Wattle and daub was the main choice for lining walls right up to the late 1800’s when better building materials became available. It was used many thousands of years before the common era as far back as when people first started to leave their skin huts and tents and make more permanent structures, starting right after the ice age.
Here’s a few commonly asked questions about the material and how you can make it:
What is Wattle and Daub?
Wattle refers to a lattice wall made by weaving sticks through each other, and daub refers to the material used to coat the walls to make them waterproof. Daub is normally made from 4 main ingredients, clay, mud, animal dung and a binder such as straw or horse hair.
How long does Wattle and Daub last?
If made properly it can last for hundreds of years, with some of the older manor houses in England still bearing the original daub used to create them, with one example being just over 700 years old. The problem with this material is that its slightly soluble, so its most effective if protected from the rain. If you’ve ever seen an iron age round house with wattle and daub walls, you’ll notice that the roof always overlaps the outer walls enough to protect them from the rain.
How do i make Wattle and Daub?
The first stage is making the wattle wall or fence. Simply gather a load of straight sticks and lay some on the ground vertically in front of you spaced 6 to 12 inch’s apart. Then take another stick and starting at the bottom, weave horizontally and go over the first stick and under the next and repeat. Its very easy to get the hang of and you can make any size and shape wall you like if you can find enough sticks.
As for the daub there’s various recipes which depended mostly on where people lived. The main things you’ll need are clay, mud and a binder with the additional option of adding some kind of grazing animal dung, though its not necessary.
Mix equal parts of clay and mud together, then when its well mixed add handfuls of your binding material. If your just trying this for an experiment than any kind of fibrous material will do, which includes grass, straw, reeds, hay or any similar material.
As for mixing it together, the clay can be very hard to mix with the softer materials, so the best thing to do is dig a little pit and put the clay and mud in, then take off your shoes and socks and get stomping. Its hard work mixing daub and takes a while, but make sure you only add small amounts of your binder at a time because if there’s to much it can cause the material to crack more when it drys.
As for applying daub its quite straight forward, just take a handful and cram it onto the wattle, making sure to press it into the gaps in between so it gets a good grip on it. It can take a while to dry and you should always leave it to dry out naturally as heating it to speed up the process will causes it to crack more.
When it dried parts of the wall will crack anyway, but there shouldn’t be anything to big and if there is just touch it up with a bit more daub.