Building Solutions

Mesa Verde doors were sometimes sandstone slabs

The stories in the buildings were created by using logs and poles to form layers between the layers of stone – these made floors and roofs, and could be extended out to form balconies.

Ladders were the means by which the inhabitants could climb down into, or up to, the different levels of space in the villages

The main construction materials were sandstone and mud mortar. The Ancestral Puebloan people chipped and pecked the sandstone with harder, riverbed stones which they used as hammer stones. The mortar between the blocks is a local soil, water and ash mixture. Fitted in the mortar are tiny pieces of stone called "chinking". Chinking stones fill in the gaps and add structural stability to the walls. Over the surface of many walls, the people placed a thin coating of plaster which was the first thing that eroded away as time passed.

 

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