hole all the way through. Some of the wall material is then compacted into these holes and they effectively vanish. We wire-brushed the walls as soon as the forms were stripped. Speed is important, a couple of times we left it over lunch and came back to find it was much much harder to brush because the cement had already gone off. The brushing brings out the texture of the material and (in my opinion) enhances it incredibly, although not all builders do this.

The exposed external walls and wet areas of the bathroom were treated with Techdry Waterproofing Agent which makes water literally roll off rather than soak in.
 

If I was building another rammed earth house I would be much more adventurous with textures and objects embedded in the walls. At the time we were pretty nervous about the whole thing having had virtually no experience with the medium and having not lived with it. Now I would do things like:

  • Add some charcoal to the mix for black speckles (this happened accidentally in one area and it looks great). 

  • Possibly use different oxides, coloured stones or whatever in different rooms to give different moods to rooms.

  • Insert bottles in the walls to act like portholes.

  • How about an old fence-post horizontally as a hat rack?

  • Rocks, pieces of timber, use your imagination.

If you have done any of this or have some other ideas, let me know, I'll include them.