Watte & daub walls are a great way of creating fast internal dividing walls in cold climates and all of your walls (interior and exterior) in a tropical environment.
We have been using this wall system at Rancho Mastatal
Sustainability Education Center for over 20 years and have continually improved design and implementation of this system.
This is a sample of the walls, with the different layers of plaster we use when we are finishing with clay plaster. In most climates an interior finish with clay is an excellent choice and can be done relatively easily with not very much
experience.
In our wattle and daub walls we use boron treated bamboo wattle lattice as the framework. We harvest and treat all of our bamboo on site. In a temperate climate you could use sawn or split
wood (eg. Oak,
ash etc) branches of hazel, willow, etc. or a
local bamboo or reed could be used too.
The bulk of the wall is made of a daub layer this is made of:
1 : chopped
straw
1 :
course sand
1 : clay
After this we use a level coat, also known as a brown coat or base coat. This helps, as the name implies, level out the daub layer. This is made of:
3 : 1/8" sifted sand
1 : clay
1/2 : chopped straw (optional)
Then in order to finish our progression of clay we apply our clay finish coat. This is made of:
2.5 : 1/16" sifted sand
1 : clay
20% extra finely chopped straw
To learn more about natural building join us in March for our Natural Building and Plasters
workshop and learn how to take the dirt beneath your feet and turn it into something beautiful and functional
https://ranchomastatal.com/natural-building-and-plasters-intensive-1
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