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Jun 17
Love2

Finish Clay Plaster: Materials and Recipe

By Clay Plaster
Clay Plaster - Interior Finish

Applying finish clay plaster on straw bale walls

Applying clay plaster may be one of the most satisfying parts of building a natural home. Smoothing over cob or straw bale walls with a creamy clay plaster mix is incredibly satisfying and brings about a truly dramatic transformation. What was once coarse is made buttery and gracefully smooth. For a successful clay plaster job, it’s important to carefully prepare and mix your material. In this post, I will explain the preparation methods and recipe I use for most of my natural building work.

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Jun 16
Love0

Living earthen floor?

By Earthen Floor

I have been away from Dancing Rabbit for the past week, and friends have been monitoring the drying of my earthen floor, which I completed about a week before I left for New Jersey. My friend Liat just sent me some images of what the floor looks like… it isn’t dry, and there is now both grass and mushrooms popping up through the floor.

The last week has been quite damp there, but damn… it’s already been two weeks since the floor has been finished. (It’s 1.5″ of new material, so it’s not that much stuff that has to dry out.)

I’m a little concerned about what looks like definite mold… but should I be worried? Anyone experience a situation like this? I won’t be able to pluck the grass and mushrooms and wipe the mold until the floor dries…

livingfloor?

Hmm.

Jun 12
Love0

Help Promote Cob Building and Support The Year of Mud

By Uncategorized, Resources

A little over one year ago, I started building my first cob house. And simultaneously, I started The Year of Mud to document the entire building process. I have kept regular documentation going since I started designing my house, all the way through making an urbanite foundation, to building cob walls, constructing a reciprocal roof frame, and more recently, making a rocket stove and living sod roof.

endofseason02

You can help spread awareness about cob building by helping The Year of Mud to continue to share cob building stories and information.

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Jun 02
Love0

And now… I wait.

By Earthen Floor

The final interior plaster is done. And yesterday, I completed laying down the earthen floor. That means I must stay out of the house until the floor dries, which could take up to a week or more. Once it is dry, I will oil the floor, and move into the house.

So now I must simply wait.

Nearly all of the work is done. All that remains is installing the skylight and plastering the cob bed and bench (which are still not dry), but neither of those things has to happen before I move in.

It’s a strange feeling to be nearly ready to move into this house that’s been the focus of my every day since last spring. It’s nice to be able to think about what I’ll do once I’m settled in. I’m excited.

Perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to relax while I wait on the floor. (Perhaps I’ll finally get to writing more about my rocket stove, earthen plaster, and now the earthen floor, too.)

May 18
Love0

All that remains…

By Earthen Floor, Uncategorized

At this point, all that remains before I move into my new house is finishing and sealing the earthen floor, doing the interior final plaster work, and installing a skylight.

The plaster work will probably take the longest length of time among these three things, since I want to do a bunch of tile mosaics inside as I plaster. Those mosaics can take a while…

My skylight (a 60″x60″ piece of 1/4 in. clear polycarbonate) should be arriving at the end of the week, and I’ll probably start mixing my finish plaster tomorrow, as soon as I get some more cow manure.

Of course I’m tempted to estimate when I’ll move in… I figure I’ll give it a month. The floor and walls will need some time to dry before I can move my stuff in, so even if I finished in a week and a half, I can’t move in immediately.

May 08
Love2

Starting to build the living roof

By Living Sod Roof

sod03.jpg

Lately I have been focusing a lot of my attention on building the living roof (a.k.a. green roof, sod roof, or turf roof). Last week, I finished building an edge board – a sort of retaining wall around the perimeter of the roof to help hold the soil from sliding off the roof. I debated quite a bit about how to construct the edge board, and eventually I decided that I would use round black locust logs spiked into the rafter ends with giant 8″ nails. Unfortunately, the logs only extend a couple of inches above the height of the roof, so it’s less of a retaining “wall” and more of a little edge “bump.” (See above photo for a better idea.) I’m not too afraid of soil sliding off the roof, so I’m not that worried.

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