​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

If you enjoy these posts and would like to keep The Mud Home running, do consider making a pledge on Patreon. When you become a Mud Patron, you get access to my private news feed where I post how I’m getting on creating a new off-grid world in Spain, plus email priority. There are many other perks too so hop over and have a look.
 
Many thanks to the Mud Sustainers already supporting The Mud Home and making these articles possible. 

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
​
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.
​
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!”
​
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.
​
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.
​                                                                              ***
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.

Remember Gautam and Kim from our crazy earthbag house in 7 days adventure?
Only eighteen months on from that workshop, and these two are already well into constructing an earthbag empire over in India. They have completed their first earthbag house, as well as planting 350 fruit, flowering, and indigenous trees to create a diverse food forest, and a vegetable garden too. But the project wasn’t without its challenges. I’m so grateful to Gautam for letting me share his experience, because it’s rammed full of great lessons.

​What Gautam posted in our Facebook Group:
​
“I’m happy to say my first earthbag structure endured its first torrential monsoons. We witnessed over 3m of rain. I have attached a video taken after a storm (over 13 inches of rain in 24 hours!) where most of the land is flooded, and with the rubble trench foundation working like a charm keeping the interior bone dry.”

Fantastic work Gautam and Kim! The rubble trench foundation combined with gravel bag stem wall is THE way to deal with earthbag buildings in wet climates. I’ve suffered various disbelievers regarding the amount of flooding an earthbag house can withstand, but a properly built earthbag house with the right footings can literally handle a monsoon. Had Gautam followed mainstream building advice and used concrete instead of gravel, I guarantee that water would have wicked up the earthbag walls.

But of course, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

“Lime plaster on the other hand has been tricky for me. The first time we completed the lime plaster was about two months before the monsoons and it seemed to hold up well initially…till it didn’t, with chunks falling off from sections of the wall….On the plus side, there are certain portions where the plaster is rock hard and no touch ups have been ever needed.”
​
Agh plaster! I always say it’s the most difficult part to master. And in a wet climate? Really tricky. After a little further investigation and some more photos, I could see Gautam’s plaster was holding up fine on the stem wall. This was because it was gravel. I realised Gautam and Kim were having the same trouble I had had with my earthbag house, but on a more intense scale. 

What was happening?

Gautam and Kim’s earth’s composition was a staggering 50% clay! Normally you’d want around 20-25% clay in your earthbag mixture. In a dry climate it wouldn’t really matter. But in the wet? Clay swells when it gets wet, and shrinks when it dries. The clay inside Gautam and Kim’s earthbags was expanding like mad in the monsoon, and then shrinking back in the dry season. Lime plaster on the other hand doesn’t swell or shrink. So when the earthbags expanded, the lime plaster cracked. Had they used concrete, the result would have been exactly the same for exactly the same reason.

What can be done?  

​I found with my own earthbag house that it took a full dry season for the entire structure to completely dry out. Once the earthbags had dried thoroughly, I plastered again at the beginning of the next dry season, to give the plaster a good five months of baking before winter arrived.
​
My plaster wasn’t simple lime render though. It was clay/sand/lime/straw. 

What will Gautam and Kim do?

There will be some trial and error. I think they’ll probably need a clay/lime/sand plaster which is light on clay and heavier on sand. The lime will help rid the plaster of moisture when the monsoon hits, the clay in the mix gives a bit of flexibility to the plaster, and the sand gives the strength. It will, however, depend on Gautam’s clay as to how well it works with the lime.

The Next House

Oh, once the natural building bug gets its teeth into you, it doesn’t let go! Gautam is already laying the foundations for his next earthbag house.
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“We just finished the stem wall for another 6m diameter roundhouse using local laterite rock with a lime mortar. We will be starting on the earthbag walls soon and I was wondering if lime should be used to stabilize the earthbags considering the plaster issues with the other structure.”

This, in my opinion, is an excellent idea. Normally you’d use 10-20% lime in stabilised earthbags, but in Gautam’s case, I think I’d go 30% and try and get rid of as much of that clay as I could.

Gautam has plans for a living roof on the top of this house. I can’t think of a better climate for it, and I look forward to seeing the result.

Lessons Learned

Now, if there’s a man who does a job well, it’s Gautam. He researched this mission carefully, worked out the best structure for his climate and location, asked for help when necessary, and got his hands dirty in live courses. As I think is pretty clear from the outcome, he really knows his stuff. Yet he still faced challenges.

So...if you take one thing away from this build, I hope it’s this: even if you’re an expert, you’re going to be greeted by something that doesn’t go to plan. The folk who manifest mud worlds are not those who don’t have problems, they are those who face them, and work patiently and persistently to overcome them.

You have read this post thanks to The Mud Home Sustainers and all those supporting this site, be it with contributions, positive and constructive feedback, or by sharing. If you’d like to join our Mud Home group and enjoy the perks that come with it, hop over to my Patreon page.

​Normally, earthbags are filled with damp earth. The earth should have about 20-25% clay in it. If you are using bags rather than tubes, then you first fill the bottom of the bag and squash the damp dirt into the base and corners to create a nice square bottom. After that you fill the rest of the bag, and lay it on your wall. When all the bags in the row are laid, you tamp the entire layer with something heavy and flat. Tamping is key. It squashes the clayey dirt into a compacted, immovable layer. Eventually, when the house dries, that dirt becomes a solid clay brick. 

All of the above is pretty time consuming, and dragging bags full of damp dirt around is hard work. Under normal circumstances, and to prevent a hernia, once the wall gets higher you begin filling the bags on the wall itself. Again, this is pretty slow going, and can drive impatient types like me mad.

I say, there’s always another way. :) Last year in my earthbag workshop in Turkey, we stumbled upon a brand new technique, altogether by accident, and it changed our earthbag world. You know how it is; someone makes a mistake, and it ends up being the best thing that happened.
 
The mistake was that a few volunteers threw a row of earthbags onto the wall without dampening the earth first. As I went round and prodded the bags, I could feel they were bone dry. Just a bunch of loose aggregate. You can read why you don’t want loose aggregate here.
 
Now...there is a common misconception that the polypropylene bags usually used for earthbagging aren’t breathable. This isn’t correct. They are definitely breathable and permeable. If they weren’t, your dirt wall would never dry out properly. So, knowing this, I decided to try and wet the bags on the wall (well, actually I decided someone else would wet the bags, but you know what I mean).
 
A kind helper grabbed a hose and gave the dry layer of bags a really good soaking. Then he grabbed the tamper and tamped the lot down. When I checked the bags, they were as good as the rest. The bags had absorbed the water, and the tamping had distributed the water evenly through the earthbag.

The advantage of wetting the bags on the wall is that you don’t have to cart all that damp earth about, nor do you have to dampen the earth on the ground and mix it in (which is a bit of a bind in itself). It is a lot lot easier to work with the loose dirt, and easier to fill the sacks, too. 

1. Make sure your clay is distributed evenly into your dirt.
2. Fill your earthbags with dry soil.
3. Lay them on the wall.
4. Take a hose and give the whole layer a thorough wetting. Make sure all the bags are well dampened.
5. If you’re using individual bags, go around and check the corners of the bags are nice and tight, and not sticking out. Reshape and regusset them where necessary.
6. Tamp the whole layer.
 
Note: This technique only works by dampening one layer of bags at a time. Don’t throw a whole house up and then think you can squirt a hose on it. It won’t work.

​You have read this post thanks to The Mud Home Sustainers and all those supporting this site be it with contributions, positive and constructive feedback, or by sharing. If you’d like to join our Mud Home group and enjoy the perks that come with it, hop over to my Patreon page. 

​Earth and clay, in and of themselves, are not insulating materials. They have thermal mass, which means they store heat (or cold), but don’t reduce the transmission of heat energy from inside to outside (or vice-versa). Nevertheless, you can make earth plaster more insulating if you need to. More on how to do that, and how well it insulates, later in the post.

Before I get to the plaster game though, a quick overview of insulating houses in general: The first thing you need to worry about is not the walls, it’s the roof. That’s where 60% of your heat goes. High ceilings are notorious for energy wastage, as you have a fat layer of completely unused heat that skulks under the ceiling. Your floor is the next worst culprit for heat loss. This doesn’t mean you don’t want to insulate the walls. You do. Though sometimes insulating the north facing wall (or south facing in southern hemisphere) is enough. But insulating the walls without sorting out the roof is a bit pointless.
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What is all this jabber about R and U values? If you’re a newbie builder you may be wondering. Insulation levels are measured in R values. Here’s a neat little infographic for US climate zones showing the kind of R values you would need for your roof, floor and walls for a conventional house in various climates. All building materials have an R value per inch, though be careful because calculating R values is a bit more complicated than just multiplying by inches. Some insulating materials work in different ways (for example, if you compress certain materials, or mix them into something like clay plaster, then you reduce their capacity to insulate). Nonetheless, the graphic gives a basic idea of what’s going on with R values.
 
Then there are U Values, which rate how energy efficient a given system will be. Me? I want to get back to earth plaster, but if you feel like geeking out on U Values as well here’s more info.
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Ok, back to the plaster. First, let's be clear; Mixing insulating materials into your earth plaster alone isn’t going to cut the mustard in seriously cold climates. You’ll want to use the Other Ways to Insulate an Earthern Wall listed in the next section. But if you live in a temperate climate, or a place where you need a little extra oomph in the winter months, insulating plaster can work a treat.

• Sawdust/straw: If you mix a decent quantity of straw or sawdust into your plaster (instead of the sand), things are soon going get warmer in your mud world. Please note: That plaster needs to be pretty straw/sawdust heavy to have a decent effect.
• Cork granules: Ah, cork is a goodie. It has a very high insulating value, is also superb for sound-proofing, and, counter-intuitively, it’s relatively fire-resistant as well. But best of all, cork is sustainable. The cork tree’s bark can be harvested every 9 years. You can buy cork granules and mix them into your plaster instead of the sand.
• Paper adobe (R2.5-3 per inch): Paper adobe, as suggested by the name, is where you mix re-pulped paper with clay and earth to create a paper-rich adobe. Paper adobe has a high R value, so it’s worth experimenting with. 3-4 inches of this is going to help keep you toasty. To make it, shred lots and lots of newspaper finely. Let it soak in water overnight, then mash it with some kind of blender/mixer. Finally, when it’s a sticky pulp, mix it into your adobe.
• Perlite? I was a bit dubious about perlite, because I wasn’t sure you could compact it enough in the plaster for it to work sufficiently as an insulator. Perlite is a volcanic glass with an R value of 2.7 when used pure and compacted. It hasn’t been tested much in earth plaster, and the R value would certainly reduce depending on the ratio of perlite to plaster. Craig Ray's cob house in New Zealand (below) boasts a mix of perlite and paper pulp in the plaster with splendid results. He specified that he added two layers of plaster: the first is perlite-heavy, the second is a weather protecting layer with sand. His climate is very wet, with cool but not freezing winters. I’ve no idea to what extent the paper pulp was doing the insulating, but the house is snug.

Note: When using insulating plaster, you need to apply a thick layer (at least 3 inches). It's important to add the plaster to the exterior walls of the house for maximum insulation (though if you’re restoring a listed building, this may not be possible, in which case you’ll have to insulate the interior wall instead).

If you live in a climate which remains below zero for months at a time, earth plaster alone is not going to be enough. I'm not discussing whether or not you should have built a mud home in a cold climate here, nor going into massive detail. There are a few ways of insulating earthen houses. Most of these require attaching a light lath or frame over your wall, and stuffing it with some sort of insulation such as:

• Wool (R3.5 per inch)
• Cotton batts (R3.7 per inch)
• Cellulose (R 3-4 per inch)
• Slip Straw (see Sigi Koko’s nice FB post on this).

 
Alternatively, you can cover the exterior of your mud house in straw bales (R 1.45 per inch).

I'm sure there other natural, insulating earth plaster methods out there. If you've tried something else, feel free to add it in the comments.

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Earthbag building is probably one of the least technically taxing construction techniques you can choose. You can get away with having no experience whatsoever and still build yourself a strong, sound home. That said, I have seen a few examples of things going wrong, and it’s always the same mistake, so I thought I’d shine a spotlight on it.
 
Everyone worries about the wrong thing, and I was exactly the same. Most questions come to me concerning foundations, climatic impact on earthbags, and bag fillings. This is probably because folk are at the outset of their build and still planning. Once the construction begins, the questions tend to evaporate in the excitement.

​The bag filling is not nearly as crucial as you think it is.  As long as you’re using dirt, and that dirt is basically sticking together when wet, you’re going to be fine, (see my article on bag fillings). I did recently spot some birdbrained article by someone who had clearly never laid a finger on an earthbag, claiming you put straw in the bags. Obviously that would be a bad idea. Earthbags are for clayey earth.
 
The foundations
Now I’m not saying you don’t need to think about foundations. You do. But we’re all somewhat brainwashed by mainstream building techniques, and convinced the foundations are the linchpin preventing the house from falling down. We’re also certain that that there has to be a concrete slab somewhere, because that’s strong, right?
 
In fact, a whole bunch of things contribute to the structural integrity of a house. With earthbag building, the foundation is as important for drainage as it is for structural strength. Forget the concrete slab. Forget concrete full stop. It really isn’t what you want or need. Make yourself a nice simple rubble trench with a couple of earthbag rows below grade, and you’ll be fine. It’s simple, effective, and hard to screw up.

​The most common mistake is for a wall to collapse.
The most common earthbag issue by far is for a wall to topple. This notably only happens with square/rectangular structures or very large round structures (more than 10m diameter), or retaining walls. So if you’re new to the bagging game, you might want to consider a smaller round house first.
 
If you’re adamant you want straight walls, then you’ve got to pay good attention to a few things:
1. You need buttresses. And the buttresses must lock into the wall and be attached to the barbed wire of each layer. So you can’t just say, “Oops maybe I need a buttress here,” and add one at the end. It has to be incorporated into the build. This equally true for retaining walls. The higher the wall, the more buttresses you need. A rule of thumb is a maximum of 10 feet/3 metres between buttresses.
 
2.Your vertical straightness is crucial. With a small round house you can get away with an awful lot. With a square/rectangle, those walls need to be vertical.
 
3. You need a decent bond beam* to lock the top of the structure together, and on a square structure, that would mean long, straight planks of wood nailed into the top layer of bags.

​Every building technique has its own logic, and its own way of supporting itself. With earthbags, the structural strength of the building is created by the ‘tying’ together of everything within the structure using barbed wire. Everything – every bag, every window frame, every door frame, every arch and buttress – must be attached to the rings of barbed wire so that the entire structure is interlocked. This is what really gives it the tensile strength when under pressure of impact or earthquakes, and what stops the walls from toppling over.
 
If you want to assess whether your walls are liable to collapse, climb on the top of them or give them a shove. If there’s any swaying, you’re in trouble.
 
Finally, at the end of the build, make sure you have two layers of earthbags going over the top of everything (lintels, arches etc.) Those final two layers create enough pressure and tension to hold the structure together. In most cases you will also add a bond beam* here too.

​I know some people are using mesh bags, and I have to be honest, I don’t see how the structural integrity of the building is maintained, especially in seismic areas where the house sways. If someone has actual hard-won experience (rather than hearsay or armchair opinion) of using the mesh bags, please add your findings in the comments below.
 
*A bond beam is a horizontal reinforcement that runs along the top (or sometimes the middle) of a wall. It holds the wall together and stops it breaking open. In modern mainstream construction, concrete and rebar are used. In traditional building it has usually been thick wooden planks or beams. Don’t assume concrete is stronger. It is brittle, and in the case of an earthquake it can crack. The rebar is the only thing giving concrete any strength. In my opinion, for an earthbag structure, wood is a better option. It has more give, and can move with the house in the case of a quake.

​If you want to know more about the kinds of mistake you can make while building an earthbag house, you may be interested in my most popular book, Mud Ball. This is the story of how I built my own earthbag house, and the various agonies I and the victims I managed to lure into helping me, endured in the process. The ebook is on offer this week at $3.99 on all ebook retailers in all locations (including Kindle, Nook and ibook) so if you’d like to catch it at this lower price, now is your chance. It will go back up to $5.99 on 24th December 2017.

“Despite having very little money, almost no building experience, and endless naysayers who told her she would fail, Atulya K. Bingham completed her lovely earthbag home . . .Her personal, inspirational story shows how anyone can build their own sustainable home with earthbags." Dr. Owen Geiger, author of Earthbag Building Guide and the Natural Building Blog.