​It’s actually pretty easy to add window and door frames into earthbag buildings. The most important thing, as always with earthbag, is anchoring things to the walls. But there are a couple of potential issues, so it pays to be aware of them.
 
1. Making a mould
The standard way to create space for your door or window is to make a mould. Some people use tyres, some use hay bales, most build a box out of wood or ply and insert it onto the wall where they want their window. 

That said, I’ve never done it this way. I’ve always stuck the window or door frame straight into the wall, and built around it. There are pros and cons to both methods, as you’ll see in a bit.

2. Anchors
As you lay earthbags up to the edges of the mould or frame, it’s crucial to add anchors between the bags that you will attach your frames to. What you don’t want in any kind of construction is the frames shifting or sliding about. They need to be securely nailed into the earthbag wall. How?
 
You can either make your own anchors from small planks of wood and slot them between the bags like this:

Or you can use metal brackets to do the same job (see Owen Geiger’s method).
 
3. Fixing anchors onto earthbags
Fix the anchor onto your earthbag by driving big fat nails (minimum 10 - 12cm) right through the anchor and into the earthbag.

​I’ve found you want one anchor, every three or four rows of earth bags. Any less and things start wobbling.
 
4. Barbed wire
Once your anchors are secured, you lay the barbed wire over the top of the anchors, and nail it into place. This gives the upper row of bags something to grip onto. Once you tamp the lot down, that anchor is wedged. Now you have something to screw/nail your window or door frame into.

​Issues to watch out for:
The snag with earthbag is this: The higher up you go and the more you tamp, the more pressure is exerted on the lower bags. So they will naturally squeeze inwards, pressing against your window or door frame, or indeed your mould. If you are using a mould this can make it difficult to yank out. The common recommendation is to stick wedges between the mould and the earthbag wall. Even so, most people still seem to find it hard to pull the mould out. A mould without rough edges will help your cause. Or perhaps a bit of plastic sheet between the wall and the mould would help it slide?

​If you want to add window or door frames directly into the wall, your issue is this: Your frames must be tough or they will buckle under the pressure of the bags. This happened on my first house, where the window frames turned into trapeziums :)) You need to pay attention that your lower, upper and side lintels are heavy-duty, because they all bear the brunt of the pressure. We used 10 x 30 cm lintels on the build in Olympos, and they held up.
 

Good luck folks! And remember, everything has to be anchored together in earthbag building. If it's not anchored into your wall, it's not secure and may well wobble.

The Mud Home continues due to the funding of the Mud Sustainers and patrons on Patreon. Their contributions cover the web platform costs, 10GB of off-grid internet, the email list, hosting, and the now vital virtual assistance from the reliable and efficient Melissa. If you are benefitting or enjoying The Mud Home posts, please consider making a pledge. For just $2 a month you have email priority, access to my private news feed, and a monthly patron-only video from my land.

​Starting Your Own Project?
The Mud Home small, private and very supportive Facebook group is a safe space for new mud builders and off-gridders. It’s also the most inexpensive way to get assistance from me. It’s filling up, though. The number of members will be capped at 100 so I can give everyone the proper help they need, so if you want to be part of it, don't leave it too long.

This is such an important post by Kristen Krash over in Ecuador. I wrote an Earth Whispering a while back on the subject of letting go of control and allowing your land to be. But there is no one-fits-all answer or prescription. This is why I love and strive to maintain The Mud Home’s worldwide perspective. Because every space on this Earth has a different story. Each place and people face different challenges and possess different strengths. I’ll hand over to Kristen for her hard-won tips on land guardianship in the degraded tropics of South America, plus her fantastic hacks and money-saving tips on reforesting.
 
Are you sure you want to rewild?
So you have some land and you want to manage it in a way that's good for you and good for the earth. You have your garden and maybe even a food forest planted and you're wondering, "Now what to do with the rest of it?" Here I'll discuss three options, how to determine what is most appropriate for your land, why, and how to do it.
 
The first is simply to let the land be. Relinquish control. Rewild it. What a lovely concept, humans stepping out of the way for nature's innate wisdom to unfold. Perhaps you might need to build some fences to keep farm animals out of the area you've set aside, but intervention is minimal. It's the cheapest and least problematic way to manage land and allows wildlife to thrive where it lives best, away from people.
 
But..Before you have visions of a spontaneous Eden in the back 40, make sure your land is a good candidate for rewilding. Are there trees and shrubs on the land or nearby? A mix of undergrowth? Lots of birds and small mammals to help distribute seed? Bees, bats, and other pollinators? Great. Wild away. But if you are missing any or all of these crucial factors, your land may be degraded enough to need help. It's a disgrace really, but some ecosystems has been so badly damaged by human avarice and ignorance that they have reached a point of no return. Generous and thoughtful human intervention can (and should) set the regeneration process in motion.

Know your land’s eco-history
Note that not all regeneration is necessarily reforestation. In the American midwest, for example, just a few meters of natural prairie contains dozens of species of grasses and topsoil several inches thick. Compare that to the mega farms of soybeans and corn growing in chemical-laced barren soil. Any diverse multi-layered combination of plants that functions as a system is regeneration. Know the eco-history of your land before intervening.
 
The story of Ecuador’s forests
Forest is the mature result of many ecosystems, and forests are at the most risk of destruction. Where I live in Ecuador, there's a lot of grassy pasture. It's green and pretty to look at at, but there's nothing natural about it. This was a dense cloud forest, replete with jaguars and monkeys, not cows. Logging companies cut down huge swaths of trees, then sell off the stripped land as "ideal for cultivation." In reality, food forests originated in the tropics (5,000 years ago) for a good reason: without a protective canopy of branches above and network of roots below, heavy rains hit the delicate soil like a blitzkrieg, making a muddy slurry and leaching out nutrients. Fertility is quickly lost. The big plantations of banana, cacao, and palm are completely dependent on chemical inputs to pump out the crops. People who can't afford chemical-intensive farming sow grass for pasture, cloned GMO seed designed to spread and prevent any "competing" vegetation (i.e. trees) from getting a foothold. 

The logging and agro-industrial barons aren't just cutting down trees, they are committing outright ecocide. In the rainforests of Columbia, Peru, and Brazil. In India, Borneo, Malaysia, and Australia. In nearly every country in Africa that is not yet a desert. Pastures and monocultures spread like a green plague, eradicating old growth forest, the animal species that live there, and the know-how channelled through generations, a treasure trove of plant lore lost forever.

Jump-starting the recovery
The good news is, where humans have done the damage they can also jump-start the recovery. The other day I pulled on my high boots and hiked over to an area of former cow pasture we haven't touched since we began working three years ago. Apart from a very few struggling pioneer shrubs, I literally clawed my way through an acre-wide ocean of chest-high grass that formed a mat so thick over the soil nothing else could grow. A veritable green desert.
 
In vivid contrast, on the land where we have taken action, over a thousand trees and plants of a hundred plus species now thrive, providing food for us, fodder for our horses, habitat for increasingly abundant wildlife, foliage for beauty and shade, leaf fall to build soil, and interweaving roots to prevent erosion. Our regenerated land isn't merely a bunch of trees; it's a developing ecosystem that will improve with maturity.

If those aren't enough reasons to regenerate, here's the biggest "why" of all: trees, diverse plantings, and soil rich in organic matter constitute the most effective terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Conserving forests and regenerating stripped land are our best chances for mitigating climate change, hard stop.
 
Tips and hacks on how to get a forest started
Now that you're pawing the ground to get out and plant trees, here's some hard-won nuggets of wisdom onu how to get your forest started.
 
1. First, research. Find out what your land was like fifty or a hundred years ago. Talk to locals. Find out what trees live long and prosper in your climate. Native trees are wonderful, but you don't have to be a purist. We've planted mostly native and a variety of species from around the equator. Diversity is key to resilience. Biospheres are shifting as climate change escalates. Dry areas are getting drier, wet areas wetter, and the whole planet hotter. Choose plants that have the best chance of withstanding likely changes.
 
2. Whether you have an acre or five hundred, regenerate what you can. Our land isn’t huge, but it lies midway between two reserves, serving as a resting point for migrating insects and birds. Every reforested acre counts. Don’t think you have to do it all in one shot. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and if you have tough pasture and compacted soil like we do, it's hard work. Cultivate smaller chunks of land, expanding your forest outward from a center. Plant fast-growing trees first. As they begin to create shade, habitat, and biomass, the work gets easier and more visibly rewarding.

3. Start a nursery. Buying trees can get really expensive. Save and germinate the seeds from local fruit. If you have trees on your land, collect seed pods when they fall. Cuttings are also a good way to propagate. Don't spend money on seed starting kits and sterile soil and all that stuff. One part compost mixed with three parts soil from your land will go much further and the seedlings will be more adaptive once planted out. We’ve planted hundreds of fruit, nut, medicine, and valuable hardwood trees from saved seed and have hundreds more getting ready for field. All for free.

4. Open your mind to different kinds of “productivity.” All trees are useful and productive of the five F’s: food, fodder, fuel, fertilizer, and fiber. Even if you never use your forest for anything, it’s still producing a sanctuary for wildlife, preventing erosion, building topsoil, and sequestering carbon.

5. Look for help, financial and physical. It’s out there. Our tiny two-person operation recently received a grant of 2,000 trees from a reforesting foundation. Find seed exchanges where you live and if there isn't one yet, start it. Get volunteers to help you plant; fine skills aren’t necessary.
 
Don’t have land yet?
If you're reading this in your row house or apartment thinking, as I once was, someday... you can do something now. Donate to a foundation or private reserve. In my personal experience, smaller projects have very low overhead and high commitment to making a difference. Your $5 or $20 or $100 would assuredly be allocated to the critical task at hand.

Final word. You can only post so many horrific articles about razed forests and melting ice caps without getting abysmally depressed. Got climate crisis anxiety? Plant a forest, or help make it possible. Lead by example and others will follow. 

Kristen Krash is the co-creator of Sueño de Vida, a nature conservation center, permaculture farm, and natural building experiment in the cloud forest of Ecuador. To learn more about the mission, courses offered, work exchange opportunities, and land for sale, see their website: http://www.suenodevida.org/our-dream

The Mud Home is still running is due to the funding of the Mud Sustainers and patrons on Patreon. Their contributions cover the web platform costs, 10 GB of off-grid internet, the email list, hosting, and the now vital virtual assistance from the reliable and efficient Melissa. If you are benefitting or enjoying The Mud Home posts, please consider making a pledge. For just $2 a month you have email priority, access to my private news feed, and a monthly patron-only video from my land.

The Mud Home small, private and very supportive Facebook group is filling up. The members will be capped at 100 so I can give everyone the proper help they need, so if you want to be part of it, don't leave it too long.

​ (With details of how Cath made her super living roof)
 
Time for a different earthbag build. I’m letting you in on a mud adventure that has touched my heart rather. It’s one you won’t have seen before. Deep in the urban badlands of Brixton is a mud home with spirit. It’s plucky, original, and despite its size has plenty of personality – much like the woman who built it, in fact. Welcome to Mud Hut, built by Cath Coffey and the Mud Hutters.

For those outside the UK or who don’t know, Brixton isn’t some rural off-grid wilderness, it’s London. But while Mud Hut squats in the capital’s backyard, it harks back to somewhere else, somewhere much further south. Its roots stretch right back across Europe, over the Mediterranean, through the Sahara, and into East Africa.

“I always loved visiting my grandparents in Kenya,” Cath told me. “They lived in mud huts in a village on the foothills of Mount Kenya. My grandfather had two wives, each with their own hut, thatched with reeds from the river. Kids, goats, chickens and wood-fired cooking smells all intermingled. The sound of Kikuyu and laughter...It felt like a free life, if a strenuous one. They grew their own food, and were mostly self-sustaining.”
 
And it was this Kenyan life and family that inspired Mud Hut.

Mud Hut is 22 feet in diameter. It’s an earthbag house (hyperadobe) with rubble trench foundation, earth plaster, and wooden floor. The house was made with raschel mesh tubing, which Cath found from a certain Mr Jing Hou in China. “He was the only person I found who would send me a small quantity (500 metres),” explains Cath. “I still have plenty enough left for another structure or two! Mr Jing Hou loves the building...calls me Mr Cath.”  :)

How long did it take to build?
“The house took just over a year to build, and that includes a long break for winter. It was constructed by myself and one other helper mainly. Del McCoy was my main wingman. The rest of the family were also amazing, each in their own way. I’ll always be indebted to friends who took time from their busy lives to help. It was a very special time,” explains Cath.
 
How much did the house cost?
“Honestly, I don’t know and I’m scared to total it up! I know it cost a lot more than I thought...scrub that...I didn’t think about the cost. I just had a compulsion to build.”

​How to reduce the cost of your build
On the subject of cost, one thing I can say is that Cath is super smart about reducing building costs by using recycled and reclaimed materials. It makes a huge difference. I often think that with building as with travelling, you spend as much as you have. Do take note of Cath’s tips on foraging below, especially if you are in a first-world country where people shamelessly throw everything away.
 
How Cath made the living roof
Living roofs are always made like massive club sandwiches: there are plenty of layers. Cath really did her homework when it came to the roof. It’s designed for a cold, wet British climate.
 
1. The roof has a wooden frame (60% off from a family member who worked at a large DIY store).
2. The frame was covered with free reclaimed 18 mm plywood.
3. Next layer was carpet from the bins at the back of Carpetland (pure wool!)
4. Then Cath added 6mm EPMD pondliner (expensive).
5. After that there’s a root barrier (root barriers are always non-organic, otherwise obviously roots will burrow and your roof will no longer be waterproof.)
6. Finally sedum modules with Leca (expanded clay balls) infill.
 
“I know from my sedum roof at home that the sedum will eventually migrate and colonise the Leca. The carpet, sedum and Leca all make for good insulation. There is also 150 mm insulation batting in between the roof joists. The building is both warm and cool when you need it to be. Result!”
 
The pitch of the roof
People sometimes get this wrong, because unlike tiles or other roof systems, living roofs don’t want too much pitch. If the roof’s too steep you’ve got erosion issues; if it’s too flat you’ve got a swimming pool. About 5 - 10 degrees is optimum (that’s 1:12 or 2:12 max).
 
What about the edging?
This is the trickiest part of the living roof, if you ask me. Cath’s living roof is edged with steel garden edging. The EPDM is sandwiched between two layers of edging so that excess water drips off the lower edge. She plans to build planters with water-loving plants at the drip edge to take advantage of the run-off.
 
This is definitely a super model for a living roof on an earthbag house in a wet climate, in my opinion.

​What was the most challenging part of the build for Cath?
“The doubt,” she replies. “The ‘do I know what I’m doing?’ The physical demands; earth is heavy. The protracted time period. Costs spiralling. The ups and downs of life.”
 
Mud Hut Today
Cath built this house for her artist sister, in fact. “She’s a compulsive maker and needed space.” And what a beautiful place for a creative to work within! It’s the ultimate she-shack.

​Cath’s Resources:
Cath has kindly shared the resources she used to build Mud Hut.
 

• The late great Owen Geiger of the Natural Building Institute. “So generous with his  responses,” Cath says.
• Earthbag Building by Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer.
• YouTube: A valuable resource full of generous people sharing their experiences. Great for people who learn best by watching.
• The Mud Home and yours truly (blush).

 
On the subject of Owen Geiger I’ll also pay tribute, because he patiently answered my questions too, and whenever I’m feeling a little frustrated by my inbox, I always remember his generous example.

The only reason The Mud Home is still going is due to the funding of the Mud Sustainers and patrons on Patreon. Their contributions cover the web platform costs, 10 GB of off-grid internet, the email list, hosting, and the now vital virtual assistance from the reliable and efficient Melissa Maples. If you are benefitting or enjoying The Mud Home posts, please consider making a pledge. For just $2 a month you have email priority, access to my private news feed, and a monthly patron-only video from my land.

Extra note: I am currently off-grid with very limited power and engaged in a one-woman battle/dance with two roofs. It is exhausting. For this reason, at the moment I can only respond to questions from Mud Patrons who have chipped in to keep this site running, or from people enrolled in a course.

It was an amazing mud adventure. Kim Siu’s gorgeous hobbit house in Moray is now finished, and it's a showcase of natural building. It ticks every box: a straw bale house with rubble trench foundations, living roof, earthen plaster, wattle and daub/cordwood interior, and a stunning earthen floor. Not only that, but it was built to code. In the UK. Yup, you read that correctly. It’s 100% legit. Building permits In. The. Bag.

​But let’s not lie. Clawing your way over those bureaucratic hurdles is anything but a picnic. “I’m not building again,” says a somewhat frazzled Kim this end of the build. “I don’t think my frayed nerves could take it. Two builds is quite enough. I’ll stick to buildings that don’t need permissions such as gazebos or chicken sheds!”
 
Many thanks to Kim Siu of Get Rugged and the Hobbit Hideaway for sharing with me this honest, warts-and-all story of a phenomenal build. 

The Foundations
 
There really is no better foundation for a natural build than the rubble trench. Tried and true, it beats concrete hands down in terms of cost and drainage. You can read exactly how to build one here, but basically it’s a trench, in this case lined with geotextile membrane, and filled with stones and rubble. That’s it.

As with most straw bale structures, you throw up the post and beam structure first. That includes the roof. The straw bales are basically the infill for the walls. The advantage of constructing your roof first is that you have this wonderful sheltered area to store materials, use as a shelter, and work within. 

The permits
I asked Kim how she went about obtaining those elusive building permits. This isn’t her first house and we documented the UK permit process in detail in a post on Kim’s other larger straw bale house.
 
“Getting planning permission and the building warrant followed exactly the same procedures as our other house,” explains Kim. “It was far easier this time though, as we had an architect that not only knew his stuff, but knew how to communicate with officialdom. Sam at Rocket Architects restored my faith in architects! He got us through all the permissions gracefully, without too much stress.”

The Building Team
 
Kim employed an alternative building firm in the UK called Hartwyn to build this gorgeous house. Yes, you don’t have to do it yourself, and there are some definite advantages for getting a professional in.
 
“Hartwyn commission Rocket Architects as part of their package. That’s one of the reasons that we chose them for our project, because we knew we needed to jump through many, many hoops. Especially as this build was a hardcore eco-house,” says Kim. “Hartwyn were the natural builders and educators. Another reason why we chose them was because they would recruit and teach students as part of the build. This was such a great fit for my vision of the build and how it could be beneficial to others.”
 
Yes, it was a wonderful concept. I followed the process online and found it heart-warming to see the next generation of builders being trained in another, more sustainable construction methodology. You can see plenty of photos of the students at work with Hartwyn on the Get Rugged Facebook page. It all looked great fun.
 
Where did Kim find out about Hartwyn? “Ah from Talking Natural Homes,” she says. When talking to Jeffrey (the Natural Builder) it was very obvious that our values were aligned and it was a no-brainer to choose Hartwyn.”

The Toughest Part of the Build
 
During the building of the main structure, things move along at a nice clip. Motivation is high, and something is blooming out of nothing. That’s the easier part, in my opinion. I think the toughest section of any project is the finishing. Everyone is tired. Money is running out. And plastering and detailing are trickier and more time-consuming than you think. Kim, it seems, would agree.
 
“I think the final stages where the most difficult as they sapped me of all energy. There was just so much detailing left to finish. We had several months left of sanding, sealing, scraping, painting, fixing and finishing to get it ready and this seemed to take forever. I was under so much pressure at the time as my mother was dying, and we had got into huge debt with the build and needed to get it rented out and bringing in money as soon as possible.”

What would Kim do differently next time?
This is where Kim said there wouldn’t be a next time. :)) “It’s the financial pressures and permissions that took the most out of me. I’m still knackered. Who knows though, a few years down the line and I may well be looking at an earthbag structure. I think if I did build again, it would be with earth and stone...”
 
He he he, watch this space. :)
 
5 great lessons to take away from this:

• You don’t have to build yourself. There are some super natural building firms out there. You can find out more about Hartwyn here.
• You can get permits for 100% natural builds in the UK, but of course it does mean dealing with officialdom. Choose an architect experienced in natural homes.
• Building is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself, and leave yourself some wide time and money margins.
• Setting realistic expectations is crucial. It’s often easy to underestimate the stress you are under in these kinds of projects.
• The finishing is usually the hardest and slowest part of the build.

 
The Hobbit Hideaway now
Kim’s hobbit house is now the most beautiful little bed and breakfast cottage where it gives people the chance to taste what life is really like inside a bonafide natural home. Guests continually come away shiny-eyed and rejuvenated. If you’d like to know more about it, or book a stay, look here. https://www.facebook.com/hobbithideaway/

Photos by Dewi Roberts

​Are you building or planning to build?
If this is you, consider joining The Mud Home Facebook Group. It will no doubt save you a bunch of money, as many have already commented. You also have the chance to connect with some amazing natural builders and off-gridders. The numbers for that group will be limited to 100 so that I can give the proper attention to each project.

The Mud Home is expensive and time-consuming to run. If you benefit from these articles and would like them to continue, please join our club of supporters on Patreon. For only $2 a month you can follow my one-woman build in Spain as it happens, and enjoy email priority.

Many thanks to our lovely gang of Mud Sustainers and all those contributing on Patreon for keeping The Mud Home alive and kicking.

​Hold on to your seats. I’m about to blow your mind. I’ve just witnessed the most stunning clay plaster I’ve ever seen. It’s on an earthbag house too, which I can tell you is one of the trickier substrates to achieve a decent finish on.
 
The masterpiece in question is courtesy of the wonderful Geeli Mitti community in northern India. Geeli Mitti was founded by Shagun Singh, who is pretty much as incredible as her houses. What she has created up there near Delhi is nothing short of a dream. 

​This earthbag house is the latest in a number of revolutionary architectural projects at Geeli Mitti. Shagun and friends love experimenting with different kinds of natural building, and have perfected clay plasters to such an extent, I’d rate it as some of the best out there. And that’s no exaggeration.
 
I’m a bit lucky because Shagun is a member of our private Facebook group, so I was able to get some details on how these colours and finishes were achieved. It’s all surprisingly simple.

​I originally assumed this was a clay paint finish, but I was wrong. “No paint used,” explained Shagun. “It's the finish plaster coat itself on the exterior. We used red clay soil dug out from a nearby land, and similarly some whitish-yellowish soil that had been dug out, then added some yellow oxide minerals to it to achieve the colour.”
 
Yes, amazingly and wonderfully, this beautiful result wasn’t achieved by importing a bunch of materials, but by searching out and using clays in and around the structure itself. This is so often possible. Unless you’re at the beach, it’s highly likely you have many different types of clay in your neighbourhood, and it’s worth hunting for them because you don’t need huge amounts for a finishing layer of plaster.

​“On the inside, we lime washed the walls with the yellow oxide added to lime,” says Shagun.

​But what about this truly eye-opening Shiva sculpture? How was that finish achieved?
It's actually a clay, sand, dung mixture sculpted into shape. Then, once the sculpture was completely dry, it was sanded smooth with sandpaper. After that it was coated in linseed oil for sheen, hardness and weather protection. Nice huh?

This guy is a real masterpiece. I wondered how Shagun and friends achieved the milky finish. “This finish plaster was a mix of our site soil which is 60% sand, some clay to balance it, cow dung and very little lime. The lime to rest ratio would be 1:6 and then once the plaster was still slightly moist, not completely dry, I burnished with crystals using small circular motions. So lots of elbow grease needed,” says Shagun.
 
As you see, the mixture itself is incredibly simple. It kind of proves why I’m skeptical about adding a million things to your earth plaster. The application technique, along with perseverance and  effort, is at least half of the story.

Over the course of time, some of the Geeli Mitti team have become real pros. "I'd love to mention the name of one of my oldest team members, Ganesh," says Shagun. "He has worked with me throughout on all the plasters and finishes showcased in the article, and has become quite the plaster wizard now!"

​If you think Geeli Mitti is content to rest on its laurels here, you’d be wrong. They’ve already got another ground-breaking project organised for the end of May. What’s next? A bamboo geodesic dome! So if you’re in northern India and want to experience the Geeli Mitti natural building phenomenon, I’d sign up for that course quick.
 
More about Geeli Mitti
You can find out more about Geeli Mitti from their Facebook page or their website: http://geelimitti.in/
Do check out “The Team” page on Geeli Mitti. I love that the animals are placed at the top of the team, and the cooks are second. Sounds exactly right:)

Are you building or planning to build?
If this is you, consider joining The Mud Home Facebook Group. It will no doubt save you a bunch of money, as many have already commented. You also have the chance to connect with some amazing natural builders and off-gridders. The numbers for that group will be limited to 100 so that I can give the proper attention to each project.

The Mud Home is expensive and time-consuming to run. If you benefit from these articles and would like them to continue, please join our club of supporters on Patreon. For only $2 a month you  can follow my one-woman build in Spain as it happens, and enjoy email priority.

Many thanks to our lovely gang of Mud Sustainers and all those contributing on Patreon for keeping The Mud Home alive and kicking.

​Arches are a lot like Amal Clooney: Smart, well-put together, and began life in the Levant. Some of the first arches (as far as we know) were constructed around 2000 BC in Mesopotamia, and as anyone who has wandered round an old Roman ruin will tell you, an arched doorway is often the only thing remaining after an earthquake.
 
Arches work because any external pressure pushing inwards or downwards on the arch stones only serves to compress them tighter. But...before you leap up in arch-building excitement, there are a couple of points to etch onto your brain.
 
Before starting an earthbag arch remember...
1. Earthbag arch wedges need to be a bit wedge shaped, and must be jammed in tightly, otherwise the arch principle doesn’t work.
2. As the forces of the arch push down to the ground, the arch will push outward at the base. So, you need some decent ‘abutment’ (aka a good fat earthbag wall on either side of the arch to stop it pushing outwards).

Here’s how to make an earthbag arch, step by step
 
1. You need a mould or strong arch frame to lay your bags around. In our small arch, we were incorporating part of an organic tree trunk, so the arch wasn’t perfectly round. On a small arch this won’t matter, but a larger one needs more precision.

2. Attach a piece of string in the centre of the bottom of the arch. You use this to check the angle of your arch wedges.

​3. Make a wedge mould for your earthbag 'slices'. Stick your empty earthbag in the mould, fill it with clayey dirt, and tamp it firm until you have an earthbag the shape of a slice of brie.

​4. Arrange your bag wedges around the arch. Use the string to check they're lined up correctly. Remember, if your bags are not wedge-shaped but straight-edged, they’re not going to compress together. As you lay the bags, weave the barbed wire in and out of the wedges (see top photo). Make sure the wedges are tightly jammed together.

5. Once all the earthbag wedge pieces have been jammed in, time to drop the keystone in the middle. It may end up being more of a squeeze and shove than a drop, but as long as you've jammed the keystone piece in nice and tight, it will hold.

6. Run a course or two of barbed wire over the top of the arch, and lay another layer of flat bags over the top of the arch to lock it all in.

Extra note from the Costa Rican Earthbag Team
 
Our Costa Rican team in The Mud Home FB group made the wide and beautiful earthbag arch in the top photo. Because of the span, I asked Murat if their arch technique had differed from mine in any way. “At the core, our method was the same, but we interwound/integrated a lot more barbed wire and aimed for super symmetry just because of structural demands,” Murat said. He also drove in a bunch of rebar just to make sure the whole thing was pinned together invincibly.

It’s been natural floor month in the Mud Home Facebook Group, with a number of members attacking their substrates and creating natural beauty by the spade-load. As luck would have it, all of them have chosen different flooring methods, which not only gives me fodder for a great post, but is filling my noodle with ideas. Because it’s just about floor time for my little stone cabanas in Spain. So which one of these five will I choose?

1. Earthen floor

Here’s a floor to salivate over if ever I saw one. Earthen floors can be absolutely stunning, though they require some know-how. As with most floors, earthen floors are usually laid upon compressed gravel or foam glass beds. Foam glass is popular because it adds insulation too. There is some disagreement as to whether a vapour membrane is necessary to stop moisture wicking up into the floor. If you’re in a dry climate, or with a house that’s high up a slope with plenty of drainage, you may well get away without one, if not probably best to hedge your bets. For the record Kim’s gorgeous floor (shown above) in her hobbit house in Scotland  didn’t require one, and it was built to code*.

Earthen floors are basically a cob or earth plaster mixture poured, troweled and left to dry. After this they are coated a few times in an oil (most commonly linseed). Kim’s floor above has also been polished with beeswax.

You can learn more about how to make them on The Abundant Edge podcast with earthen floor expert Sukita Reay Crimmel. She is the co author of Earthen Floors book, which I can also recommend.
 
Pros: You can create gorgeous looks with an earthen floor. And if insulation is used, they are pretty snug too.
Cons: Earthen floors are probably the least hard-wearing of all the natural floor types listed here. If not properly protected, chair legs can gouge holes out.
 
You can feast your eyes on plenty more luscious photos of the Kim Siu's amazing straw bale Hobbit House here: Kim's lovely house was built by Hartwyn Natural Building.
 
2. Limecrete

For folk needing something more durable, limecrete is used all over the world as a flooring option (much like concrete). When restoring ancient homes in the UK, limecrete floors are pretty much always installed, because they are both breathable and can handle some damp.
 
Again limecrete floors are laid on compressed beds of loose aggregate.
 
For more information on creating your own limecrete look here. Always test on a small area (2 metres squared, for example) before mixing a whole batch, as everyone’s limecrete mixes vary according to the kind of lime used, the climate, and other strange mystical forces that inevitably evade meticulous calculations.
 
This nice post by Richard CL Pillinger shows how to lay a limecrete floor. And here's a video showing how.
 
Which kind of lime should you use for floors? If you’re new to lime you’ll want to check out the Mud Home guide to various lime types. For flooring, many tradespeople prefer NHL type limes because they are more cementitious, and set harder. There are plenty of diehards who use pure lime putty too, though.
 
In some countries like the UK and Australia, ready-made limecrete slabs are also available.
 
Pros: Limecrete breathes. Lime is a natural fungicide and insecticide too, so it’s great for wet climates.
​
Cons: Lime is trickier to work with than stones, bricks or wood. You need to get your mixture right, and allow it to cure slowly but thoroughly.
 
3. Simple gravel bed with stones/bricks

I’m becoming a bit of a fan of this method. For outside spaces it’s a no-brainer. So easy. So low-impact. And you can create some very aesthetic results with gravel and slabs too.
 
All you have to do is throw down a bed of gravel or sand (hard core really creates a strong base), and then inlay bricks or slabs or stones into the gravel bed. Once you’ve achieved the pattern you love, fill in the gaps around the stones by throwing more gravel or sand over the top and brushing it into the gaps. This stops your bricks/stones from shifting around and wobbling.
 
Pros: Much more stable than you’d expect. Superb for drainage as it’s completely unsealed and any water simply seeps away. Easy and cheap to make.
 
Cons: Because it’s not sealed you may find grains of sand working their way out. I’m happy to sweep the floor every now and again, but clean freaks may not be. You’ll probably need to refill the sand in the gaps every year or so.
 
Learn more about laying a brick floor here:
http://highstreetmarket.blogspot.com/2012/06/diy-antique-brick-pathway.html
 
For more inspiration look on my Pinterest page: UP THE GARDEN PATH

4. Wood

I love a wooden floor. Always have, always will. They smell and feel so good. No gravel bed needed with a wooden floor. Usually (at ground level) wooden floors are raised slightly off the ground to prevent damp rotting them. They’re actually pretty easy to make, even for newbie builders (I made mine in our roundhouse in Turkey with Celal, and although it wasn’t perfect, I loved it).
 
Pros: Warm on the feet, nice on the eyes, and they smell good too. Wood floors are very hard-wearing, give you a perfectly flat platform, and are relatively easy to make.
 
Cons: Not particularly sustainable in most cases (timber isn’t unless it’s reclaimed). Wood is also notoriously expensive, and will usually result in the greatest outlay in your build.

I'll be writing a full post on creating a wooden floor for a round house at a later date, because many folk ask how I did it.
 
5. Breathable tiles with lime mortar

Emma Winfield in our FB group created this gorgeous floor using buff-coloured quarry tiles laid into a lime mortar. The result, as you can see, is very professional. Lime mortar is essentially simple to make (usually somewhere in the region of 1 part lime to 3 parts sand) but you need to test you batch well first because everyone's ratios seem to be slightly different.

If you want to read more about lime plaster/mortar and crete, read The Mud Home post on it here
 
Pros: Very slick finish and even suitable for mainstream homes (or restoration projects).
 
Cons: You need to get your lime mortar mixture and application method right, otherwise the tiles may not stick.
 
Which Natural Floor Will I Choose?

​I love to experiment, and it’s lucky I have three cabanas. Because I shall be using the gravel bed with stone slabs or bricks in one, an earthen floor in another, and probably wood in the big one. But hey, you know me. Time will tell. :)
 
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​Far up north, there’s a bard in the woods creating dream worlds for himself out of timber and earthbags. He’s built a cabin, a yurt and a hobbit house in his quest to escape the drudge of the wage economy. Let me introduce the free spirit that is Hugh Morshead.

“Ten years ago, I moved into a one-room cabin in the woods. I thought that I would be living a life of voluntary simplicity with one boot in the 19th century and the other in the  21st,” Hugh explained to me. “After my first summer the bank called. The manager met me at the door and asked if she could sit in on the meeting. Across the desk I faced two sets of arched eyebrows. Their concern was my sudden wealth...I paraphrased the money lender in David Copperfield – disposable income equals income minus expenses.”
 
Disposable income equals income minus expenses. Stick that on a billboard, someone! Whenever I read all these ludicrous “How to earn a million bucks” stories, I’m prone to chuckle or sigh depending on my mood. Yeah, earn a million and spend 900,000 in the process, not to mention selling your soul, your health and your peace of mind. Hugh’s philosophy is mine. Reduce your expenses, love the Earth and her creatures, tell stories and create beauty.
 
Now, I’m not going to recount Hugh’s tale, because he’s written that himself and will do a far better job than I. But I’ll whet your appetites with a summary.

Born in Ireland in 1953, and having spent most of his twenties backpacking, I think we can safely say Hugh has always possessed a touch of wanderlust. He emigrated to Canada in 1980 to build equestrian cross-country courses, and for 30 years ran a horse farm with his wife.
 
Then ten years ago they divorced.
 
I always think wherever you are in the world, divorce is poorly treated. There are no proper ceremonies or celebrations, because the staid judgement of society is that a divorce is some kind of failure. I would very much question that idea. Divorces are major successes, they are the victory of the individual soul over the expectations of the herd and the temptations of the comfort zone. They are beginnings, the time to dust off old dreams and live them to the full.
 
Thoreau
So, in true Thoreau style, Hugh left his old world and moved into a 150 year old log cabin on a spacious property in the woods in Ontario. “I went on a crazy building spree – sauna, earthbag hobbit house, yurt, greenhouses, gardens, root cellar, sheds, ponds,” he says. Thus began his new life. “I divided the year into three: reading and writing in winter, working and building during the summer and travel by bicycle or on foot in the autumn.” Now if that doesn’t make you consider going it alone, I don’t know what will. :)

 One earthbag house after another
Then somewhat later, ‘on a whim’ as he describes it, Hugh built an earthbag house for himself. It cost him just $500 to construct, and was semi-submerged beneath the ground. He lived in it for a year, and described the experience as much of a spiritual journey as a physical one.
 
The thing with mud homes is they are as infectious as smallpox, so naturally earthbag building didn’t end buried in the woods for Hugh. “My neighbour had a similar whim,” he says, “so I built one for her. Then I got a call to go to Australia for a month and build one for indigenous women elders.”
 
I always think building with mud takes you places you never thought you’d go. The dirt opens doors and paves new ways. So off Hugh trotted halfway round the world, from the northern cool of Canada to the Pacific heat of Australia, to build yet another earthbag dwelling for The Sacred Womyn’s Camp near Byron Bay. “It is a collection of tents in the bush...home to Lois Cook, the eldest surviving member of the local aboriginal tribe and designated as Custodian of Country.”
 
That story of Hugh’s experience with the Sacred Womyn’s Camp is a beautiful one that he recounts in his book, which will be available soon.

Which shelter is best?
Having built a variety of sustainable shelters, I asked Hugh which kind of structure he preferred and why. “I believe earthbag building is simply the best form of owner-build home for any environment,” he says. “Yurts are a perfect starter home or guest house, and combined with an earth plaster wall they have great potential – less work, less materials and easily built by one person.”
 
Why do we love earthbag?
I’ve often noticed that people are smitten by earthbag. I am too, still. It’s so simple and solid a technique, and so so sustainable, because in the right climate you can actually get away with zero timber. It’s solid, earthquake and hurricane proof, fireproof, bulletproof and soundproof. You can create gorgeous organic shapes with earthbag, too.

Community Spirit
 As you may have already gleaned, despite his appetite from freedom, Hugh is incredibly socially-minded. He is involved in his community through public speaking, a farmer’s market, and workshops. While the workshops are open to all, the emphasis is to empower women and indigenous people to build their own ultra-low-cost homes.
 
This summer he’s at it again. He will be up to his knees in dirt in a workshop in Canada organized by an indigenous Elder, Becky BigCanoe who lives on Georgia Island on Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada. The course will take place on indigenous land and the plan is to build a hobbit house and a yurt over a few weekends in July and August. I’ll be posting details of it in the newsletter when it’s finalised, but heck if I were in Canada, I’d go!

Hugh is very helpful and sociable. "I'm always available to answer questions," he says. You can read more about his lifestyle and building projects, or contact him from his blog: http://hughmorshead.blogspot.com/

​The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free) and takes me many hours a month to research and write, and is expensive to run. If you find inspiration, useful information, or value in it, please consider becoming a patron to ensure its existence. For less than the price of a coffee you can join my private news feed where I post photos and updates of my new off-grid project I don’t want to share with the rest of the world, 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 articles are still coming.

If you are embarking on a project and want some personal assistance at very low cost, I recommend joining our private Facebook group. The numbers will be capped at 100 to ensure I can give everyone the attention they need. 

Having battled out in the sticks in Turkey, I would often roll my eyes skywards when someone would comment on a post “Why don’t you just go to _____ and buy _____?” I had no car, and the nearest large scale home store was probably about 1000 kilometres away. Amazon didn’t deliver to Turkey at the time either. 

Dirt grafter Kristen Krash from the very inspiring Sueño de Vida project in Ecuador is apparently in the same boat. Here she offers up more gems from the real world of low-impact, off-grid living somewhere rather remote without a megastore. Yes. The gulf between ideology and reality is never easy to bridge...

Kristen Krash
Back in another life, when I had a TV, I watched an episode of some reality show about mega-wealthy people building their fantastic dream houses in remote locations. The episode I saw followed this super-rich guy to a mountaintop in Montana, where he had contracted the construction of a “log mansion”—a way over-the-top take on a log cabin, built almost entirely of huge redwood tree trunks, enormous wood beams, and various types of rock and stone, from gigantic boulders for the foundation to rare onyx and blue marble for the bathtubs. Everything had to be flown in by helicopter. And yet, despite the total ludicrousness of it all, this wood and stone behemoth is a “natural building.”
 
Ok, this is a pretty extreme example, but it makes my point: It is entirely possible to build a house from mostly natural materials that has absolutely nothing to do with sustainability or giving a crispy fish-stick about Nature herself. It is also equally possible to build a structure that is very sustainable and environmentally adaptive, but not very natural. Earthships, for example. One would hope that a “natural” builder is motivated as much by a respect for the Earth as a need for shelter. And yet, I see it all the time: the most well-intentioned natural builders trucking in way too many inputs and getting so technical with their materials that the end result might be “natural”, but not low-impact environmentally.
 
If you want to make the leap from reading this blog to building your own natural and truly eco-friendly home, here are some common traps to avoid falling into along the way:

1. A room with a view
Chances are, you’re accustomed to living in a house where clean water, power, heat, and air conditioning are piped in and trash, sewage, and water used for washing are taken neatly away to “somewhere.” Now, say you’ve gotten a parcel of land somehow and are sighting the “best” spot to build your dream natural house. It’s perfectly normal that the first spots that leap out at you will be higher, with a “view.” But if you want your home to be more sustainable, both financially and ecologically, and especially if you’re building off-grid, there are much more important things to consider.
 
Water: How will you bring water into your house if it’s at the highest point? You can pump it from a source below to a tower, but that requires a pump, and a tower. You’re better off building down from a slope (but not at the bottom where rain settles) so you can collect water in a pool or tank above the level of your house and let gravity bring it down. If you do it right, you can even generate water pressure!
 
Power: Sight your house to use less power. If you’re in a cold northern clime, south-facing windows are great for exposure to winter sun. If you’re in a hot climate, find some shade.
 
Ultimately, your view is what you see when you look outside. If you want a beautiful view, make one. Plant a flower and herb garden to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Build a little fountain or birdbath with stones. Hollow out tree trunks and fill them with natural fibres to grow orchids. Your view will change daily and you can feel more in touch with your surroundings. And if you want to see it all from the top, walking uphill is great exercise.

​2. Truckloads of imports
It seems so obvious. You want to build a mud house and there’s dirt under your feet. So you use it, right? But oh no, somehow in our bizarre culture hell-bent on perfection, we’ve got folks trucking in bags of “pure” clay because they are afraid of what “organic matter” might do to their cob or plaster mix. Not to mention stripping river beds of sand for that “just right” sharpness. Ok, yes, a sticky-enough clay is important, a sharp enough sand is important. But guess what? There are a lot of sound natural buildings out there that pre-date dump trucks by a few hundred years because the people who built them found a way to work with what they had. If your clay isn’t sticky enough but there are cows around, add some manure. Or cook up some wheat paste. If you don’t have sand, look for reject construction sand before dredging a riverbed.
 
The key to being natural and low-impact is to stay local with where you get your basic materials. In our project here in the cloud forest, we use a lot of giant bamboo, which grows in abundance here. What’s eco-friendly here wouldn’t be in, say, Wisconsin, where straw bales are readily available. The more stuff you have to bring to your site and the farther it comes from means a bigger impact your little house is making on the precious skin of the Earth. So keep it local, as much as you can.
 
3. Special stuff
Once I was showing a visitor to our project the beautiful colours of clay I had collected from our land to make naturally tinted paints for earth plastered walls. I proudly held out my harvest of hues, shades of russet, ochre, salmon, eggshell. “Hmm,” the visitor glanced at them, “but can’t you get blue? I guess you could just order it from...somewhere.” Sigh. When meditators can’t concentrate, they call it “monkey mind.” When people can’t appreciate what is right there in front of them, I call it “Amazon Prime mind.” No, I can’t “just” order it from somewhere, because that blue pigment has to be mined, processed, packaged, and shipped. And I have a whole palette right here.
 
From foundations to finishes, there’s a whole bunch of exotic, but perfectly natural, things out there to bedazzle the builder: volcanic ashes to make cement that isn’t cement, silicates from speciality pottery suppliers to keep clays in suspension, powdered mica from craft stores to make your lime paint extra sparkly…it’s so easy to whip out the credit card and mail order away. “I want that!” Amazon Prime mind clamours. But before you hit confirm on that order for Apricot Blush or Aztec Indigo mineral pigment, ask yourself, “do I really need this?” If the answer is no, smile and hit cancel. You just made your natural build a bit more sustainable.

4. The internet
Well, this is ironic. Here I am, writing for an online building blog and I’m about to warn against online building blogs. I’m all for small, interactive, genuinely helpful groups like The Mud Home here. I stopped posting on the higher traffic blogs when I realized they were prowled by “experts.” I would post a straightforward question about, say, earth plaster in a humid rainforest climate. I’d peruse a few comments and go make plaster. The next day, Facebook would inform me that there were 124 comments on my post, most of them a highly technical debate between two people only a trained geologist would understand, or care about. And did nothing to answer my question.
 
If you want to build, build. You will make mistakes. You will learn from them and be better for the experience. If you want some advice, find a more intimate setting. If you find yourself getting sucked into some marathon thread on pozzolans, snap out of it and get back to your own test batches of plaster. There’s work to do.

5. Snobbery and in-fighting
Another problem with information on the internet is that it often comes laden with opinion. And some of it is mean, ill-founded, and counter-productive. There’s quite a bit of dissent over what constitutes a “natural” building; some folks don’t include earthbags as a natural technique because of the barbed wire and poly bags. If you get right down to it, there’s no such thing as a 100% natural building, except in very rare cases, and kudos to them. Straw bales don’t bale themselves folks, that takes a big industrial farm machine. Cob is about as natural as it gets, but most folks will eventually use a mixer of some sort to help them out. Post and beam structures, window and door frames, windows and doors, roofs...all these things require tools, nails, screws, and other things found at the hardware store, not on trees.
 
And don’t even get a natural building snob started on alternatives like using repurposed tires packed with dirt for foundations or plastic bottles for walls. “Toxic,” they sniff. Well, I suppose they are, if you eat them. Meanwhile in poor countries they burn old tires, and isn’t that just too bad for the people who live on top of those landfills? No, using tires and other trash to build with isn’t natural at all, but unless you’ve got a better idea what to do with all of it (and never use plastic or ride in a car, truck, or bus), I suggest leaving the garbage warriors alone to build their incredibly temperature-stable, solar-powered, grey-water recycling houses. Just sayin’.
 
While these petty “in-crowd” debates rage on the internet, the real world is paving itself over with concrete and erecting yet more power, water, and air-conditioning hungry towers on what’s left of our burning planet. Everything we humans do has an impact on the environment. Don’t get stuck because you’re afraid you can’t build the “perfect” natural home. It’s better to do an imperfect something than a perfect nothing. Get as much information as you need (there are such things as books, too), and get started. Stay local with your inputs, be real about your needs, and most of all, lead by example.

​Kristen Krash is the co-creator of Sueño de Vida, a nature conservation centre, permaculture farm, and natural building experiment in the cloud forest of Ecuador. To learn more about the mission, courses offered, work exchange opportunities, and land for sale, see their website at http://www.suenodevida.org/our-dream/
 
Atulya’s Two-Penneth Worth
"It’s better to do an imperfect something than a perfect nothing." This resonated with me in so many ways. Because a perfect nothing isn't actually a neutral choice, it's a vote for the status quo.  I've changed my views on many things, but one remains absolutely intact: After two years in exile, I can say without any doubt at all, living off-grid close to nature in a small homestead is still one of the most powerful things you can do both for yourself and the planet. Whether you used a plastic washing up bowl or not is completely besides the point.

Here’s my summary of Kristen’s great tips:
1.When setting up a susty world for yourself, consider the essentials first (water, weather and power).
2. Avoid importing stuff as much as you can. Spend time in your land and get to know what’s there and use the gifts she gives you. This is so rewarding, economical and environmentally healthy.
3. Quit perfectionism. Grand Designs for the most part isn’t sustainable. It’s a middle class ego trip.
4. When asking for advice, find trusted sources and/or people who have already done what you want to do. Don’t ask too many people though, or you will get horribly confused.
5. Move from your heart and do an imperfect something, not a perfect nothing.

The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free) and takes me many hours a month to research and write, and is expensive to run. If you find any inspiration, useful information, or value in it, please consider becoming a patron to ensure its existence. For less than the price of a coffee you can join my private news feed where I post photos and updates of my new off-grid project I don’t want to share with the rest of the world, 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 articles are still coming.

If you are embarking on a project and want some personal assistance at very low cost, I recommend joining our private Facebook group. The numbers will be capped at 100 to ensure I can give everyone the attention they need.

​Many people are planning and researching at the moment. January does that to people. If it’s natural homes you’re thinking of then here’s a comparison of a few building techniques you might be considering: earthbag, cob, straw bale, wood, stone, and wattle and daub. I've compared the cost, difficulty of technique, how the buildings fare in extreme weather, heating, and other advantages and disadvantages. This list was written with beginners in mind, so I hope it’s helpful.

Earthbag

Difficulty of Technique
Earthbag is labour-intensive compared to straw bale or wood, but the good news is the technique is fairly idiot-proof. Earthbag homes can be built fast, depending on the energy and organisation of the team. Finishing the interior may take longer though.

Cost
If you’re building a round house, the materials are very inexpensive. Mud is free. The sacks are inexpensive. Labour is the key factor for cost with earthbag, so if you have volunteers it’s going to reduce the price tag significantly. If you’re making a straight-walled post and beam structure, then it’s going to be more expensive.

Insulation
Poor. R 0.2 per inch (still better than concrete though).

Thermal Mass*
Excellent.

Shape
One of the attractions of earthbag is the freedom of design. Domes, circles, and wavy lines are all possible.

Earthquakes and Extreme Weather
Earthbag is without a doubt the strongest sustainable building technique out there. It has exceeded earthquake test limits with no visible damage. This is why it has become popular in seismic areas like Nepal. I can personally attest earthbag also performs amazingly in hurricanes.

In the Wet
Earthbag performs better in the wet than any other mud building technique because the bags and wire hold the dirt together in case of a flood. Again, as with all mud buildings, rubble trench foundations, a good stem wall and wide eaves are necessary.

Maintenance
Negligible. Plaster touch-ups, that’s it.

Longevity
Because it’s a modern technique we’re yet to see how long earthbag lasts. But with decent rubble trench foundations, it’s estimated to stand at least a century.

Other Advantages
Fireproof, soundproof, bulletproof. Earthbag is the survivalists’ dream:)

Other Issues
In mixed (wet followed by dry) climates, the clayey earth in the bags will swell and shrink, especially in the first year. This can put pressure on door and window frames, as the walls expand, compress the frames and then contract again.
 
Cob

Difficulty of Technique
Cob can be time-consuming depending on the climate, as each layer needs to dry before laying the next. Patience and some know-how are necessary. It’s a beautifully simple technique though. Perfect for artists, and fun too.
 
Cost
Mud is free. Labour, time and learning the art is where you could spend money. A great technique if you can find volunteers and have no pressing time limit.
 
Insulation
Poor. R 0.2 per inch (better than concrete)
 
Thermal Mass
Yes.
 
Shape
The beauty of cob is you can create all kinds of wiggly, organic shapes with it.
 
Earthquakes and Extreme Weather
Cob is stronger than poorly constructed concrete or brick, but not so great in floods.
 
In the Wet
It all depends on how high your footings are, and how wide your eaves. Cob can resist a fair amount of rain and weathering, but is not recommended on flood plains.
 
In the Cold
Earthen walls work well with passive solar construction, and heat up like a battery. But they are not recommended in climates that are subzero for months on end (for more detail on that look here).
 
Maintenance
Easy and enjoyable. You’ll probably just be patching up the final layer or the lime wash in the areas that see hard rain.
 
Longevity
Centuries. Cob houses have been standing for centuries in the UK.
 
Straw Bale

​Difficulty of Technique
Straw bale is one of the fastest and least labour-intensive of all the natural builds. Bales are light compared to sacks filled with mud. You can have a house up in weeks. Finishing the interior may take longer though, and you’ll need some basic carpentry skills for a post-and-beam structure.
 
Cost
Usually pricier than mud building because of the post and beam structure. If you don’t have straw bales to hand this will also add to the cost.
 
Insulation
Excellent. R1.5 - 2.5 per inch depending on which study you follow. The way to go in cold climates.
 
Thermal Mass
Poor.
 
Shape
Although there are plenty of examples of alternative shapes created from straw bales, you are using a rectangular building block which lends itself better to straight lines when compared to cob or earthbag.
 
Earthquakes
Excellent. Straw bale has been known to survive an 82-ton force on a shake table.
 
In the Wet
Moisture is the enemy of straw bale, and I’ve seen a few cases of bale rot now, which can be the end of your house if you’re not careful. Yes experts know how to mitigate this, and if you construct a decent rubble trench foundation, a high stem wall and wide eaves, straw bale can stand plenty of rain. But if you’re a newbie, you need to bear this tendency to rot in mind.
 
Maintenance
Plaster touch-ups. Usually easy and enjoyable.
 
Longevity
With the correct foundations and moisture/fire protection, straw bale can last a lifetime.
 
Other Advantages
Soundproof. Very snug.
 
Other Issues
- We’ve seen a number of fires in straw bale homes (Both Simon Dale’s went up in flames), so you really need to be super careful about your wiring, wood burner pipe exits, and so on.
- Mice can move into the walls if they find a hole to enter by.

Wooden Cabin

Difficulty of Technique
You will need some reasonable carpentry skills to build a nice cabin.
 
Cost
Wood is always the priciest material in a natural build, especially if you’re going for quality, so a wooden cabin will no doubt cost more than a straw bale hut, and definitely more than cob or earthbag.
 
Insulation
Very poor. You’ll have to add decent insulation to the walls in cold climates.
 
Thermal Mass
Poor. Wooden huts neither store much heat, nor prevent temperature exchange. This is one of their major disadvantages in my opinion.
 
Shape
Wood wants to go straight, so geometrical shapes are going to be the most logical for a wooden structure.
 
Earthquakes
Better than stone. Worse than earthbag or straw bale.
 
Hurricanes
How your hut stands up to a tornado does depend on how well built it is, but generally? Rather you than me.
 
In the Wet
Raised wooden structures will survive the wet quite well. You can stick them on stilts, for example.
 
Maintenance
Grrr. I find wood a right pain in the backside to maintain (though it does depend on which wood you’re using, and the amount of weathering your hut will see). Usually you’ve got to prevent it from sun and rain damage, which is expensive and time consuming.
 
Longevity
This largely depends on the wood you are using. Some quality hardwoods last forever. Others, like commonly used pine, will need a lot of care.
 
Other Advantages
Super fast to build. If you’re in a tight spot and need a roof over your head fast, wood can get you there.

Other Issues
Not soundproof, nor fireproof.
 
Stone House

Difficulty of Technique
You’ve got to know what you’re doing with stone, especially if you’re building with a natural mud or lime mortar.
 
Cost
If you’ve got the stone on site, and you are a stonemason, fantastic! If not...ouch! In most countries hiring a stone mason is going to set you back a pretty penny.
 
Insulation
Poor.
 
Thermal Mass
Good. Performs way better with mud or lime mortar than with Portland cement.
 
Shape
Ah, stone is very aesthetic in the right hands. You can create all kinds of shapes, round or geometric.
 
Earthquakes
Stone usually performs badly in earthquakes because the stones shudder and shift, thus loosening.
 
In the Wet
There’s no real issue with stone houses in the wet.
 
Maintenance
Very easy. Perhaps a bit of mortar pointing every few years?
 
Longevity
With the correct foundations and drainage, stone houses last millennia.
 
Other Advantages
The stones have a personality, an it’s quite wonderful to live with them. Another great thing about stone wall is that mice can’t chew through them.
 
Wattle and Daub

Difficulty of Technique
I think wattle and daub is quite underrated and underused in the trendier world of natural building. It’s not horribly complex. You will need some basic carpentry skills for the post-and-beam structure (much like with straw bale), but the wattling and daubing itself is wonderfully easy, and enjoyable.
 
Cost
Similar to straw bale in terms of materials. The post-and-beam structure is where the money goes.
 
Insulation
Poor.
 
Thermal Mass
Good.
 
Shape
Geometric shapes are best for wattle and daub, as the laths are straight lines.
 
Earthquakes
Not sure. I only know them from the UK where there are all but no quakes. If you know, feel free to add in the comments, and I’ll update the post.
 
In the Wet
As with the other mud builds, if you have decent eaves and decent rubble trench foundations with a good stem wall, wattle and daub can cope well in the rain.
 
Maintenance
If lime washed, then the maintenance is pretty straight forward.
 
Longevity
Excellent. Wattle and daub houses from the 15th century are still very much alive and well in the UK.
 
Other related articles:
1. Can you build mud houses in cold climates:
http://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/can-you-build-mud-houses-in-cold-climates
2. Mud Building Techniques Overview
http://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/mud-building-techniques-overview
3. Getting to Know Cob (Oliver Goshey)
https://www.abundantedge.com/articles-1/2016/5/24/cob-getting-to-know-one-of-constructions-most-ancient-and-versatile-materials

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