How I Made my Wattle and Daub Bathroom

​Finally! Here it is – how I made this lovely little wattle and daub bathroom extension. Wattle and daub is easy, cheap, and extremely durable (there are plenty of 500-year-old wattle and daub structures still inhabited in the UK). The wattled structure gives an extra support to the mud, so that even if the building gets pretty wet, it won't collapse. It's also potentially faster to build than cob, especially in wet climates, because you don't have the same drying out time. I’ll definitely be doing more of it. 

Now you may be thinking: "Seems like that bathroom took a while to me!" And you'd have a point. But the wait time wasn’t actually down to the structure. It was the waterproofing of the limecrete interior that did my head in. I’ll come to that another time, but for now here’s step-by-step how I made the wattle and daub exterior.

Difficulty level: Easy if you’ve mastered earth plaster
 
Cost: The exterior almost cost nothing. I bought some posts for the main structure and wood for the roof (the roof tiles were reused), some nails to hold it together, a tiny bit of lime for mortar, and some sand for the earth plaster. The hazel wattles, clay, and stones were all foraged from my land.
 
Wood: 35 euros
Nails: 3 euros
Sand: 10 euros max
Lime: Negligible (1 euro?)
Total Exterior Cost: Under 50 euros

Extending the roof.

​1. Roof, Posts, and Beams
The first step was to create cover for the structure (we extended the roof to make a porch here) to protect it from the rain. It’s much easier to build walls up under a roof. So I made a small post and beam structure, and my neighbour helped me finish the porch roof off.
 
Please note: My eaves are not wide enough, so don’t copy me. I had my reasons, but ideally you want an overhang of at least 70cm.

Stem wall.

​2. Stem Wall
Whenever you build with mud you want a stem wall to protect the structure from ground water, flooding and damp. Usually you’d do this with rocks and lime mortar. I have great clay though, and was building on a sheltered, very high corner of limestone rock, so I knew it wasn’t going to be sitting in a puddle. That’s why I took a gamble with mud mortar for most of the stem wall. I used lime mortar in the lower area where the shower would be.
 
Note: The mud mortar stood the test of time.

Hazel cut from the copse next door.

3. Prepare Your Wattles
 
You want a soft, thin, bendy wood for wattling. Hazel and willow are favourites in the wattling trade. Use them as freshly-cut as you can, because as soon as they dry out they become harder, brittler, and more difficult to weave.

Making a frame.

4. The Frame
You then need to create a frame (or series of posts) to wattle in. I built the bathroom frame out of some hardwood from the local wood yard, and included space for a hatch. Basically it was an empty box.

Wattling.

5. Wattling
Once I had the frame in place, I wove the hazel in and out of it to create a fence.

Weaving in and out.

5. The Window
I removed the wooden hatch from my bedroom door, and added it into the bathroom as a hatch. Completely unnecessary, but it looks out onto the Picos so I have a view while I clean my teeth, and it’s the kind of detail I love:) This window also allows some air circulation.

The window.

6. Daubing
Once you’ve got the whole structure looking like a fence/box, then it’s time to whip up a batch of earth plaster (actually, better to do this right at the beginning so it has time to percolate). Cream the mud mixture into the frame (as shown in my YouTube video here).

Daubing.

7. Beautification
Each to their own here, but I reckon you’ll need two layers of daub: one to fill the main gaps with, and the second for beautification. Once I’d completed the first layer of daub, I then foraged my land for flattish stones to squash into the second mud layer, to create a cladded finish that blends in with the rest of the stone structures around.

Stone cladding embedded in mud plaster (optional).

8. The End Result
I’m really pleased with how this bathroom turned out. It’s proved durable in the rain despite the lack of roof overhang, and was ridiculously cheap to make. My farmer neighbour loved it, too. Apparently wattle and daub was used widely in Asturias in times gone by, and indeed one of my other cabanas has a wattle storage rack.

I’m pleased as punch with this!

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