Light Straw-Clay (aka Slip-Straw)[edit | edit source]
Slip-straw is tamped by hand or with a stick in between 'slip forms'. Forms are placed on either side of the wall cavity, which are then removed after being filled and refastened further up the wall.
Woodchip-Clay (AKA Slip-Chip)[edit | edit source]
A variation on slip-straw. Bark-free woodchips of various sizes, coated in clay slip and poured into forms.
Adobe, Compressed Earth Block, Earthbag, Rammed Earth (pisé)[edit | edit source]
Adobe block is made of pre-cast blocks formed of clay soil (an appropriate proportion of clay and sand) and chopped straw. Earthbags use polypropylene bags or tubes as forms that are filled in place and stacked. Rammed earth — also known as pisé, or pisé de terre — is like building a cement wall with earth: soil in proportion with clay, sand, and gravel, often with a stabilizer (traditionally lime or animal blood, now more often cement), is tamped (or 'rammed') into forms that are then removed. The wall is left to dry. [[Cobb] has similar ecological benefit, thermal and moisture properties, and cost.
Wattle and daub[edit | edit source]
Before the use of wood lath over stick framing, people made walls of woven sticks, reeds, or other similar material — the 'wattle' — and plastered it with clay or manure plasters — 'the daub'.
