How Three People Came Together (and Stayed Together) to Make an Earthbag House in Costa Rica
 
It isn’t easy to build a house from scratch for the first time, and when you throw friends and lovers in the mix? Ooh...make or break, I reckon. So when a handsome couple from Costa Rica joined our Mud Home Facebook group in the winter, I did wonder how it would all turn out. There's a lot to learn from this project.

​The Love Story and the Dream
Our story begins with Sam and Leora from California. A couple often to be seen balancing on surfboards as the sun turns pink, looking enviably tanned and healthy. The pair met three years ago and have been globetrotting ever since. Then they stumbled into Costa Rica. Here the love begins, with the land (it always starts with the land), the surf, and each other.
 
“After about two years of balancing travel with ‘real life’, we decided it might be time for a big lifestyle change,” says Leora, who spearheaded the design of what was a very ambitious earthbag house for first-time builders.
 
 “One night Sam was cruising the internet and discovered this ‘out there’ natural building technique. We had briefly discussed, in fantasy form, our dream of leaving the U.S. to build a home and start a family. Sam and I spent the next few months daydreaming, scheming and researching Earthbag Building. We downloaded all of Owen Geigers PDFs and looked into The Cal Earth Institute that was just right down the street in Riverside, California. In many ways, we fell in love with it.”
 
From the outset, this project has been well-planned. Leora had studied interior architecture, so was in a good position to design her new home. “Sam and I spent the next few months concept designing every square inch of the project. We drew up site maps and floor plans and started to see our dream turn into a possible reality!” explains Leora, who is clearly not of the Atulya K Bingham seat-of-your-pants approach.
 
The dream took hold of them. But the only issue was, Sam and Leora didn’t own a place to realise it. No small holding. No land. So they returned to Costa Rica. After a long hunt, they finally found what they were looking for. “A raw piece of jungle, roughly three-quarters of an acre. It was perfect. We closed the land deal a month later, on my birthday,” Leora says.

​The Friend
Dreams are all well and good. But to haul them out of the swampy marshlands of fantasy and into reality, you need a game plan. In most cases of construction you also need help – the right help. As I said, this house was very ambitious for first-time builders. I blinked once or twice when I saw the size of it.
 
The project included two sizeable earthbag round houses joined by an earthbag corridor. There were circles and straight walls, cupolas, and massive arches. It was going to be naturally plastered, too. When I first laid eyes on it, I gulped, because I knew how much work it would be. But I didn’t realise that Sam and Leora had a secret weapon.
 
“I met Sam on a trip to Costa Rica almost five years ago,” says Murat Dirlik, an experienced alternative builder from North Carolina (think Frank Zappa on a surfboard meets Salvador Dali with a hammer, and you’ll be riding roughly the right mental wave).
 
“When Sam and Leora bought the lot here in Playa Peladas, they offered me the opportunity to come be their superintendent on the job. I was already burned out on hospitality management, so I jumped at the chance to do an earthbag project with my friends,” he says.

​The House Begins
The rest of us in the Facebook group have been watching this build go up since February, and from the word go it was hard not to be impressed. The design was appropriate – buttresses and adjoining walls were going in the right places, windows were well-placed, and the earthbags were looking tidier than a neurotic’s bookshelf. But most of all it was the team work that impressed me, because this project could have so easily have gone pear-shaped.
 
It’s really hard to maintain good communication when you are tired and stressed, with any number of limitations (time/weather/money) hanging over you. What I loved about this build is how everyone was valued and had a role. I’m oversimplifying, because in truth there are many overlaps in duties, but Leora is chief designer and on site each day to iron out design issues, Sam usually deals with logistics, planning, supplies and workers, and Murat is head of construction, foreman of the crew, and brings the design into reality. Everyone has a say, and the team meets regularly to discuss.

​The Problems
From the outside this project seemed to be running so smoothly I could hardly believe there were any difficulties, but of course there’s always trouble somewhere.
 
“All told, I think the thing that repeatedly wore me down was negotiating the crew,” says Murat. Perhaps it is largely my own problem, because I have spent ten years running a very well-oiled crew made up of some of my best friends, so coming here for this project I had to abandon such expectations. Simply put, between the language difficulties (I speak pretty much fluent Spanish but not Guanacaste worker slang) and the cultural aspects of it all, as well as the individual personalities of the workers and their general lack of building experience, things could become pretty overwhelming.”
 
Yes, I hear you Murat. People are hard to manage. And the more people there are, the more trouble there is to negotiate. I’m often asked why I do so much alone. Honestly? Because half the time, even with the best intentions, ‘help’ just isn’t very helpful. People usually aren’t trained, and come with a barrel load of needs that you have to attend to.
 
“There was a palpable change in the stress level once we reduced our number of employees to about three people...so much easier to manage.” Wise words from Murat here. Keep your team a manageable size.
 
Sam and Leora had other issues, and I sympathise here too, because it is stressful when it’s your property and you are shelling out a lot of money for a build. “This has not been an easy project for us. I would say the most difficult part has been time, money and design management. This is our first project ever. We have learned a lot about stress control, remaining calm and collected during times of chaos and most importantly, how to remain a team and work together,” says Leora, very gracefully if I may say so.

How to do it right
As far as I’m concerned, this was one of the most successful first projects I’ve ever seen. I know it wasn't easy, but it never is. Watching from the outside, I have my own take on why it succeeded. Here’s a list of things this team did right:
 
1. Research
Now, I might be a bit of a pantser, but even with my Mud Home in Turkey, even when I was in a tent without power, I still did my research. I bought the books, went to trusted sources, and wrote down information. You need to do your homework.
 
2. Communication and kindness
This team are excellent communicators. All three of them understand the importance of praise, and of valuing everyone’s efforts. All three met weekly to discuss the plan, and all three spent time off site having fun, too. There’s a lot of good feeling between them.

3. Experience
I would never normally recommend anyone who is building for the first time to try a project this big. If Murat hadn't had a decent amount of experience...
 
4. Asking for advice, and mitigating the ego
I tell you, when it comes to construction people are far too slow to ask for advice from an expert.  And I get it. There is a continual barrage of opinions (many pretty misinformed) coming at you when you build something, so you get sick of hearing ‘advice’. But the truth is, heck, you’re building a house! Mistakes cost a lot of money. They might even bankrupt you. So just find an expert you trust and ask!
 
Who do I consider an expert? Experts are not people who spend all day blabbering. They are not your uncle Bob, or that guy up the road who keeps stopping by and adding his two-penneth worth. Indeed, in my experience real experts rarely give advice unless they are asked. The right person to take advice from is someone who has already done what you are doing. That’s it.
 
With my Mud Home in Turkey back in the day, I went to Owen Geiger for advice about foundations, and I had a friend at the end of the phone who’d already built a string of earthbag bungalows.
 
With the Costa Rican team, Murat was already extremely well-versed in many kinds of alternative construction, which is why it was running smoothly. But even so, when they weren’t sure, Sam, Leora, and Murat never hesitated to ask me questions.

​That’s my take. But what do Team Costa Rica think?
 
Here’s what Murat has to say:
 
“I think that through a combination of my experience and familiarity with the building process (geometric concepts, design, engineering for strength, anticipating and planning ahead, setting up a workspace, and innovating like crazy in a place with little access to certain things we often take for granted) and Leora and Sam's understanding of how they wanted the project to turn out, we had a winner from the start. They knew that they wanted something nice and elegant, and unlike a lot of clients I have worked with, they had a proper vision from the beginning. After some growing pains we have come to trust each other and not hold onto any ideas too rigidly, so the project has been able to grow on its own in a really nice way...It's natural to get frustrated with one another and butt heads on a project as big as this one, so keeping that in mind and making sure to just have fun together is a crucial aspect of it. I would be hard pressed to think of doing this project with/for people whom I did not love, so maybe at the root of it all, that is how we have managed to overcome all of the difficulties and get to where we are now.”
 
Here’s Sam and Leora’s perspective:
 
“The most important factor in our success has been our unwavering determination to finish. There has never been a moment where we’ve even considered throwing our hands up and saying ‘we quit’...Through times of great stress and all-time lows, Sam and I manage to love our way through it, sometimes kicking and screaming, but at the end of the day there is always a hug and a ‘we’re gonna fucking do this!’ ”
 
A round of applause for Team Costa Rica. You did well. Very well.

​Murat also put together this pretty damn amazing roof for the earthbag house. I’ll be outlining exactly how he did it in another article. So if you’re in the area looking for a man who can make gorgeous and inventive things with his hands, contact Murat.
 
And if you’d like to follow Sam and Leora’s story and see how this project ends, have a look at their blog: https://www.lovestrucktravelers.com/
 
If you’d like to be a part of our closed Mud Home Facebook group, where all sorts of builds are happening, and where I share what I’m building too, you can learn how to join here. When you join the group you will also get a free copy of The Mud Home Building PDF at the beginning of the month.

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​It was 2012 when someone sent me a photo of this little cottage. And my heart nearly stopped when I saw it, because it felt like the twin sister of my mud home in Turkey. The living roof. The curling tree on the side wall. The funky, one-woman beauty of it. Over the next few years, the two mud homes went their own ways and evolved into different entities. But I always felt a connection to this house and to the artist who made it.

​Heidi Vilkman lives mostly in the UK now, but she began this project in Finland. It was for the most part continued in summer holidays. The entire structure is a mud world of myth and fae. It brings a feminine creative magic into construction, and just to look at it reawakens something from our childhoods. Something incredibly precious that we have mostly lost. The right to imagine, and to believe.

How was it made?
But before I completely sink into rhapsody, here are the nuts and bolts of the construction: Heidi’s cottage is a masterpiece of natural building. Each wall uses a different technique: Cob, straw bale and cordwood. Sensibly the straw bale is on the north side for insulation. The living roof structure was made by Heidi and her dad. Her dad built the timber frame of the house too, and mum got her hands dirty with cobbing. A neighbour helped with a skylight and the front door. But most of the donkey work was completed by Heidi herself.

​The Interior
The plaster work (which is all natural clay plaster), beautiful pargeting, and original details such as the mezzanine for the bed, are what give this house its unique personality. Heidi also made her own clay paint and added natural pigments for colour. As you can see, the result is exquisite. 

​“My inspiration came from art and nature.” Heidi says. “The forest which the cottage stands next to is my childhood playground, and I spent a lot of time in it as a young child (and older one). When I stumbled on photos of cob cottages in 2011, I was ‘cobsmacked’ that one could build an actual building with clay, basically. And they were so beautiful too! Nothing like your 'usual houses'. Just full of organic, beautiful forms and textures. As I worked with ceramics, I instantly fell in love with that concept and had to do something about it.”

One of the beauties of this little cottage is the slowness of the build, and the way it draws on its surroundings for materials and form. When a structure takes time, it becomes an organic movement, rather than a lump of construction imposed abruptly upon a landscape. It morphs and evolves, balancing the needs of the humans it houses and the environment in which it stands. Truly one of my favourite mud homes.
 
Heidi Vilkman is a talented artist. You can learn more about her at www.heidivilkman.com. To browse her lovely creations, see her e-store www.heidivilkman.etsy.com.

​The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free) and takes me many hours a month to research and write, and goes into the hundreds to run. If you find any joy, inspiration, and value in what I do, please consider becoming a Mud Patron. For less than the price of a coffee you can join my private news feed, ask me questions, and become part of our thriving mud club.

Many thanks to our Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home on Patreon. It is thanks to you the site is still running.

Do you know your cob from your adobe? And what about superadobe? Are you daubing instead of wattling? Or could you even be ramming? Hmm.
 
Mud building has developed over thousands of years, and there are a variety of wonderful techniques. Because most mud building uses the same essential materials (a mixture of clay, straw and sand) the names are sometimes used a little loosely, which can lead to right muddy mess of how-to: cob, adobe, superadobe, wattle and daub, and rammed earth. What's the difference? Quite a lot.
 
Each mud building technique has evolved in specific regions of the planet, and each has its pros and cons. Before you start a mud build, it pays to know them so that you can choose the mud house that best suits your needs and wants.

Cob
 
Cob is probably the most misused word in natural building. People throw it around pretty much any time they chuck a bit of mud. I’m not a massive jargon junkie, nor particularly nit-picking, and quite honestly, who cares which word you use if you’re just lobbing mud with a group of pals. But if you’re teaching technique, cob is a very specific mud building method which works for some climates and temperaments, and not for others.

Cob is an Old English word, and today refers to a technique particularly prevalent in the south west of England, East Anglia, parts of Ireland and Wales, Brittany, and a lot of rural Africa. Because there is no post-and-beam structure, in a fair few regions in the world it can slip through the grey areas in building regulations (in many areas, a structure isn’t recognised as a proper building unless there is concrete involved).
 
How is it done?
Cob houses are constructed layer by layer. Basically you are mixing up clay, straw and sand, and throwing large patties of it to create a wall. One layer has to dry before the next is laid, so cob building takes time. There is no frame, and no other structural material used. Because of this you really can sculpt the house in the shape you want.
 
Things to note:
Cob is not the best technique for a flood plain (as even Ivanto Evans states in his marvellous book, The Hand Sculpted House, a recommended read for anyone considering cob), because a cob wall can disintegrate suddenly when sitting in water. This is why, as with all mud builds, you need a decent rubble trench foundation (not concrete, definitely not concrete), and a nice high stem wall made of stone.

​Adobe
 
Adobe is probably the most widespread traditional building technique in the world, and can be found in abundance in Africa, the Middle East, South and Central America, and Asia. 
 
How is it done?
Adobe utilises the same clay, straw and sand mixture as cob, only this time the ‘mud mix’ is poured into molds and left to dry in the sun. Thus bricks are formed. These are then stacked to build the adobe home, with an earth plaster used as mortar. For a great and detailed info-article on adobe building and how to make adobe bricks, see this post in The Abundant Edge.
 
Things to note:
This technique works especially well in hot, dry climates. Again, such houses are somewhat more prone to flooding issues and need decent rubble trench foundations and good stem walls in wetter climates.

Superadobe
 
Another confusing name. Superadobe is actually earthbag building. The reason it’s also called superadobe is because rather than having to preform and dry adobe bricks in the sun before you start building, you stick damp clayey earth into sacks, and then let it cure on the wall. Superadobe also doesn’t use the traditional clay, straw and sand mixture. It’s simply clay and earth for the main structure. This potentially makes it faster because you don’t have to stomp all that mixture together before you build.
 
How is it done?
Wet bags of earth are filled and laid head to toe, then tamped to squash the earth into solid bricks. Each layer is held together by rows of barbed wire. See the whole story here.
 
Things to note:
While earthbag doesn’t boast the romantic elegance of a traditional technique, Earthbag does perform amazingly well in extreme conditions. It is almost invincible in terms of strength, and has proved nearly impossible to fell on the shake table. It’s also the most secure mud building technique if you live in a flood zone, because the bags keep the dirt in place even if the wall gets wet. The bad news regarding earthbag is however, that it’s fairly labour-intensive, so you want a bit of muscle on your team if you choose this method.

Wattle and Daub
 
Another very ancient technique found in many corners of the world; wattle and daub doesn’t just use the mud mix. The wattle is a lath frame, and the daub is some variation on earth plaster.
 
How is it done?
Usually wattle and daub uses a post-and-beam structure. A lath is made from willow or similar strong, bendable wood, and then it’s plastered over using that same mud mixture again. The mixture is layered to create very thick walls (though you have to let each layer dry thoroughly before adding the next).
 
Things to note: Because you use a post and beam structure it may be easier to get a permit for wattle and daub in the right area, than say earthbag. The frame means you can create very straight walls (if you want that), and it gives the mud a little more structure in the event of a flood or such like.

​Rammed Earth
 
Another golden oldie of mud building. A similar mud mixture: Usually just clayey soil and sand, though I have seen other things such as straw and sawdust added too. You see a lot of rammed earth in the Middle East and North Africa, and modern rammers create some amazing results with it. The Eden project in the UK, Stanford University meditation centre, and the gorgeous Senegalese Cultural Centre are just a few examples.
 
How is it done?
Instead of a lath, or bricks, or just throwing mud, this time the clay mixture is stuffed into moulds and squashed down. Again you wait until each layer dries before adding the next, hence why it’s been so utilised over the centuries in the Middle East where the climate is dry for months at a time. See this GreenSpec article for more information.
 
Things to note: Rammed earth is extremely long lasting. It can also be used to create very sleek, modern finishes with an interesting marbled effect created by the layers of compressed earth.

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Many thanks to our Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home on Patreon. It is thanks to you these posts are still coming.

As time goes by and earthbag building becomes more practised, more and more earthbag filling techniques appear. Probably every team winds up creating their own earthbag filling system, though it will differ depending on whether you are using tubes or bags. For the record, here are a few tested ways to stuff dirt into your sacks.

BAGS
 
1. The Classic Single-Sack-With-Bag-Stand Routine
 
The tried and true technique for filling earthbags, is to gusset the bottom of the bag by hand so that the corners are turned in. Then you fill the first 10-15 cm with damp earth, tamp it so that the bottom of the bag is nice and square, before filling the rest of the bag. 

​You would normally measure the amount of earth that goes in the bag (using pots of some description or shovel-loads), this way you can adjust the bag size, so that your earthbags sit staggered in the wall like bricks.
 
In truth, you don’t have to too neurotic about the exact amount of earth in the bag. But the amount does need to be fairly consistent, so that when you tamp the bags flat, they are squashed to roughly the same level. 

​Why gusset the sacks? Because if you don’t, the corners stick out in the wall creating a very bumpy finish. This isn’t the end of the world and certainly not a structural issue, but it’s a devil to plaster over. So you’ll save yourself a lot of effort in the long run by making sure your sack-ends sit nice and flush.

2. The Alternative Sack Fill
In our last workshop in Turkey, we invented another bag-laying technique which allowed us to pre-fill a lot of sacks with dry earth, and then wet them on the wall. Details of that method are outlined here.
 
3. The Six-at-a-Time Multi-Fill
 
Naturally, people get impatient with the one-at-a-time bag stand routine. So they invent other, faster ways of filling multiple bags at once. Sometimes they’ll even resort to child labour. :)

​4. Industrial Speed Filling
 
For those who love machines, this tractor earthbag-filling system is going to be the clear winner. The sack tie-up at the end is the icing on the cake. Personally, I would hate the fumes and noise. For me, the whole point of building your own home is to enjoy the teamwork process. But I accept I’m in the minority there.

​TUBES
Filling tubes is a little different from individual sacks, as you inevitably have to fill on the wall. Here are a couple of options:
 
1. Nice and Leisurely
Jehane Rucquoi and friends take things in their stride with this relaxed technique.

​2. The Earthbag Boa-Contraption
Here is another system using a nifty wooden frame that squashes the earthbag flat as it goes. It bears a passing resemblance to a massive earthbag snake, which is totally besides the point, but anyway.

THERE’S NO SINGLE RIGHT ANSWER

It really is pretty much down to you and your team as to which technique you prefer, and no doubt there are many others out there that I haven’t yet heard of. Feel free to tell us about, or add a link to, your own method in the comments. I always like to learn a new way.

The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free) and takes me many hours a month to research and write, and goes into the hundreds to run. If you find any joy, inspiration, and value in what I do, please consider becoming a Mud Patron. For less than the price of a coffee you can join my private news feed, and ask me questions.
​
Many thanks to our Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home on Patreon. It is thanks to you these posts are still coming. 

​Starting a tiny off-grid world for the second time is a lot easier. You know what you need, and in which order. First time off-gridders, or off-grid planners, often don't know where to start. And your conventional home won’t be a decent guide for the very different world of off-grid living.
 
So here’s my list of the first ten things you need to organise when you go off-grid. I’ve broken it up into two sections: The Short Term focuses on your immediate survival needs. These will get you through a season, but they won’t be enough to keep you going indefinitely. The Long Term addresses how you will sustain yourself. While there may be some variation to the order I’ve put things in, trying to solve long term problems before you’ve got the short term covered is going to be stressful and energy devouring. You have limited muscle power and patience. You want to use it well.

The Short Term (Survival)
 
1. Temporary shelter. You can survive weeks without food, three days without water, but in the wrong climate even a night without decent shelter can kill you. So you need somewhere to sleep while you set up your off-grid world. It will depend on your weather, but I’ve seen tents, campervans/trailers, mobile homes/prefabs, containers, and wooden huts all used as possible shelters.
 
2. Water. If you haven't bought land yet, don't get a bit without water on. I did survive on Mud Mountain without running water for 2 years, but it was pretty exhausting. In a perfect world you want to have your water sorted out before you even move on. But this isn’t a perfect world, and that often doesn’t happen for any number of reasons. It really should be one of your first priorities though. Having a decent supply will save so much work.
 
3. Tools. Which tools you buy first will depend on your terrain. But some mixture of the following tools are your basics: Pick, rake, spade, scythe/sickle, machete, hammer, nails, saw, wheelbarrow, secateurs. Your wonderful Black and Decker jigsaw will come in very handy one day, but not on the first. Nor the second. At the outset, you will doubtless be clearing terrain and shifting rocks, building fences and basic structures (see four).

4. Kitchen/Toilet. So, you have a dry, warm bed, you have water, and you have tools. Now you need a space to make food, and another space to crap. Which of those you deem most urgent will depend on when you last ate. The most basic cooking area requires a small hob or fire, a sink of some description, and a place to store food that won’t be ravaged by animals. The simplest and most environmentally friendly toilet option is to build a composting loo like this. Or this.
 
5. Access for a vehicle. This is arguably a higher priority, but you won't die without a road. It’s just a major inconvenience. A must say, I’m a bit ambivalent about access because the great thing about a lack of road is that it keeps nosy parkers out. But the truth is, unless you're walking and never want to bring anything in, life is very difficult without some sort of track into your land.
​
6. Somewhere to wash yourself, and wash clothes. You’ll want a basic shower area. It will depend on your climate how you go about that, but anything from a space in the forest, to a bit of bamboo matting hoisted up will provide some cover (if you need it). You’ll also want a floor that drains fast and doesn’t become muddy. If you don’t use polluting detergents, rocks and gravel do the job simply and cheaply. Wooden slats are another shower floor option.

​The Long Term (Sustain yourself)
 
7. Friends and neighbours. Your network is crucial (and bear in mind I'm a hermit). Start getting to know folk asap, because something will go wrong at some point. The easiest and fastest way to build a community is to be helpful and generous with your time and knowledge. And not to start asking for things before you’ve deposited a little into the favour bank. None of us is entitled to friends. They are earned over time. If you are in a country with another language, then you need to learn it, like, yesterday. It changes everything.

8. Veggie patch and homesteading; chickens/goats etc. Trying to start a smallholding before you’ve got your basic needs covered is a bad idea. Animals and plants need care, food, and plenty else. They give back in abundance. But often only after time. So I recommend going a little slow with your homesteading mission. It’s a step by step, long term project. Certainly, it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of the tiny, off-grid lifestyle. But it requires consistent dedication and in the first six-to-twelve months you will be busy enough getting your infrastructure up.
 
9. Power (solar panels/wind power etc). Notice how far down the list this is. Power is nowhere near as crucial as modern Westerners believe. And I actually recommend a while without it. It's beautiful. Solar power is now so cheap and widespread. If you are strapped for cash, you can begin with a small system to meet your basic lighting and laptop needs. I always recommend investing in rechargeable hand tools too, because you can charge their batteries even from a tiny solar system. Normal power tools with cables need a lot of juice in one go, so unless you have a generator, or a substantial solar/wind system, you’ll have trouble.
 
10. Income. Yeees, this is perhaps the trickiest of your off-grid requirements to realise. You don't need much income, but as I have learned over the past eight years, you do need something coming in. It deserves a post in its own right, so I’ll save that one for later.

So that’s my list. I also put the question to The Mud Home Members Group, many of whom are building off-grid worlds. Here are other things folk added. I think they are all excellent pieces of advice.
 
“The only thing I would add is, A PLAN! I cant tell you how many clients I’ve worked with who got started without one and how many simple mistakes can be avoided by simply taking a bit of time to plan and prepare. If nothing else it will save you a ton of time going to the store to get things you forgot.” Oliver Goshey, consultant and natural building expert.
 
“Be realistic about what you can accomplish.” Nicodemus Ford, earthbagging in California.
 
“I recommend a like-minded mate to share the journey with. They'll get on your last nerve, but you'll come out of it laughing at mysterious things that no one else can really understand. I would add, take a break from time to time. Go and look at something beautiful, or just stay in bed for a day and recharge.” Cath Coffee, earthbag pioneer in the UK and tiny-off-grid-world-builder in Portugal.
 
“Water! Washing machine! Another decent pair of hands, and plain good energy to share in the awesomeness.” Jehane Rucquoi, earthbag pioneer in Nevada

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Can you put earth plaster on drywall or gypsum?

​We have some very inspiring people in The Mud Home Facebook Group; and a variety of artisans and building techniques. For the house renovators, Camilla MacDonald's work in Germany is going to be very interesting. It’s been wonderful to watch this farmhouse transform from a bunch of dust and brick like this...​

to this:

And finally become this cosy, airy abode:

And it happened so fast!
 
Applying Earth Plaster to Difficult Surfaces
 
What’s a difficult surface for earth plaster? Any surface that isn’t porous and doesn’t breathe is going to be tough for clay: Portland cement, drywall and gypsum all fall into this category. What can happen is that because those materials don’t breathe, humidity collects behind the plaster and pushes it away from the wall.
 
But it certainly can be done. And I have to say, just by applying earth plaster you can radically transform the feel of your home. 

​How did Camilla Plaster her Walls?
 
Camilla had a tricky surface to plaster. She enrolled in The Mud Home Perfect Earth Plaster Course in the winter, and her work has contributed to an extra section in that course. It’s an example of the beautiful results you can create when you know what you’re doing.
 
1. First Camilla tested a lot of different primers and plasters on small areas. I cannot stress how important that is, because no one else’s plaster recipe is ever going to be the same as yours. Your walls, your climate, your clay and the atmosphere of your building are never going to exactly mirror someone else’s.
 
2. She properly prepped her surface (or substrate). In this case it was gypsum plaster and drywall. For a totally natural primer for non-porous surfaces, you could use wheatpaste mixed with clay and possibly sand. But sometimes a number of variables will conspire, and that won’t work. In which case you can do what Camilla did and buy one of the professionally formulated primers on the market. In her case she used Superputzgrund. Mike Wye in the UK also has one or two primers.
 
3. Finally she applied layers of plaster to her walls, allowing each layer to dry properly before adding the next. In some areas she added just two layers, and in others the full three layers. Was there a difference?
 
“Good question,” she says. “There is no visual difference, as the clay paint top layer is identical. But I would say the air in the rooms with the thicker layers is nicer...”

Using Clay Paint

​One thing I love about this earth plaster job is the way Camilla has painted the walls. She used a white clay paint, and then added natural pigments to it. The result is original, light and airy. You may not have realised earth plaster can look this sleek. Her bathroom is quite a masterpiece. 

Because many of us are still in summer (plaster time)  and because I really love seeing people create results like Camilla’s, I’m offering 30% off The Mud Home Earth Plaster Course until September 12 2018.
 
Do you really need to do a course? Can’t you just research a bit online and slap it on? It’s only mud, isn’t it?

Well, that’s what I did of course on my first earthbag house. And that’s why it took me nearly 2 years to get my plaster right. So yes sure, you can do what I did. If you’ve got plenty of time and patience, go for it. :))
 
If on the other hand you want a simple but in-depth guide (with videos) on how to get your plaster looking great on a whole bunch of different substrates - earthbag, cob, strawbale, stone, or even drywall - then the course is going to be the cheaper option.
 
Here’s what some of the other course participants have said:
 
"I have two bathtubs of plaster ready to go Atulya! Your course was invaluable." Cath Coffey, earthbag builder in the UK.
"Very informative and good instructions in the text and videos! Absolutely helpful, thanks for putting it together." Nanda Doornik, cob oven builder in Ireland.
"Atulya has the ability to make natural building very accessible, empowering the participant to believe in their ability to do it." Emma Batchelor, course participant.
"Through the third lesson and loving it!" Wynter Miller, course participant.

This online course will show you:

• How to know if you've got clay on your land or in your hand.
• How to mix and test the plaster.
• How to apply plaster to all surfaces from earthbag to strawbale, from stone to dry wall.
• How to cope with different climates.
• How to understand what is going wrong with your plaster and what to do about it.
• How to protect your plaster and maintain it.
  
• And for a limited time, there is an extra video on how to sculpt plaster and create mosaics with it.

If you want to make anything from mud (cob oven, plaster, mosaics, sculptures, or mud mortar) this course will set you up, so I hope you can benefit from the offer.

Camilla is also one of The Mud Home private Facebook Group members. It's the most inexpensive way you can get in-depth help and advice on your project from me. You can read more about joining that here.

A Tour Around Sophie and Hakan’s World
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Ah the road, and the places it takes you. What a pleasant time I’ve had on my rumbling, bumbling journey back to Spain! En route, I decided to call in on a couple of muddy old friends who (like me) moved from Turkey to northern Spain last year, and (unlike me) drove the distance with their four horses, two dogs and a cat!

Sophie and Hakan are natural building veterans. Back in Turkey they built a gorgeous straw bale house high on a remote mountain. Here in Spain they are forging a new haven from mud, stones and lime. Seeing the progress they’ve made in the past year certainly squeezed the motivation out of my bones, and generated a million and one ideas about what I could do with my own space. So let me share the inspiration and show you around their magical, burgeoning world.
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Sophie is incredibly creative with mud and lime-based plasters, while Hakan is the hammer and nails guy. And then there are the horses, who always add a bit of extra mischief and challenge to the project, and generally prevent life from turning a tired shade of beige. 

When I first visited Sophie and Hakan a year ago, their partly restored main cabana was a windowless cave, chilly and dark. Since then Sophie has designed beautiful windows with seated ledges that have transformed the living space, creating a vibe that hovers between glasshouse and church. I love the way people use light in houses. Here it’s an interesting combination of outward and inward looking.

Sophie is very picky about her kitchen too. “I hate cooking against a wall!” She says, showing me her hob which is placed facing into the room so that you can cook from either side. Hob placement is worth considering for another reason too, namely heat dispersion. Having the cooker occupying a more central position actually helps heat the room (should you want that. If you live in a hot climate, you’ll be looking to do the opposite).

The latest project up at the horse haven involves redecorating one of the extra cabanas and turning it into a guest house. Sophie has utilised a host of different techniques in it. She’s sculpted earthen plaster to parts of the walls, created some beautiful limecrete window sills, not to mention the tadelakt sinks. Tadelakt is an ancient Moroccan lime plaster technique, where lime plaster is rubbed and smoothed with olive oil soap to create a water tight finish. As you can see from Sophie’s Dali-esque sinktop creation, there are no limits to the shapes you can mould from tadelakt. And she explains more about how she did this in this video.

But of all the mud and lime creations in that cabana, my favourite feature in the whole shack has got to be the wattle and daub banister.

“Oh I just wired some sticks together and then wove ferns in and out. The ferns weren’t even dry! Then I plastered it, and worked the plaster with a stone, like tadelakt. It worked out great!”
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It certainly did. That wattle and daub banister is as solid as concrete, and has spawned even more outlandish ideas. The next project is to create more wattle and daub structures around the banister, sort of earthen bubbles, to create a bathroom.

But for me, what is really special about Sophie and Hakan’s world is their ability not just to construct a dwelling, not just to experiment with natural building techniques either, but to co-create a magical haven where animals, plants and humans coexist and relate in the most amazing ways. It’s the simplest of lives in fact, but lived with such panache and vision that it becomes something truly special. Something to aspire to.
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When Sophie isn’t mud building, she’s horse whispering. And if you want to see more of her quite arresting adventures (and evocative photos) with her horses, you should check out her FB profile. I dare you not to be moved. When Hakan isn’t banging bits of wood together, he’s cycling. A lot. And when it’s too wet for bikes, he makes beer and cheese. Damn good cheese it is too (Note to self: must taste the beer next time!)

The more I live and see, the more certain I become. Complexity and over-sophistication are human curses for so many reasons. The greatest pleasures in life are the simplest (and subtlest) ones. They nearly always cost nothing more than the effort of valuing them in a world where they are largely dismissed. Yes you need a piece of land. Yes you need an imagination and the drive to do something with it. But in truth you don’t need too much more than that.

On my last morning at the horse haven, a damp cloak of cloud had draped itself about around the mountains. Sophie, Hakan and I hiked up the hill to their cow-owning neighbours. There outside the house stood a large canister of fresh milk. Hakan filled two five-litre jars and stuffed them into his backpack before paying the neighbour. Off we trudged, dogs in tow, back to the stone cabanas.

Later that afternoon Hakan became quite animated as he showed me how to make five products from these same ten litres of milk: Halloumi, Ricotta, Yoghurt, Feta and Whey. Now I freely admit I tend to lose interest when it comes to the kitchen, but even I was enthralled.

“I’m thinking of running some cheese-making courses,” he said. “Folk could stay in our new cabana.”

Yes. And I’m guessing there’ll be a few takers for that. Mud, stone, horses and cheese. What more could you want?

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Many thanks to our Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home. It is thanks to you the site is still running.

Distinguishing earthen plaster, lime plaster and lime wash

Earthen or clay plaster, lime plaster, and lime wash: these are three things people often confuse. And it pays to be able to distinguish them, because each behaves differently on a wall. Here’s a quick clarification.

Earthen plaster (possibly with lime added)

Classic clay/earth plaster is a natural wall render usually made from a mixture of clay, straw, and sand. Sometimes, depending on the clay and climate, folk add lime to this mixture. This doesn’t make it lime plaster though. That is something totally different. Clay plaster is a flexible, breathable render. If you want to learn more about making it, sign up for my free earth plaster PDF and email course.
 
Lime plaster

Lime plaster is simply lime mixed with sand. Sometimes people will add a pozzolan like ash to create a more cement-like result. But that’s basically it. Like earthen plasters, lime plaster breathes and can be used as a natural render. It also has other benefits; lime is both a fungicide and an insecticide. BUT, beware of using lime plaster to cover cob or earthen buildings​, as it may crack.
 
Why might lime plaster crack? If your walls are mud (adobe, cob, earthbag) when the rains of winter begin, the clay in your wall will expand as it gets wet. In summer that same clay will shrink back as it dries. The trouble is the lime plaster doesn't expand or shrink alongside. Unlike earthen plasters, lime plaster is more cementitious and rigid, so what tends to happen (especially in climates with monsoons or heavy rains followed by dry weather) is that the lime plaster eventually cracks and pulls away from the wall.

Lime wash (using lime as a whitewash or paint)

​Lime wash is not a plaster. It’s a final paint-like finish made from lime, water and a binder such as casein (more on how to make it here). Lime wash can be used much like paint on cob or earthen buildings, and this breathable finish will protect the plaster underneath very successfully. Unlike lime plaster, lime wash won’t crack (or at least only slightly) because it is only a thin lime layer, as opposed to a render. When your lime wash begins to see wear over time it’s very easy to repair, simply by painting more lime wash into the cracks. 

This was my mud home in Turkey. The earth plaster is coated in a lime wash (except the sills and sculptures, because I wanted them to stand out).

I hope that’s unmuddied the waters a little.
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If you enjoy from these posts and would like to keep The Mud Home running, do consider making a pledge on Patreon. All contributions, no matter the amount, are deeply valued. When you become a Mud Patron, you can join my private news feed and become part of our thriving mud club. If you need help or motivation with a project and want access to an exclusive community of builders and experts, I strongly recommend joining our private FB group. Members are finding it very inspiring and instructive.
 

There’s a lot of blag in the online world, a lot of fluff and bluff and good angles, so I take my time when getting to know new folk. One person I’ve had my beady mud eye on for a while now is Oliver Goshey, natural building expert and podcaster. He’s also building something very special with his friends in Guatemala. But more about that in a minute, because there’s so much to learn from this guy. 

The Natural Builder
I love how we natural builders are all so different. And that’s just as it should be. Some of us are mud mavericks (ahem), others of us are more methodical. Oliver started out in conventional construction, and steadily developed from there. “I always knew there were better ways of building,” he says. So he began learning more about permaculture design principles and ancient building techniques. “From there I gradually found my way into the subculture of natural builders and survivalists who were using the materials and resources around them to build beautiful homes.”

​Yes. There really is a subculture. And it exists in every corner of the planet, from Asia to Europe to the Americas and beyond. When you join it, you realise all is possible. It’s where regenerative spells are being cast, and futures are created.

I doubt I’ll ever reach the limits of clay
Oliver Goshey has done a lot of building in a lot of far-flung places. One minute you see him stomping cob, the next he’s helping construct a bamboo roof, the next he’s involved in a stone wall pointed beautifully with lime mortar. How many darn natural building techniques does this guy know? I wondered.

“I’ve looked into all of the main natural building methods going and have tried to get my hands on as many types of projects as I can...I would say my favourite building method would be any which is correct for its place and context, because no matter how much I might love building with one material, it could be entirely inappropriate and impractical where I’m building. With that said, I love clay.”

Funny how mud gets us all, eh? Why is that?

“It seems to be the most versatile, abundantly available, easy to work with, forgiving for beginners, and healthy material I’ve come across. It can be formed into bricks like adobe, free-form sculpted as with cob, rammed into forms as rammed earth, and sifted finely and mixed into plasters...Clay also dampens sound and has great acoustic properties, it endures high temperatures so it’s perfect for stoves, ovens and fireplaces too. It can be fired into pottery, used as a dietary supplement, heck I’ve even used it to quickly stop bleeding from wounds. I think clay is on par with water as far as magical, almost-other-worldly materials go. I doubt I’ll ever reach the limits of clay.”

While Oliver’s travels have been an amazing education in the world’s natural building arts, they have, however, also brought to light one rather sad common thread.

“While every place is different in its perception of natural building, the one observation that is fairly consistent around the world is that natural building is often thought of as a low-class or low-budget building style, and this is a perception I’m intent on changing. I’ve worked in many communities where people who still live in perfectly good earthen or other natural homes don’t trust natural materials or view them as outdated and nothing to aspire to.”

Yes, I have found the same thing. And makes little odds whether you’re in London or Bangkok, your average construction engineer still believes natural building doesn’t last, even when a 600-year-old wattle and daub house is standing proudly behind them.

“There seems to be a pervasive idea that anything new and modern is better or that the over-industrialised countries and their infrastructure...are the only ones worth emulating,” says Oliver.

New World Creation
But Oliver Goshey’s vision isn’t restricted to building. And this makes what he’s doing especially exciting. He speaks about something that I find incredibly important, and still quite visionary today. It’s the notion of regeneration. He’s all about creating beautiful worlds that not only minimise damage to the environment, but that breathe new life and grow.

And because Oliver isn’t just poncing about on Google, he and his friends are actually making this vision a reality. Where? Guatemala.

The Regenerative Paradise in Guatemala
“We are involved in a lot of projects here. Everything from large farm designs down to rocket stove installations for indigenous families, but our main project at the moment is building our own regenerative homestead model where we live on Lake Atitlan,” says Oliver, who stresses that The Abundant Edge is not a one-man-show. "I really want to mention how essential my team members Jeremy, Neal and Adriana are." Adriana Urueta is an ecologist in charge of logistics and marketing, while Jeremy Fellows and Neal Hegarty are both permaculture design and plant experts. Sounds like a capable bunch.

The homestead is a real adventure. The team are attempting to turn an acre of rocky land into a regenerative paradise. And from where I’m stood it looks like they’re doing a darn good job of it. Right now, they’re in the process of building a beautiful natural home, a small market garden, a goat dairy (the goats are very cute), food forests, waste water filtration gardens, herb and medicinal plants, river-fed passive irrigation, aquaculture systems and more.

“We’ll look to focus on local community education and training on alternatives to coffee and corn production that can earn a lot more money for the owners while regenerating the landscape and local ecology,” says Oliver.

It’s a good idea. One thing that folk often get wrong when trying to create a new world is to fail to properly include or enhance the local community. And the consequences for that mistake can be pretty severe. No man (or living ecosystem) is an island, and you have to maintain good relations with your neighbours if you want to survive.

But it doesn’t end there. The Abundant Edge is one of the few projects I’ve seen that truly understands the importance of media outreach and economic viability. Without a platform, some way to reach new people, and an income, your project is massively disempowered. Hence the virtual side of The Abundant Edge, which is Oliver’s very informative podcast. Do hop over and listen because there’s much to be learned from it.

If you want to learn more about The Abundant Edge or fancy getting involved in the project, you can contact Oliver Goshey and the team directly through the contact page on their website, or by signing up to volunteer with Atitlan Organics.

http://www.atitlanorganics.com/

The team also have a host of courses starting in October 2018, including Introduction to Natural Building and Introduction to Permaculture, and their first ever Permaculture Design certification for natural builders will kick off in February of next year. There’s also an exciting apprenticeship program for 2019.

If you enjoy from these posts and would like to keep The Mud Home running, do consider making a pledge on Patreon. All contributions, no matter the amount, are deeply valued. When you become a Mud Patron, you can join the private feed, have articles written about your project, get access to Q-and-As, and more.

Many thanks to the Mud Sustainers already supporting The Mud Home and making these articles possible.

The type of roof you choose for an earthbag house is important. No matter whether you construct a circular house or a rectangular one, you want to take into account your roof before you build (or be prepared to alter your roof style at the end).

I won’t deny it. When it came to my earthbag roof, as is so often the case with me, I skidded to success by the seat of my pants. It was sheer luck I chose the right type.

Roofing structures exert a lot of pressure onto earthbag walls. This is fine if the pressure is in the right direction because earthbag walls are strong. What you want is the pressure exerted downwards. What you don’t want is it pushing outwards.

The safest roof type for earthbag
If you are a beginner, the safest, most foolproof roof to stick on your earthbag house is a flat or skillion (pitched) roof, utilising horizontal joists running the length of the building. The joists act as a type of grid that pulls the structure together and prevents the walls falling outwards. What’s more, if you’ve built a smallish round house, you won’t even need a bond beam! You could top the joists with a number of materials: Corrugated iron, ply/strand board with a membrane. Any weight on the roof will be distributed by the joists and easily supported by the earthbag walls. The pressure exerted by such a roof is downward.

The link below shows another example of an alternative reciprocal roof on an earthbag house. Notice how this team combined two styles here. While the main structure is reciprocal, a web of rafters has been inserted into each facet of the roof. Those rafters then form the all-important grid through the top of the earthbag wall which locks the whole structure together.
http://mylittlehomestead.com/ep12-undergound-earth-bag-construction-reciprocal-roof-facia-frame-complete.html

Why you don’t want a compression roof
Compression roofs are typically used for yurts. The design of a compression roof means the strength of the roof structure is derived from the compression between an outer ring or wall, and an inner ring. Such a roof is exerting a lot of outward pressure on your earthbag walls.

If you know what you’re doing, there are of course a whole gamut of other wacky and exciting options for earthbag house roofs, and you'll be able to customize many to work for earthbag. But presumably, if you know all about roof construction, you're not reading this post.

You have read this free article thanks to The Mud Home Sustainers and all those supporting The Mud Home, be it with contributions, positive and constructive feedback, or by sharing. If you’d like to join our huddle of Mud Homers, get help with your build, and enjoy a bunch of other perks, head over to the Patreon page.