Wattle and Daub insulative values?

Greetings everyone - New here so I'll beg your pardon now if this is the wrong place to post this or if it's been dealt with in the past. I'm in the (very) early planning stages of a set of buildings for the point in time when we can finally afford our own piece of land. I'm pretty drawn to cob construction mainly because of my heritage but I am also looking at something along the lines of wattle and daub which is another old world construction method.

Wondered if anyone has any experience using wattle and daub construction and if so what sort of R values could one expect from the walls? I'm looking at both a home for my family but also various housing options for our animals (currently just chickens) as we get them.

Thanks in advance

Peace

Jeff

I am wondering the same thing. I want to see about buying a premade CNC timber frame kit and building the walls with double layered wattle and daub.

It is worth noting that there is more than one type of wattle and daub. There is the more well-known single-walled wattle and daub that is just a single layer of woven wicker insulated with cob and there is also a double layer version made of two layers of wicker with an infill layer of insulation.

If there were some journal articles, that might be helpful in determining which earthen comstruction method is best for your climate. I want to see R-values of cob, adobe, and Icelandic turf/sod compared to single walled and double walled wattle and daub made of various materials so I can decide whether or not it would be worth it for me to build a house out of wattle and daub or if I should stick with a hobbit hole or an Icelandic turf house.

I would expect that wattle and daub walls would have similar insulation values as the same thickness of cob, as the materials are the same except for the wattle framework. For a New Hampshire climate, I can't see any thickness of cob or wattle and daub working - earthen mass is a fine heat sink and thermal mass material, but when heat flow is constant in one direction, the walls will always be cold on the inner face.

The double wattle and daub wall mentioned, with insulation in the cavity between the layers, sounds like it might work well. How do you build the second layer of wattle and daub encasing its wattle frame, and how do you get the insulation (of what type?) in the cavity? Do you just lay insulation against the first withe of wattle and daub, then build the wattle frame and second layer of daub applied from the outside of the wall, squashing it around the wattle and against the insulation?

Wattle and daub is the precursor to the more refined lath and plaster technique. R-values, variables and insulating techniques for lath and plaster are readily available with a Google search: insulative value of lath and plaster. A combination of cob (for thermal mass) in some areas and wattle and daub (for insulation) in others is a wonderful option. The builder can use his or her creativity to find an approach integrating the two methods that works for the unique application.