Ovens made of mud...Houses made of mud... Apartment buildings made of mud...?
Those around me who weren't aware that such construction techniques are still used today (forget about telling them that cobb dwellings from the 15th century are still standing...in rainy england none the less) thought I was nuts. And it was even worse when I told them I also wanted to build a house out of straw! But that's another story...
For a few years now I've been watching people build with natural materials. Looking for it on youtube eventually became an obsession, all I wanted to do was to build a house out of materials found on the land we would one day make a homestead on. Something out of forest that would look very organic and feel natural and belonging there too.... Think hobbit hole meets Tim Burton!
Back in the spring of 2016 I sprung for a workshop to finally get my hands dirty and get some experience. I went to The Mud Dauber School of Natural Buildings and it was amazing!!! I am hooked and now want our homestead to also be a bit of a learning center for natural building.... Let's just start with our home and a work area for the makerspace, then we'll see. Baby steps?
These are the few photos we had from that 8 day course:
Greg (the master builder) wanted to show us cobb and strwbale building. The north wall will be made of straw.
Little bit of plastering
We had to re-enforce the corners because we made some cobb a bit too wet... and went up too quickly. Also we were working in the rain under a giant tarp to keep the work site dry.
More plaster and the walls are going up!
The master and a pupil.
This window had a nice detail I thought. We put it on an angle from the wall. In other words it's not parallel to the wall it is on.
Proof of me and son... I guess it's more a proof of the little homie, you can't see my face!
Little homie learning to build with cobb!
That is all I have from this trip.... sorry there are no pictures of the finished building, we nearly finished it. All that was missing was the door, and the rest of the plaster.
- It took nine people eight days to build a 12x12 cabin.
- The cobb walls (and the bales on end) were 16" thick
- The foundation was ready when we started.
- The materials had already been collected
- We harvested the rafters and beams for the roof on the property
Don't kid yourself, it's natural but it is hard work and it takes time. In england back in the days they would save time by having horses in a pit walking around mixing the mud and the grass they had eaten previously! Their walls went up about 18" every two weeks (drying time)!!!
Ok, until next time...