Plasters and mortars are by far the process that I get asked about the most, and for good reason as plasters are what protect the building from the elements and give them their beautiful finish. Understanding how the material is going to behave right the way through the process, plasters and mortars should be planned for from the beginning. Plasters that are not planned are … [Read more...]
Natural Building part 2: Understanding & testing different earths
One of the challenges of working with earth is that no two sites are the same. The recipes one learns on one site may not work on another, because the earths found there are composed differently. Most earth building relies on a mix of sand and clay, which may be present in a single earth or need to be blended together. Sand has many faces Sand has a particular particle … [Read more...]
Natural Building part 1: What is it?
Natural Building means different things to different people. Personally, I can’t view natural building in isolation from sustainability and sustainable building, writes Peter McIntosh, natural builder, in the first article in his series about this topic. Sustainability requires that we view ourselves as part of an ecosystem. In a sustainable system the materials your house … [Read more...]
