The 3 Things You Need to Do:

​Believe it or not, mud homes work fine in wet climates if you build them right. What you need to understand at the beginning though is this: mud homes do not work like mainstream concrete and plastic houses, so throw most of your ideas related to them in the bin.

What do you need to consider when building a mud home in a wet climate?
There are three fundamentals you have to get right. If you do these three things properly, your mud home will be well set for damp climates. If you don’t do these three things, it won’t matter if you coat your house in concrete (ouch) or EPDM, you will encounter issues.

1. You need a rubble trench foundation. You do not want a concrete slab. I don’t care what the architect, the codes, or your mate Fred says, they are wrong when it comes to mud buildings. I feel like I’ve said it a lot, but if you’re new to mud building you may not have heard the news. Concrete wicks up water and holds onto the damp. It also doesn’t allow for water to evaporate. That is absolutely not what you want with a mud home. People have all sorts of erroneous ideas about foundations, but with mud homes the drainage is paramount. You want water getting away from your house as fast as possible. The rubble trench is the cheapest, easiest and by a long way the most effective foundation method for a mud house.

If you are building earthbag, you can create rubble trench foundations like this: https://www.themudhome.com/rubble-trench-foundations.html

​If you are building another kind of mud home, then it’s basically the same, so still read that article. You can also watch this video, as it shows exactly how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNN7T4fBQo4

2. The stem wall is very important. The stem wall protects the rest of your house from damp or accumulating rainwater, and stops your walls wicking up water. The stem wall is usually made of stone, and depending on your climate can be anywhere between 30-60cm high (above grade). If you are building with earthbags you can use gravel-filled earthbags instead (see the rubble trench article).
​
Normally we start the stem wall below grade (below the surface of the ground), so it acts as water resistant footings. Once the stem wall is sturdy and dry, you start to build your natural home on top of it. Some people advocate a vapour barrier between the stem wall and the cob/adobe. I never use one because as soon as a waterproof membrane is added, evaporation becomes impossible. Water will quite possibly seep into your wall one way or another, and if a vapour barrier is there, it prevents fast evaporation. Your wall will stay damp.

3. You need a good solid roof with wide eaves. The roof is the hat of the house, and I’d argue it’s the most important part of the structure. For a mud house in a wet climate, you want nice wide eaves to protect the walls (a good one metre long). If you do this, you are going a long way to protecting your earth plaster from the rain.

Other things you can do:
Backfilling around the stem wall is another great and simple way of keeping rain water away from your walls.

Guttering
Installing decent guttering on your roof will help massively in preventing the ground below from getting soggy from rainwater run off.

Lime
Lime is the perfect substance for folk in wet climates. It “breathes” so it doesn’t obstruct airflow and allows any damp to evaporate. It’s also a natural fungicide. Use limecretes instead of concretes, use lime wash instead of paint. Use lime mortars for stonework. You may even want to add a bit of lime to your earth plaster.

What you don’t want to do:
Don’t cover your mud house in lime render or (OMG) concrete. Please. It’s a terrible idea. The clay in your mud house expands when it gets damp, the concrete or lime render doesn’t. It will eventually crack and fall off. Concrete will do something worse and stop the house breathing too, thus mitigating the half the point of cob/adobe in the process, and making your house damp and prone to mould.

Notes about natural plasters
People worry far too much about their earth plaster, in my opinion. I honestly don’t think it’s necessary or even a great idea to try and waterproof your plaster. The best thing to add to plaster to create a super strong but natural render is horse or cow manure. If you’ve built your footings and your roof well, your mud walls will only need a touch up every now and again, and frankly that’s quite good fun.

Extra Important Tips from Kristen Krash at Sueno de Vida who has built multiple mud houses in a cloud forest:
1. "Make the rubble trench foundation wider than the stem wall by 12-15 cm." This is a good point, and often happens by accident:)
2. "I would emphasize that people don't attempt to use plastic "moisture barriers" or any such thing in very wet climate. Water passes from areas of higher to lower concentration. Always and forever. Period. Meaning water is going to find it's way under or through your "barrier" and then not be able to evaporate. It will just keep moving to an area of lower concentration. As in inside your house.
3. "Don't build little nooks and shelves and such close to the ground level in your interior walls. I know it's tempting to be like "oh I'll just store my pots and pans under this table in this sculpted little nook, how cute!" Yes it is, for a season. Then you will be storing mold. The plaster will crumble from being damp. Keep your walls smooth and hard for at least one meter above the ground."
I so agree with this. I put my entire living quarters on the top floor of my barn for this very reason.

Resources and relevant links:
Kim’s strawbale hideaway in Scotland shows the foundations, stem wall, and roof you want for a mud house (or strawbale).
https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/building-a-hobbit-hideaway-to-code-in-scotland

​A great example of the rubble trench beating any other foundation method is how Gautam and Kim’s earthbag house fared in a monsoon. It also shows the perils of coating your mud house in a crete of any kind.
https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/gautam-and-kims-earthbag-monsoon

Kay’s balecob house showcase the rubble trench and stem wall very well.
https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/kays-happy-balecob-home-in-idaho

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Mud mama Kim Fraser has been at it again! Kim’s magical space in Moray is turning into a fairytale empire. There’s a straw bale hideaway pulled straight out of the Shire, Baba Yaga’s hen coop, and now this fabulously funky little coorie hut. What’s “coorie”, you may well ask? The answer to that apparently takes an entire book to explain, so I’ll leave you to do the reading. But for the purposes of this article, the coorie hut is a feel-good place to snuggle up warm.

It will indeed feel good too, because the whole thing has been made with loving hands, local materials, and my two best buddies: good old mud and lime.
 
“She’s the result of using leftover materials to make something practical and beautiful!” explains Kim.
 
I love many things about this little hut, but most of all I love that it has developed completely organically with plenty of idea changes. This is what always should happen in a build. The idea that an architect creates an exact plan and your poor house is bolted to it like a prisoner throughout the build, is a very modern situation.
 
So, how was this quirky little beauty built? Let’s take it from the bottom!

1. Footings and stem wall
Now, this is a tiny structure, not a two-storey home, so there was no need to go overboard with the footings in this case. “The base was made with limecrete and stones found on site,” says Kim. This means the footings and the stem wall are all in one. All mud buildings need a stone (or similar) stem wall to protect them from damp and big rainfalls.
 
Just for the record, for most larger mud buildings you want gravel footings. It’s simply the easiest, most effective, and incidentally the cheapest way of going about it. Ditch the concrete pad idea. Just forget about that whole thing. That’s another kind of construction which isn’t beneficial for mud buildings.

2. Willow wigwam and mud daub
Next a framework was built using willow. This is a slightly different take on wattling. Basically you can create all kinds of mud (or indeed lime) structures using a wooden framework of some kind.
 
“She evolved from a willow wigwam to her current form using straw dipped in clay slip for the base layer then an earth daub with lots of straw to retain some warmth.”

4. Roof
At this point Kim still wanted her coorie hut to be a dome without a roof. I’m not going to lie; I raised my eyebrow at that. You can read all about why here. Nevertheless I was curious because heck, if anyone could make a mud dome work in Scotland, it would be Kim. However, eventually she decided to stick a roof on as a canopy.
 
“Our Workaway volunteers helped with the process and built the wooden roof splitting old logs left from another build. One side is thatched using fireweed, the other side is covered in shingles made from old leftover wood.”
 
So you see? There’s no reason everything has to be uniform. Kim used whatever resources she had to hand, and actually this two-part roof is one of my favourite features.

5. Painting and decorating
The coorie hut was painted with lime wash and stained with natural pigment, which is a clever way of getting a deeper colour onto lime wash. Later this year, once the threat of frost had receded in late May (May? Good Lord!) Kim laid a limecrete floor with the help of a volunteer called Georgie. But it’s far from over. “The Coorie has taken on a life of its own, and continues to evolve!” said Kim. More clay plaster is being made as I write, so hopefully there’ll be an update on this later on.

n Why the Coorie Witches’ Hut is so inspiring.
Finally, there’s one other major thing I love about this build, and that is that Kim et al. have taken perfectionism, hacked it into roughly hewn hunks, and thrown them on the coorie fire. The last anyone saw of them was in smoke form leaving the chimney. Perfectionism is a curse many of us are burdened with (ahem). It can (and routinely does) completely scupper a build, stopping anything from manifesting, or slowing it to the point everyone loses heart. This little woven hut is going to be very inspiring because it is a wonderful, happy, and lovely example that you don’t have to (or even want to) have everything machine-perfect when you build with mud.
 
In natural building you can play, experiment, change your mind ten times, try new techniques that no one has heard of, have a rough edge or two (or even make a feature of them), ditch uniformity, and create a beautiful organic space that people are dying to sit inside.

You could actually stay at Kim’s and see the Coorie Witches’ Hut for yourself. Book a place at the award-winning and gorgeous Hideaway Under the Stars. It is absolutely no surprise to me that Kim’s place has a flawless five-star review record on Airbnb, as I stayed at hers once myself:)
 
Follow the Hideaway on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/hideawayunderthestars
Follow the Hideaway on Insta:https://www.instagram.com/hideawayunderthestars

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Now, I always say don’t build a free-standing exterior earthbag wall (ie. a garden wall or retaining wall), as they are so hard to plaster naturally and keep waterproof. But every now and again someone proves me wrong. Luke and Kath in New Zealand have created some mud magic here, which just goes to show, you should always take advice from experts with a pinch of salt:)

Luke and Kath have done a stellar earth plastering job here, and used multiple techniques to create a waterproof and natural finish. So yes it can be done, but it takes some know-how and patience. Happily for us they have generously shared their process and photos with me (and now you).
 
“We are in the far north of New Zealand. The climate here is not ideal for earth plaster, hot and dry for three to four months over summer and then usually a couple of months of very wet weather over winter. We are on a hill so the wind can at times be powerful and incessant,” explains Luke.
 
Yes, New Zealand certainly wouldn’t be the first place I’d be itching to stick earth plaster out in the elements. But this funky outdoor kitchen has stood three years so far. How come?

“We applied our first coats of lime/earth plaster, onto an earthbag wall, three years ago, with the help of your course. We did two coats at that time, then burnished the whole lot. It has stood the test of time well. The main issue has been a type of creeping grass which sends its tentacles out and under the earth, popping up under and through the plaster. Areas under the drip line of the roof have also weathered significantly. Portions of the sandbags had become exposed so we decided to redo the whole lot,” Luke told me.

My first comments would be that the plaster in these photos looks exactly how you would want it to if you want to stand a chance of creating a waterproof finish. There are no cracks, as the whole lot has been burnished very well (in this case with the back of a spoon). It takes a bit of practice to get this skill off to a fine art, and Kath and Luke have mastered it. One thing we will want to know of course is what was in that earth plaster mixture? The result is heart-warming because so many of the materials were foraged from the land. This was one of things I wanted to achieve with my earth plaster course. I’m not against people buying ready-made clay plasters, but it’s definitely not necessary. You can create amazing plasters using the ground under your feet, and without buying anything.

Here is how Luke and Kath made their water-resistant plaster, but be advised, don’t attempt to just copy this and think it will work. They are using their own soil and clay and sand, so it’s not a standardised commercial product.

“We used the same formula of plaster we devised from experiments before doing the initial coats. 10-15% lime, 20% clay/straw, 2-5% cow manure and the balance of sand. The clay we sourced from the stream at the base of our valley. Our soil is basically sand so once sieved is perfect. The manure is from the cows next door. We used hydrated lime (https://www.graymont.com/en-nz/products/hydrated-lime) and mixed with water first, as cheap lime putty is simply not available here. Once applied, we burnished the whole lot like the first batch, as we found that technique to be highly effective at making the plaster weather resistant.”
 
Animal dung, a bit of good quality lime* and some decent burnishing. This is why this plaster has endured.

Now Luke and Kath want to take the plastering further. This time they’re going to add some layers of linseed oil to the wall too.
 
*Luke and Kath used a high quality hydrated lime instead of lime putty. If you want to understand more about the types of limes out there, read this.

Related links
 The Perfect Earth Plaster Course
If you want to create beautiful earth plasters from the ground you stand on, you might be interested in my flagship Perfect Earth Plaster Course. It’s a multimedia course with stacks of explanatory videos, PDFs to take away, and all fully downloadable.
 
https://the-mud-home-courses.teachable.com/p/the-perfect-earth-plaster-course
 
My Free Introduction to Earth Plaster
If you just want a taster of earth plaster, sign up for my free introduction to earth plaster here: https://www.themudhome.com/earthplaster-sign-up.html
 
When is the right time for earthbag?
https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/when-is-the-right-time-for-earthbag

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There are three main ways to create a gorgeous natural home for yourself. You can either build the thing from the ground up, find an old structure and renovate it, or buy someone else’s project. I’ve now done two out of these three, and have been considering the pros and cons for a long while now. So here is the Mud Home take on the matter.

Build from Scratch (Green Plots)
 
Pros:

1. You have a clean site to work from (though I hate it when people consider this to be a tabula rasa. It’s not. You’re moving into an existing ecosystem and a landscape that responds to you). But from a building site perspective it means you can plan a home from the footings up, and incorporate everything you want in your design.
2. It also means you don’t have nasty surprises rearing their potentially toxic heads.
3. You get to choose all the materials, and can opt for the best fit for both you and your landscape.

Cons:

1. If you’re going the legit route, then the bad news regarding green plots is you’ll probably have to get involved with an architect. This means you’re now dealing with officialdom, and paying an arm and a leg for that dubious pleasure.
2. Usually, though by no means always, building from scratch costs more because you literally have to bring in (or forage for) every piece of the structure.
3. Depending on how you build and your attitude towards your environment, you could either be a boon to your ecosystem (the way some people work with their landscapes is very inspiring) or a complete destroyer of habitats. This is largely dependent on how big you build and how obsessed with speed you are. Mostly, the smaller and slower the build, the happier the rest of your land’s inhabitants are.

Renovating (Brown Plots)
 
Pros:

1. I can speak from experience and tell you it gives you a very very good feeling to bring an abandoned building back to life. Renovating is arguably the most sustainable of all builds, because rather than intruding on a natural landscape, you’re breathing life back into a space that was previously developed.
2. Another amazing thing about renovating is that you will have lots and lots of materials that can be reused in creative ways. I saved an absolute fortune by upcycling old oak beams from my roof in the interior, and reusing old roof tiles to create good draining terraces, to name just two ways I reused stuff.
   
3. Depending on the state of the structure, many renovations also offer the substantial bonus of a dry place to store your stuff while you’re working, which is more important than you’ll ever realise until you start.
   
4. You contribute to a place’s heritage. If you’re a foreigner, this could win you plenty of local friends who support you, especially if you ask said locals about the history of the area.
   

Cons:

1. Of the two I think renovating is harder work and takes a lot longer. You’re going to need plenty of patience.
   
2. You spend a lot of time undoing mistakes, digging out mortar, cleaning, and repairing.
3. You also have a lot less freedom in design because the structure is already standing. I found with my stone barn, one thing that was bugging me by the end was that the whole thing was so much bigger than I really needed. Had I designed that barn from scratch, it would have been very different, but of course the thing was made for cows and straw storage, not me:)
   
4. Dealing with debris and dust was something I personally hated about renovating. Digging out concrete mortar and cleaning out dust is nasty, dirty work which can potentially cause health issues. Some stuff (asbestos for example) may even be toxic.
   

Taking on Someone Else’s Project
 
There didn’t used to be many modern natural builds to take over, but that is definitely changing as more and more people try and set up alternative lifestyles or permaculture-based homesteads. So these days you could find yourself taking on a project that someone else has half-finished, or perhaps completely finished. This method brings its own raft of considerations, bonuses and headaches.
 
Pros:

1. You almost certainly will have a fairly functioning living space, and that my friends is worth considering. One of the hardest things about the entire process of these projects is the day-to-day living while you’re building. You need a space to cook, sleep, eat, and wash. When you buy someone else’s project you probably have these already existing in some form or another.
   
2. You will have the satisfaction, a little like a renovation, of bringing a project or vision back to life. Perhaps you can sort out issues the other person couldn’t. Perhaps you bring new energy into the place.
   

Cons:

1. You have no idea what kind of cock-ups the previous owner has made. They may have been a complete amateur and bodged the whole thing up. You will undoubtedly spend a lot of time undoing and uncovering mistakes, or changing things that are not to your personal liking. These projects are very unique and no two people have the same viewpoint or needs.
   

Be Generous Folks!
On that note though, it’s such a downer when people take over someone else’s project and start blaming every failure and every problem on the previous owner. It’s just not conducive to success or happiness, and ignores how incredibly difficult those beginning couple of years are when you first start a project. The attitude of gratitude builds dreams in my opinion. It’s the make or break of a good life. See what the previous owner gave you, rather than continually moaning about their mistakes. There is probably some similarity between you and the previous owner, which is why you were drawn to the same land, and at some point you have to take responsibility for choosing to become the new guardian.
 
Extra Things to Note
Many of the pros and cons depend on the particular building regulations in your area. In Europe it is sometimes easier to get through the red tape by renovating. I said sometimes, because hey there’s enough red tape around here to encircle the planet three times over.

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First, we have to be honest that when it comes to the roof of a home, it’s hard to create a totally natural and fully waterproof canopy without some kind of vapour barrier. The roof is the most important part of a house. I’d argue it’s more important than foundations. Case in point: my barn has no foundations to speak of and it’s been standing 200 years. But as any local here will tell you, if the roof on the barn goes, the barn has no more than a few years left before it collapses.
 
Upshot: If the roof is secure and functioning properly as a rain shelter, you’re good. If not...agh. So, many times it's going to be hard to get away with making a watertight roof without a vapour barrer.
 
What did they do in times of old then?
Well before the modern age and vapour barriers, people still made weather-resistant roofs. But...here’s the painful truth of the matter, they often needed quite a lot of maintenance and repair. Residents were also used to sporadic leaking, and roofs had to be retiled, re-thatched, or re-mortared from time to time. That was just how it was. Not that modern roofs are maintenance-free either of course, but there is one crucial difference: most people in olden days weren’t building alone. They worked as communities. Re-tiling a roof is pretty easy when there’s a crowd of you, but doing it single-handed, or even as a couple, is a lot slower and more tedious.
 
Anyway, here are your six beautiful natural roofing options, plus whether or not you can get away without a vapour barrier.

1. Living Roof
In my opinion the sturdiest of the lot. I love a living roof. I have two articles on making living roofs. Here’s how I made mine and here’s how Cath Coffee in London made hers.
 
Pros: If made properly they don’t leak, can’t crack, animals can wander all over them without breaking them, they’re hurricane proof, soundproof, and possibly help retard a fire too. Basically no maintenance required once it’s built.
 
Cons: These are heavy, so you need a decent roof structure to support the weight, which could end up being the equivalent of a couple of elephants (albeit spread more thinly). You’ll need some plastic, which is of course the devil these days. Also, a living roof really needs a damp climate to actually be ‘living’.
 
Vapour barrier? Definitely. You’ll need two in fact, to be sure of success. Something like an EPDM or bitumen will go over the roofing boards, then you’ll need a couple of sheets of plastic as a root barrier.

2. Tiles
Tiles are of course some of the oldest and most widely used natural roofing options in the world. For centuries at least, people have been firing clay and turning it into pots, amphoras, and roofing tiles. I confess tiles aren’t my favourite because they’re so frickin’ fragile, though on the plus side, they can look beautiful, and you might also get away without a vapour barrier with them. But tiling is definitely a two-person job unless you want to get rather tired.
 
Pros: You can use them to catch rainwater (big plus), beauty, simplicity. Possibly no need for a vapour barrier.
 
Cons: Fragile, can’t handle much falling on them without cracking, prone to get ripped off in gales, repairing tile roofs is annoying.
 
Vapour barrier? This really depends on which tiles you’re using, and how desperate you are to stay perfectly dry. If it’s an exterior roof, say a porch or a shed or something, you can easily get away with no barrier. For a house, especially if using the old school Mediterranean curved tiles, a breathable roofing membrane under the tiles is usually recommended.

3. Slate
 
If you live anywhere with slate (such as Galicia, Spain) slate slabs make amazing roof tiles. They’re more forgiving to lay, and a bit less likely to get ripped off in the wind than traditional terracotta tiles, because they’re flat.
 
Pros: Sleek, easier to lay than terracotta (in my opinion). Good for rain harvesting.
 
Cons: You really need to be in a slate area to make a slate roof feasible and sustainable. Like other tiles they are potentially a bit leaky. And you have the issue of repair when the slate slabs crack (because a tree branch fell on them or something). Slate tiles are also fairly heavy.
 
Vapour barrier? See my comments on terracotta tiles above.

4. Thatch
 
Oh, who wouldn’t want a thatch roof? Romantic, completely natural, and super snug too. Thatch roofs are usually made from reeds, but people do also use grasses (though grass will last far less time). If thatch is made professionally it is nice and weatherproof too. So what do you need to consider?
 
Pros: Insulating as heck. And of course thatch is so beautiful.
 
Cons: Fire risk.  Thatch needs decent maintenance.
 
Vapour barrier? Ah well, according to the experts this all depends on if it’s a cold or a warm thatch roof. Here’s a good article explaining when and when not to use a vapour barrier with thatch.

5. Madras Roof (Brick and Lime Mortar)
 
One of India’s traditional roofing techniques is a method called the Madras roof. Bricks are laid at a 45-degree angle over the rafters and mortared using a special lime application. Karen Shetty explained how that was done here.

Pros: Beautiful, inexpensive, perfectly natural, honouring tradition.
 
Cons: Fairly heavy, so decent supporting rafters are required. Like thatch, if you are dead-set on an optimum job, get a professional to lay this kind of roof.
 
Vapour barrier? Normally vapour barriers are not used in India with these roofs.

6. Bamboo Roof
Ooh if I lived in a climate with bamboo… Bamboo is nice and sustainable, doesn’t weigh too much, and is a material geared to creating gorgeous roofing structures. There are two ways to use bamboo in roofing. Usually you see the bamboo used for the frame and then some sort of thatch/reed roof over the top. But you can also use bamboo cut in half to form a kind of crenellated roof which would be excellent for rain harvesting.
 
How to make a simple bamboo roof: 
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZnMWDI6soo
 
Pros: Inexpensive (if you are in the bamboo zone), sustainable, lightweight, cool.
 
Cons: Bamboo can go mouldy if not treated properly.
 
Vapour barrier? Because bamboo roofs are usually found in warm humid climates, and because bamboo is pretty efficient at channeling away water, I’d say it would be a bad idea to stick a vapour barrier underneath due to the risk of mould.

This technique is very popular in the UK. It involves creating wooden plates from a hardwood like chestnut or larch, then fixing them on the roof like tiles.

Pros: The beauty is these can be made by hand. If you have a large team, you can get quite a production line going. They are very sustainable and inexpensive to make. Shingles create a charming country finish too.

Cons: I wouldn't want to do this single-handedly.

Vapour Barrier? Just like ordinary tiles, shingles don't necessitate a vapour barrier. If you did put one under, I'd definitely advise it being permeable.

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(And when isn’t)
 
When people first see earthbag, one rather ill-informed reaction is to recoil at the bags. Why not make a pure cob home instead? If you happen to live in a country without severe flooding or earthquakes, and you are fortunate to have a roof over your head while you build (ie. you're well-off financially), then build a cob house. Earthbag might not be for the European middle classes (though hey even with the sacks it's way more sustainable than the average resource squandering "eco homes"). Earthbag however is a sustainable, concrete-free life saver for people in earthquake zones, landslide zones, and the homeless who need a mud-based house in a hurry.

I love earthbag building for a number of reasons: In terms of cheap, sustainable disaster-proof structures, I think it’s hard to beat. No other building method can compete in terms of price and sheer indestructibility. Earthbag is fast to  build (way faster than cob) and doesn't require much technical knowledge. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s the most appropriate method for everyone in every situation, by a long shot.

Here's my opinion on the right and wrong time to build with earthbags.
One issue with earthbag is of course the polypropylene bags. If you substitute the PP with hemp or jute, things are improving (see my post on the sacks here). But in some (or even many) cases, none of this is even necessary. Let’s start with what earthbag is good at.

When is the right time for earthbag?
 
1. Flood plains. Cob or adobe cannot stand flooding. Earthbag can. So if you live somewhere that could potentially be flooded, and want to build with mud, earthbag gives a lot more peace of mind.
 
2. Earthquake zones. It is more than a little annoying when the natural building snobs sitting comfortably on solid ground in central or western Europe sniff at earthbag. For anyone who’s lived on an earthquake fault, whether your house is going to collapse on you or not is the main thing on your mind when you build. Nothing else matters. Sorry. It is true that straw bale copes pretty well with earthquakes too (not as well as earthbag, but good enough), but that won’t help if you, like many of the world’s poorer people, live in an earthquake zone also prone to flooding, or you face landslides. Having lived in Turkey twenty years, and seen near on 100,000 people die in one earthquake, I’m in love with earthbag. While living in my house I experienced five quakes that were over 6 on the Richter scale, and have never felt so safe.
 
But...what about those incredible Japanese temples? Yes, buildings like Horyuji temple in Japan with its unique joinery are testimony to the ingenuity of the human spirit. But you need to be pretty well-heeled or a very competent carpentry specialist to build such a structure. It’s simply out of reach for most of the world’s population.
 
3. Crazy weather. If you live in a place with tornadoes or hurricanes, earthbag buildings are basically invincible.

4. War zones or trigger-happy nutcase zones. Bulletproof walls may not be the first thing on your mind if you live in some places. In that case, lucky you. In other places it matters.
 
In short, earthbag is a life-saving, game-changing building method for disaster areas and economically challenged communities. It’s cheap, needs very few resources, it’s low-impact, and if there are a gang of you, a structure can be built fast. It requires little technical know-how, and you don’t need to be a professional or an engineer. That’s the good news. But there are other situations when earthbag building isn’t the smartest thing to do.
 
When is the wrong time for earthbag?
 
1.Retaining walls
Because of its tensile strength, a lot of people not unreasonably assume that earthbag would be a great idea for retaining walls. I’m not a fan of this, and have seen one or two collapse when water backs up behind the wall. You’d need plenty of drainage pipes running through it to solve the problem. Then there’s the issue of plastering the thing. If it’s out in the open with no covering, neither lime nor earth plaster are durable enough. So whaddya know? Concrete gets spread all over the wall, which begs the question as to what was the point of the earthbag in the first place.
 
Best option? Dry stone is hard to beat for retaining walls, because the gaps in the rocks act as a sieve and allow plenty of drainage. Dry stone walls are even used on a massive scale for highways here in Spain, because hey, it works.

2. Domes in wet climates
I’ve covered the whole dome issue here, but unless you are in a very dry climate a dome is often not the smartest idea. Again there are some workarounds, but creating a breathable waterproof plaster for such a building is a real challenge.
 
3. You’re not in a disaster zone with floods, earthquakes, or hurricanes.
If you’re lucky enough to live in a place without crazy skies or earth, then why bother with earthbag? Just build using wattle and daub, cob, or adobe instead. It could be less labour-intensive, and you don’t need the PP sacks.
 
4. Lone builders or couples
Earthbag is best for team builds. It lends itself to a gang of four or more. If not, it’s going to move very, very slowly, and you risk burnout. Again, wattle and daub is my method of choice for lone builders.

The arguable time for earthbag
Personally, I think there is another place for earthbag, and that is arty architecture. There is far too much emphasis on numbers and carbon footprints in the current environmental discussion, and far too little emphasis on balance, beauty, and peace. Who cares if we reduce our carbon output to zero if our world is so desperately ugly, bare, and noisy that we don’t want to exist anyway?
 
So I get it completely when an architect wants to create something amazing with earthbag. The technique gives rise to some very unusual and aesthetic designs. Despite the PP sacks, earthbag is still way more sustainable than many high-end so-called “eco” houses built out of concrete, or posh natural homes that squander precious natural resources (old growth trees, for example).
 
The upshot is, even when not used strictly in the right place and despite the PP sacks, earthbag is still an incredibly low-impact, accessible, and durable building technique.

​Do you enjoy The Mud Home?
If you find these articles inspiring or useful please consider joining us on Patreon. Your support pays for the running of this website, my virtual help, and my sustenance. A big thank you to all The Mud Sustainers, and everyone chipping in and keeping these posts and articles coming.

I’ve used the word “quit” provocatively of course. Way better to have tried your dream out for size and decided “no thanks,” than to spend your whole life just imagining. But it is true to say that some people give up and never complete their projects, while others live in a perpetual state of building chaos for years and years sometimes with  partnerships breaking up under the strain. On the other hand, other people get through the sticky moments and complete their home. You see the end of that process a few years later in a gorgeous social media post. But that result didn’t just appear out of the ether. There’s a bit of a knack.

What people think is hard about building (but mostly isn’t)
 
It’s often the people we least expect that succeed in this game. That’s because there are some massive misconceptions about what it really takes to start, and more importantly, finish your own home.
 
The technical/engineering aspect of building for the most part is not freakin’ rocket science. And for the most part it’s also not why people fail. For the most part you don’t need to have some sort of qualification to build a house. Of course some smart aleck will no doubt point to an example of someone somewhere whose house collapsed. True, it happens. But it’s not the reason the majority of owner-builders end up quitting. Most lay people who start building focus an awful lot on technical and structural elements of the build (as they should), but sometimes it’s to the detriment of other aspects. Knowing how to do something isn’t the same as actually getting it done.

Reasons It All Goes Pear-shaped:
 
1. Disorganisation
Honestly, this is probably the single most common reason I see that people come unstuck. You need to work in an appropriate order and stay vaguely on track. It sounds straight forward. It’s not. There is a lot to think about when you start building and it’s easy to get completely lost. I’m an Earth whispering hippy that talks to trees every day and likes to sculpt flowers out of mud, but even I have a game plan and a to-do list. Some sort of structured approach is essential. Prioritising correctly is a life-saver.
 
In the same vein, you need to avoid getting distracted as far as is humanly possible. The more you can stay on task and keep some forward momentum doing the right tasks at the right time, the easier it all is.
 
For an example see Dianne and Bismil’s monster renovation in Spain. I’ve learned a lot from Dianne because she’s super organised, and moves cleanly and clearly through the build.

2. Refusing to get in professional help when necessary
I doubt many Lone Rangers will to listen to my take on it, but hey, since when has that stopped me:)) Let’s face it though, it does look a bit like some of us think help is akin to failure. So we carry on doing a sub-par job, wasting masses of time and energy on parts of the build which are neither our speciality nor enthusiasm. Basic plumbing is left unattended. Taps don’t work. Solar power systems function poorly and everyone is using a torch to read their books. Floors are not laid. Kitchens and bathrooms don’t work properly. Everything is a bit of a mess. Finally, family members lose patience and skedaddle out of there. At the end of this sorry state of affairs, said builder blames said everyone else for the failure. Yeeees, seen it too many times to mention.
 
I won’t lie, I hobble under the Lone Ranger fallacy as much as the next independence-lover. I also know it’s not easy, and the criticisms of onlookers can be hard to stand at times. But I can face the truth when I see I’m not doing a good job, and will get in a pro if I have to. Come on folks, get real! Even professional builders work in teams, and hire plumbers, electricians, and carpenters.
 
For an example of what I mean, take a look at Nad Kad’s amazing strawbale house. Yes he built a lot of it alone, and is a genius at clay plaster, but he never fails to mention that Jim Schalles was the pro behind the gorgeous (and well-functioning) rocket stove.
 
3. Unrealistic goals and biting off more than you can chew.
Most of us make this mistake somewhere along the line, but some folk catastrophically misjudge the effort involved in building. Ianto Evans said something along the lines of, "Remember everything takes twice as long as you think and costs three times as much." I must admit, personally I come in not too far over budget, but things definitely always move far slower than I want or expect.

So before you buy that ancient castle in Scotland, or decide to construct the world's first multi-storey earthbag mansion, take a long step back. Try a small build first and get a feel for what's involved. Unless your house is a very teeny tiny cottage (think 15m2) your total build is probably going to take at least two years. Even if you have ten people helping, (and take it from me, half of those ten probably won’t be much help) it will still take that time. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at this article by the very professional building team at Koluba, who know exactly what they’re doing and have stacks of volunteers. That house isn’t huge at all. It still took the best part of two years.

Yeees. If you think you’ll finish your home in a summer, you’re probably new to the game.
 
But what about my earthbag house in Turkey? It is true that by sheer will and good fortune we erected the structure of (a small) earthbag house up in six weeks. But it took me another eighteen months to complete the interior. That house is just 6m diameter.

4. Poor management skills
People think management is bossing people around or being in charge. In truth, ninety percent of management is people skills. And the biggest management crime I see is lack of acknowledgement for everyone in the team. It is lovely to do things yourself and create your own home, but only a fool thinks anything is built single-handedly. And only a very ungrateful and arrogant fool dismisses the vital assistance and contribution of everyone on their team, including and especially those in the background cooking, cleaning or washing. At. Your. Peril. Even a lone hag like me who loves to work in solitude, who has no one cooking for me or washing my clothes, acknowledges the help of my team. Without my good neighbours, my dad, my friends, my Patreon crowd, and the sporadic but oh so needed help of Jose Manuel, I would have been snookered many times.
 
For an example see Kay La Bella’s project. She has such a wonderful way with people that makes everyone want to help, and the energy of the project simply shines.
 
Ways to win in management:
Say thank you often. Point out the fab things people have contributed. Listen to other people’s ideas, and incorporate some of them. Include everyone, exclude no one. But the most important words to overuse are “thank you”.

5. Running out of money
I have to admit, I’d never quit because of this. Never. I mean you can always scrape a bit together somehow, can’t you? I think if you use mud, lime, and listen to your land, you can pretty much always keep building. Creativity and willpower trump money any day. Use second-hand stuff, use your wits, use the abundant resources of your land, and don’t buy into all this expensive Grand Designs lark. Stop competing with the Joneses, they’re idiots anyway. The irony is, when much of your house is homemade, it becomes more attractive.
 
My current build is quite elaborate for me, but my budget is tiny. I just move slower and make (sometimes hard) choices. Nevertheless, I see that money is an ostensible reason people give up.
 
Some ways to mitigate financial ruin:

1. Stop buying stuff! Use what you have to hand unless a purchase is absolutely necessary.
   
2. Move through your project bit by bit. Don’t get scattered, and keep it small at the outset. Complete one structure or one room or one part of the build first. Complete it well enough that you can live comfortably in that bit while you find money for the rest.
   
3. Find some way of earning money while you build. There’s always a way. It also gives you a break from building, so it’s a win-win.
   
4. Be frugal and modest, but don’t fall into scarcity mode. When you slide into that mindset it all gets a bit grim. Been there, done that.
   

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Beginners’ Tips for Going Rural

When you first buy land or move into the country it can be daunting to know which tools you need. Here is my list of the first 10 things I’d buy. I also asked around in our Facebook group, and not everyone agreed with me, so I'll add the valuable recommendations of those off-gridders at the end.

Forget the expensive high tech at the beginning, especially if you’re off-grid. Consider where you are going to store this stuff and how you’re going to power it. The more machines you have, the more headaches if you ask me. They are prone to get ruined by weather, or even stolen. I’ve grown to love the simple tools. How amazing they are— the axe, the pick, the scythe. They are cheap, need no power or fuel, they are quiet, and many times do a better job than their noisy mechanistic counterparts. No one nicks them, either.

Ground Tools
If you’re starting from scratch, you want some old-school gardening tools at the outset, because the first things you’ll be doing are clearing spaces and digging. Sadly  a lot of folk can’t seem to do anything without involving some earth-wrecking hulk of a machine, but if you’ve been with The Mud Home a while, you’ll know that isn’t how I roll. Land is so precious, so alive, so communicative. Using the simple old tools keeps us in shape, and always returns a more aesthetic result without demolishing any number of treasures our land is holding that we haven’t noticed yet.
 
1. Pick
Probably the most fundamental tool of the lot. Whether it’s for digging a hole, digging rocky ground, or breaking ground, the pick is the one.
 
2. Scythe/sickle/machete
You need some sort of undergrowth clearing tool, and it depends on your land as to what that will be. In Turkey where it was rocky scrubland, the sickle and machete were more useful. Here in Spain’s grassy north, it’s the scythe. Scything is such a beautiful way to spend an afternoon. I’m still baffled by why anyone would want to strim instead of scythe. Strimmers and petrol mowers are ghastly, noisy, wildlife massacring, and unpleasant to use. They’re not even faster than the scythe. Take a look at this video to see what I mean.

3. Spade
There are many different kinds of spades, and again it depends on your soil, but if you can only buy one at the outset, get one that can both dig earth (has a pointy end) and that you can use as a shovel too (not too heavy).
 
4. Wheelbarrow
So fundamental. I try to imagine life without the wheelbarrow sometimes, and it’s a back-breaking world of drudge. Hail to the wheelbarrow inventor! The tyres burst sometimes, which is the only bummer. I have a spare wheel for mine just in case.
 
5. Axe
I have come to love the axe after I was taught how to use it properly. I have two: a big one for wood splitting, and a little one which is just such a wonderful tool for chipping points into posts, scraping off bark and dry rot, and for some basic chiselling too.
 
6. Rake
Up there with the pick and the spade. If you’re terracing or gardening, a metal rake is a must for dragging that topsoil where you want it to go, or for ‘sweeping’ rocks and stones from said topsoil.

Other Mud Homers' comments:
"A shovel, wheelbarrow, and a Portuguese hoe-like tool called an ‘enchada’ will accomplish a lot and they’re what I started with for my first job clearing top soil for a parking area. Also, I’m a massive fan of rock bars... " Says Kirsty who's doing an amazing job of building her own off-grid world in Portugal.

"To the above list, I would add an auger especially if you have any fences to erect or sheds to build etc. We use it instead of the clamshell fencepost diggers." Says Kit who's a very handy off-gridder in the States.

"The pick I use a ton. I have 2 because i keep breaking the handle." Says Chris who's sitting in an idyllic bit of rainforest in Columbia.

Building Tools
 
7. Hammer and nails
I suppose if you were desperate (I’ve done this) you could use a rock as a hammer, but  yes the hammer is fundamental for wood work, stone bashing, and so much more.
 
8. A decent hand saw for wood cutting
Easier said than found sometimes. Choose the teeth length carefully. Too long a tooth and the saw is always catching and harder to control. Too short a tooth and you’re busting a gut to saw anything.
 
9. A wrench and spanner collection
This can be pretty handy too for fixtures, plumbing, and so on.

Power Tools
 
9. A decent battery-operated drill/power driver (and screws)
Without a doubt the most empowering power tool of the lot. I mean there’s so much you can do with a drill because of its multiple attachments: bore holes in wood, metal, and masonry, screw in screws, you can get wire brush attachments for cleaning, attachments for digging out mortar, attachments for sanding...yeah. Sometimes the tech really does what it’s supposed to, and the drill is one such example.
 
10. Chainsaw
Love it or hate it? I hate the noise and the forest-ripping brutality of this machine, but I’m not gonna lie, it’s useful. Not just for firewood, but for building. I can now cut joists by chainsaw almost as straight as with a circular saw. It’s also necessary for pruning large branches. But seriously, if we can make cars almost silent, why oh why has the chainsaw not been modified with silencers?
 
A bad workman blames his/her tools.
If you’ve got these 10 tools, you can do pretty much anything, and if people reckon they can’t, I find it a little strange, because this is about all I had to work with for most of my time building my earthbag house in Turkey. But…

Bonus luxuries that could make life pretty sweet
Depending on your areas of interest, there will be some other power tools that allow you to create with more finesse, particularly for wood work and metal work. Do yourself a favour though and buy a cordless, battery-operated, nifty device. I can’t quite work out why anyone is still buying these massive mains-powered machines anymore, they’re so outdated (unless you’re a professional carpenter or something). I’m wondering if people don’t realise how the tech has improved and how powerful the new cordless devices are. Cordless, battery-operated tools have so many advantages:
 
1. If you’re off-grid, you can easily charge them on a solar power system (conversely you’ll be hard pushed to have enough power margin to use the mains’ versions).
 
2. Cordless tools are much easier to store. You can keep them in the boot of your car if you want.
 
3. They are way easier to use, and in my opinion way more useful. You can carry them to any part of your building or land, rather than trying to carry bits of timber to the machine or messing around with dangerous extension cables.
 
The Most Fundamental Power Tools
Grinder – Again with its many attachments the grinder can be very useful, though it’s by no means totally necessary. I never had one in Turkey and we built a whole house.
 
Circular saw – For woodwork enthusiasts and joiners, this is definitely going to be useful. Get one of the new battery-operated beauties though. You can carry them wherever you want, up onto a roof if necessary.
 
Sander – Well, you can get sanding attachments for grinders, so this would be last on my list. But a decent sander can do a better job on flat pieces of wood.
 
Jigsaw – I do things with my jigsaw that are best not mentioned. If you like curves and circles, this is the tool for you:)
 
Small extras:
I’ve only mentioned the bigger tools. Of course there are zillions of small cheap extras, like tape measures, knives, screwdrivers, and paintbrushes, but that would kinda take forever.

Other Mud Homers' Comments:
"For carpentry definitely a tape measure, a good saw, a good square, chisels, and lots of pencils! For power tools I think my orbital sander is great because I can’t realistically sand giant beams by hand but many other power tool jobs can easily be done with hand tools." Says Kirsty. And I second the good square, and the pencils which are often devoured by the lesser known pencil weasel that hides in all building sites the world over.

I used to go to the gym when I lived in the city. Now I get better exercise, outside in the sun and fresh air, and improve my land. No monthly fee for that. I do miss a bit of the social aspect of the gym, but this is better in every other way. Says Chris in general. So true! And yes, that's what you don't get when you sit in a mechanical digger all day:)

Do you enjoy The Mud Home?
If you find these articles inspiring or useful please consider joining us on Patreon. Your support pays for the running of this website, my virtual help, and my sustenance. A big thank you to all The Mud Sustainers, and everyone chipping in and keeping these posts and articles coming.

Nestled somewhere in the Rockies where the days have sharp edges and nights are pierced by starlight, a rather lovely lady is building a rather lovely mud and straw house with a lot of rather lovely people. The backdrop is pretty impressive too, what with grass-swathed mountains plunging into roaring rivers. Idaho. Hmm.
 
Balecob
Kay La Bella’s gorgeous little cottage is interesting not least because it’s balecob. Don’t know what balecob is? I admit, I wasn’t too sure either. It’s a hybrid between straw bale and cob, where the advantages of both cob (structural strength) and straw bale (high insulation) are used to create load-bearing structures. See the links at the bottom for more details on that.

​But there was another thing about this project that caught my eye, and that was the obvious good feeling and community spirit. As soon as Kay joined our special Facebook clan and I began following her build, I was struck by the generosity of her character. She honestly never has a bad word to say about anyone. Needless to say when it came to building her fabulous little balecob cottage, she seemed to be continuously surrounded by smiling, hardworking assistants, a lot of whom seemed to sport plenty of well-defined muscle tissue:)
 
But why Idaho? And why balecob?
 
“There are no building codes in the county, that’s why I bought there, so I didn’t have to get permits or have stamped architectural drawings,” explains Kay, who really has found a stunning spot. And I tell you when I read her comment, and saw the rugged escarpments and rushing rivers, I had half a mind to go buy there too.
 
So how big is the house?
 
“I didn’t realize when I bought the property that there was a size restriction. The total footprint had to be no bigger than 900 square feet. The little subdivision I am a part of had that one “rule”. So the house is about 750 square feet including a small loft, and a to-be root cellar in the back is about 200 square feet,” Kay told me. For those of us in Europe and many parts of Asia, that sounds pretty flipping spacious.

Cat Taylor and friends
Kay did a lot of research and prep work before starting her house. She first tried out cob with an oven, and a shed. So by the time she came to the house, which is always a daunting endeavour, she had some mud skills at the ready.
 
She also hired help strategically, which is something I do too, and can be a really good idea. You can really learn from specialists.
 
“I am so blessed with good friends and family, and they all helped with the grunt work of building the last of the stem wall. We thought we had it done for Cat Taylor so we could start with the straw bales. Ha! She got here and we discovered we needed a whole other layer of stone for the wall,” laments Kay.
 
Cat Taylor is a well-known natural builder who runs the beautiful Natural Building Organisation, which is far more than just a natural building school. Cat also works with horses for special needs and veterans suffering PTSD.
 
“I had hired Cat to come out when another of her workshops in Colorado cancelled. She didn’t really do a workshop with me, I just paid her to come and share her knowledge. But, the friends that showed up did get to work with her. She got us to the point of placing the posts and setting some window and door frames, and then left us with instructions on completing the beams, roof, root cellar roof and balecob infill to follow. I was a bit nervous when she left, having not had her here to get us started with what she knows of bale/cob, but we were very successful. She and so many other resources were there coaching us on, as well as a bit of intuitive knowing.”
 
And honestly Kay has done such a sterling job. She and the team managed to get the exterior complete by winter, which is a big deal.

How did Kay and friends make this house?
 
Long-time Mud Home readers will be getting used to the order of events by now. As always we start with the rubble trench foundation, upon which was built a nice stone stem wall. The rubble trench is your drainage (see more on that here). The stem wall keeps your mud/straw house off the wet ground.
 
The hardest part of the build
There’s always one bit of the build that really tests you. It might be the roof. It might be the plaster or the finishing. For Kay and her family it was that rubble trench and stem wall.
 
“The rock for the rubble trench needed to be clean, because its main purpose is to keep water drained from the house in case of a huge rain. So the trench needed to slope away from the house, have a layer of clean rock size 2-3 inches at the bottom with the drain pipe, then a layer of clean bigger rock 3-4 inches on top, all tamped down as we went,” explains Kay. “I had so much rock! But we needed to sort it into sizes, put it into 5 gallon buckets, dump it on a screen over the wheelbarrow and hose the dirt off to clean it, then dump it in the trench. It was painstaking and seemed to take forever! It was a huge challenge, and none of us had done anything like it before. But I did my homework. The rocks were mostly all laid by hand.”

Post and beam frame
Once the foundation was laid, a post and beam structure was erected.

Balecob walls
Next came the balecob infilling. As you can see the bales were laid on the stem wall, and everything was ‘cobbed’ into place.
 
“Cat Taylor convinced me to do bale/cob, but she suggested to cut the bales in half lengthwise so we would have approximately 9” wide bales instead of 18,” says Kay. And that was a great idea to save space (and bales).

Roof
 
“The supports for the roof are lodge pole pine rafters about 5-6 inches in diameter set with a 24 in space between them. They are then covered with 4 x 8 sheets of plywood or OSB. The main roof has a kind of tar paper vapor barrier on it (not sure how natural that is),” says Kay.
 
I think it’s really hard to get away without some sort of non-natural water barrier in the roof. I mean  yes, you can forego it, but you usually end up with leaks. After the vapor barrier came the metal sheeting, which they screwed into place.
 
“The smaller side roof that will cover my ‘root cellar’ also has the plywood nailed to rafters, then sheets of cardboard to cover the nail heads so as not to puncture the rubber pond liner that was the final layer, before dirt (which I still need to add to, for a living roof).”

This will be Kay’s permanent home. She came to Idaho from Colorado to escape the crowds and help her daughter with her new coffee roasting business. There’s only one downside to Idaho.
 
“I truly desired a longer growing season. I love to garden, and grow my own food,” says Kay. And sitting slap bang on Rapid River, she enjoys free irrigation water that is gravity fed from an irrigation canal about 100 yards above her property. Perfect for gardening and fruit trees. Yes, you might notice I’m rather taken with this property:))

Kay’s balecob house isn’t finished yet, so I’m going to cover it again next year. In the meantime a big round of applause to a brave and lovely woman creating her own gorgeous world away from the madding crowds.
 
Things to take from this project:
 
1. Hiring help strategically can make all the difference between happy success, and exhausted failure. Some people do get rather into the Lone Ranger mindset in building and see any kind of instruction as a sign of failure. In truth, failure more often comes by not enlisting help at the correct times.
 
2. What goes around comes around. When you’re generous and see the best in people like Kay, people are more likely to want to work with you and help you.
 
3. Some counties in Idaho have no building codes. Oooh.
 
Relevant links:
For a super step-by-step article on how to build balecob, go to Mother Earth News:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/balecob-how-to-zbcz1802

Do you enjoy The Mud Home?
If you find these articles inspiring or useful please consider joining us on Patreon. Your support pays for the running of this website, my virtual help, and my sustenance. A big thank you to all The Mud Sustainers, and everyone chipping in and keeping these posts and articles coming.

​5 limecrete recipes from the world’s oldest buildings.
 
There are many builder myths swimming about in the cement mixer of concrete history. One of them is that the Romans invented concrete. They didn’t. They created a specific kind of limecrete, which differs considerably to the Portland cement of today. Also, it’s highly unlikely that they invented the stuff. There’s plenty of archaeological evidence to show other peoples were using limecretes and mortars way earlier. Lime mortars can be found in Syria dating as far back as 6500BC, and in Europe on the banks of the Danube limecrete floors in huts were found dating back to 5600BC. So the Romans were late to the limecrete party. But they did create some very interesting recipes. They weren’t the only ones though.

How did the ancients make limecrete?
This week in answer to a question about pozzolans, I found myself diving down some dusty old rabbit holes in search of the first limecrete recipes. What a wonderful time I had! And what I stumbled upon was so interesting, I decided to share it. The bottom line is there’s no single way to make limecrete. So many pozzolans. So many options:)
 
Huh? What’s a pozzolan?
 
Right, let’s get back to some cement foundations: Lime, lime mortar, limecrete
There’s lime, lime mortar and limecrete. They’re all different. Lime is basically burnt limestone (you can read more about the different limes and how they are made in my article here). When you slake burnt limestone you get a putty. If you mix this with sand or earth, you can make a basic mortar for stone walls.
 
Limecrete
When you mix that same lime putty with something called a pozzolan, a chemical reaction occurs which turns the lime into a cementitious substance. This is a very simplified account, but it gives you a general idea. If you’re serious about using lime, check out my Amazing World of Lime course though.
 
5 Ancient Limecrete Recipes
With that all under our belts, here are five ancient world limecrete/mortar recipes you might like to try (sometimes the ancients used limecrete as mortar, as we do today).

​1. Ancient Egypt: Limecrete Pyramids?
This is possibly the most mysterious of all the limecrete stories and recipes. It’s still highly debated how the Egyptians built the pyramids. What we moderns are a tad slow to realise is the ancients were in many ways more advanced than we are today.
 
Remember those images of all those slaves dragging massive stone blocks across the desert? Well, there’s another theory out there fronted by Dr Joseph Davidovits that those great stone blocks weren’t in fact hauled from anywhere and chiselled, but rather made from poured geopolymer cement. Oooh…
 
Despite the traditionalist backlash, it’s not as far out as it sounds. There’s plenty of evidence of poured limecrete in ancient Egypt, and scientific analysis of the Pyramid blocks has done nothing to dispel Davidovits’ theory. If you’re into this kind of thing, you can read all about it here:
https://watershedmaterials.com/blog/2015/3/31/geopolymer-concrete-egyptian-pyramids-and-a-new-way-forward-for-sustainable-masonry
 
Pyramids recipe (courtesy of the Nabataeans)
Lime + crushed limestone (main aggregate) + high alumina clay/diatomaceous earth + natron salt.
 
There’s some debate whether the Nabataeans were using clay or diatomaceous earth in their mix, so take your pick! But only certain high alumina clays have pozzolanic properties, so lobbing in any old loam you found up the road probably won’t work.

2. The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China was built over a long time, and the builders used many techniques ranging from rammed earth to mortared stone and brick. It was during the Ming dynasty that lime entered the picture. In this era the Chinese created an exciting lime mortar using glutinous starch.
 
Recipe (courtesy of the Ming dynasty)
Lime + aggregate/pozzolan (it’s unclear from my research but probably clay or
sand) + surprise ingredient, sticky rice!
​
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2010/may/revealingthe-
ancient-chinese-secret-of-sticky-rice-mortar.html
 
The glutinous starch in the sticky rice helps bond this crete, making it tougher and more durable.

​3. Roman Limecrete
The Romans did indeed create very slick, tough limecretes often using volcanic substances as their pozzolan of choice. Here’s a recipe from the Baths of Baia in Italy.
 
Recipe from the Baths of Baia
Lime + volcanic tuff (main aggregate) + ceramic fragments.
 
The Romans pozzolaned the hell out of their limecretes. Both volcanic tuff and crushed ceramics are pozzolans, and this combo created an especially durable crete.
 
4. India’s lime mortar heritage
For truly opulent lime mortar mixtures, look no further than India, which developed a stunningly rich lime tradition still well understood today. Due to the large amount of analysis and research conducted on so many of India’s ancient buildings (some folk value their heritage it seems), there are so many detailed lime mortar recipes I had trouble choosing which to add. Here are a couple:
 
Thanjavur Palace Mortar
Substantial testing was done on the mortar for this 17th-century building, as you can read in the link below.
 
Recipe
Lime + quartz (main aggregate) + feldspar + small quantities of ground limestone and lithic grains.
For more detail see this article:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01897-9
 
The feldspar is the pozzolanic ingredient here. The use of grains such as fenugreek and haritaki seeds are common in Indian lime recipes. Not sure if these were the grains in the Thanjavur palace mortar, but could be.

Jaipur Pink City Plaster
 
This is a plaster rather than a crete, but it’s so luxurious I had to add it. The Anant Bhagwan Mandir temple in Jaipur is 250 years old and uses a special glossy lime plaster developed in the 17th century called Araish.
 
Recipe: Quick lime, marble dust, curd, jaggery, and fenugreek.
 
Jaggery is a high-starch cane sugar which would have a similar bonding effect as sticky rice. The casein in the curd helps bind the lime plaster, giving it a slicker look and preventing dustiness.
 
What do haritaki and fenugreek seeds do?
I had no idea, so I asked one of India’s natural building experts: Shagun Singh. Here’s her reply: “The haritaki/harad soaked water is added to enhance lime's workability, increase its compressive strength and reduce porosity. While the fenugreek soaked water serves the purpose of enhancing lime's workability and water resistive properties. Jaggery water is added to lime mortars for enhanced binding, but avoided in plasters.” Thanks to Priyanka Gunjikar for her input too!
 
India’s plaster experts: India’s lime mortar and plaster tradition is vast and detailed, so if you’d like to geek out on that, Thannal Natural Homes is the place to look in the south. Here’s a great article to start: https://thannal.com/plasters-of-rajasthan/
 
In the north, get in contact with Geeli Mitti, who run stacks of workshops: https://geelimitti.in
 
Get experimenting!
Sooo on that basis, time to get your lime cauldrons out folks. As you can see, there’s no single answer to limecrete. But the trick is in the pozzolan.
 
The Amazing World of Lime
 
If you want to learn how to use lime as a paint, mortar, render, and crete, then take a look at my simple fully-downloadable online lime course.
 
"This course is worth every penny. It totally cleared everything up for me and gave me the confidence to get started with lime." Kirsty Henderson, author of Portugal from Scratch.

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