Little Cabin made of Mud
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...
Fantastic! Looks like a great workshop! Resteemed!
Thank you @moutainjewel! It's very appreciated.
You had me at Hobbit hole and Tim Burton.
I've done soooo much reading and researching on strawbale and cobb building. But no matter how much I look into it, I always feel like I'm missing something...
I'm super new here, but I'm hoping that by the time I'm ready to build, I've met someone close to me who has experience, and can lend me their brain!
Haha... Yea that's how I felt too and it's starting to feel like it again now that it's been a year and a half since the workshop! But at least we have the land now and we've been busy playing and planning!
You'll find someone... In the end everything always works out.
Looks like you're doing a great job! Thanks for sharing the photies.
So you put them up all in one go in the space of eight days. You say that in the oldern days the walls woudl go up 18 inches every two weeks to allow drying... do you think your building suffered for not having allowed drying time?
"the grass they had eaten previously" - ha ha, lovely polite way of saying horse shit!
Yea that's part of the problem and because it was raining, the moisture in the air didn't help. Also we were all just learning so some cobb was too wet....
In a worshop setting where you only have 8 days to build it can be difficult not to rush. We lit a couple fires in the middle of the building after lass on some eveningsbto help the drying. It helped a lot!
Thanks for the horse shit.... I was hoping what I said would translate!
If you did it again would you go for staggering the build to allow gradual drying do you think??
Yes I think I would. While it takes more effort to support the walls if you build like we did, in the long run I think it still works (you know once it's completely dryed).
Thanks!
Beautiful work! This is inspiring me to get into some natural building projects :) I really do like the angled window touch!
If you find yourself near the hudson valley in the spring 2018 and want to learn, we will be building a cobb structure and want to teach the way!
That's so kind of you! I don't have any plans to NY any time soon but I'll keep it in mind in case I need an excursion :)
When you do make the excursion to NY, will you teach us about wild foods?
Haha sure! meantime I will make some posts about wild food on this blog :)
Nice, yeah I'm for sure putting in an angled window in some of our cabins. Thanks for the reply. It was really fun and inspiring getting started in natural building!
Looks good! 8 days is pretty efficient for a building that size. I especially like the fact your little homie was also contributing to the building. So glad there are workshops on this kind of thing. Like you said, cobb buildings have been standing for centuries, and are so much prettier than their cement counter parts.
He had a lot of fun and the teacher had a couple little ones so it made all that much better! Teach em young
Love it, would be great to have a go at building like this.
They are very pleasant to be around, yes!
Thats a cool construction. Well done on building it. I was wondering what sort of climate the hut is in with respect to humidity and rain?
The structure from the photos was built in North Carolina. The saying that you will hear all over the natural building world is good boots and a good hat or something along those lines. A big roof, and a good (and high) foundation to avoid too much rain hitting the walls and the bottom to stay dry.
England has found the oldest documentation of such buildings to date from the 15th century... and some are still standing. In dryer areas such as parts of the middle east (I believe it was Jordan) there is a seven story apartment building made of dirt....I can't remember if it's cobb or adobe, but either way it is impressive and probably not the only building like it!
Very cool. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Of course. You're welcome