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straw-clay Archives - The Year of Mud

Building a Light Clay Straw (Straw-Clay) House

By Light Clay Straw

Interested in learning more about light clay straw (or straw-clay, or ‘leichtlehm’) construction? My friend Jacob over at Red Earth Farms whipped up this handy guide to building with straw-clay. Inside you’ll find advice for dealing with framing your home, how to protect the walls from the elements, making light clay straw and finishing the walls with plaster, and more good stuff. Check it out below.

straw-clay walls

Jacob’s light clay straw home

One Straw Revolution: Light Clay Straw Construction

by Jacob Schmidt

This is an introduction to light clay straw construction (a.k.a. “straw-clay”). In the summer of 2010, I started construction on my first house (20 ft. x 12 ft.). It was stud framed with light clay straw infill. I had helped with other natural building projects and had some conventional experience. This article is the product of all of my mistakes (and few successes) so that you, my fellow builder, do not have to walk the road that I have. Fortunately for y’all I built a chicken coop in 2011, and that helped me to learn more about building correctly with light clay straw. (One mistake being I should have done the coop first, but at least my chickens are happy.) Read More