Our Natural Building Essentials Workshop has come to an end. What a fabulous four days. The focus of our efforts included light clay straw knee walls, clay plaster over wood lath, and an earthen floor in the timber frame “Hammock House”. Students also had a chance to make a cob oven, and experiment with finish clay plaster and clay paint. Click ahead to see more photos.
All the Essentials: Natural Building Workshop Recap
The Hammock House is what we’re calling the small structure we started in last year’s Timber Frame Workshop. The charred timber frame now has mini light clay straw walls with a clay plaster scratch coat. This was a great chance to learn how to prepare light clay straw and talk about its unique insulation and thermal mass properties.
After applying a clay slip coat, we applied clay plaster with trowels and floated fiberglass mesh into the surface. Eventually, the walls will get two more coats of plaster including a lime finish. The exterior will have yakisugi rain screen siding, so we put a single coat of plaster between siding nailers.
The gable ends are wood lath over studs. Plastering over lath is a different experience than going over light clay straw and entails different prep work, of course.
On the final day, we did a deflection test on the wood subfloor and detected zero movement before we began our work mixing and installing a 3/4″ finish earthen floor. Everyone had a chance to spread earth and use wood floats to level sections of the floor as we progressed towards the door opening.
This was just a fraction of the overall experience. I appreciated this great feedback from Nathan G. and his family afterwards!
We loved your ability to deliver knowledgable and detailed instruction while fostering a fun and laid back environment. We greatly appreciated your candid comments regarding the pros and cons to natural building techniques as well as introducing us to others in the community who have successfully utilized similar techniques in both natural building and community supported agriculture initiatives.
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