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Light clay (also light straw clay, light clay straw, slipstraw) is a natural
Local clay, often local subsoil, is mixed into a slurry with water and then combined with straw or wood chip or other similar material. Wood chips can vary in size from
Light clay (also light straw clay, light clay straw, slipstraw) is a natural building material
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-ma ...
used to infill between a wooden frame in a timber framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
building using a combination of clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and straw, woodchips or some other lighter material.
History
A mixture of clay and straw was used as an infill material fortimber framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
building from at least the 12th century in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Renewed interest in traditional building methods developed from the 1980s after which various natural building architects and builders started promoting the use of light clay.
Usage
Local clay, often local subsoil, is mixed into a slurry with water and then combined with straw or wood chip or other similar material. Wood chips can vary in size from sawdust
Sawdust (or wood dust) is a by-product or waste product of woodworking operations such as sawing, sanding, milling, planing, and routing. It is composed of small chippings of wood. These operations can be performed by woodworking machine ...
to 5 cm in diameter. The ratio of clay to other ingredients can be adapted to either increase thermal mass or insulation properties. The mixture is provided with additional structural strength using wattles. When used externally it can be protected with a Lime render
Lime render is the first coat of lime "plaster or the like" applied to the external surfaces of traditionally-built stone or brick buildings.
It allows the building to 'breathe' – as lime is porous, it allows for the collection and evaporation ...
or a clay render.
See also
* Adobe * Cob *Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...
* Wychert
Wychert or witchert (with a number of variant spellings existing and meaning "white earth") is a natural blend of white chalk and clay which is mixed with straw to make walls and buildings, usually then thatched or topped with red clay tiles. ...
References
{{reflist Soil-based building materials Sustainable building Appropriate technology Natural materials Sustainable products