Archive for 2011
The use of earth and clay plasters has increased in recent years, with interest groups concerned with the conservation of historic buildings, ecologically sensitive new construction, alongside a growing interest from industry in innovative materials.
Earth and clay plasters and mortars, along with green bricks plasters and mortars are currently the most product oriented areas of the earth building family. Although many of the commercial products in this field are imported from Europe, there are a growing number of product suppliers and manufacturers in the UK. The European-wide acceptance of training standards for earth plaster which was achieved in 2011 mean there is opportunity now for a growth in the sector.
The third EBUK conference explores these issues, from user, developer and supplier.
Speakers include:
• Tom Morton (Arc Architects)
• Adam Weismann (Clayworks)
• Katy Bryce (Clayworks)
• Ben Gourley (University of York)
• Nigel Copsey (Earth, Stone and Lime company)
• Andrew Heath (University of Bath)
• Neil May (Natural Building Technologies)
• others to be announced.
Venue: The Ron Cooke Hub at the University of York,
Heslington, York. YO10 5GE.
More info here.
“Has anyone seen the roof?”
Well the first bus came and went, and then another and then another. Several years and many thousands of buses have rolled past since we walked away from this unusual request from Cornwall Council.
Read the full story about why Clayworks Director, Adam Weismann, calls this the Slow Bus Movement.
A certificate in Natural Building. It should come as no surprise that Schumacher College, in Devon, England are one of the first to offer leadership in a fundamental aspect of sustainable and green building design. Principal modules are in timber, mass, insulation, Natural Plasters (taught by Clayworks), design and building regulation.
Traditionally a place of higher learning for more esoteric courses, such as Ecological Literacy, this is a way to get down, muddy and real about the type of house you can CHOOSE to live in. Remember – no more decorating.
Directors of Clayworks, Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce, will be teaching the week long module on plastering and rendering with clay and lime, in May 2012.
Clayworks will be showcasing at Grand Designs, NEC, this weekend 7-9 October. Paul Fitzpatrick will be at the Grand Village, an area dedicated to sustainable building skills, and holding clay plaster demos every day.
Clayworks is the guest of Low Impact Living. A run down of LILI events can be found here.
Clayworks have just been featured in this month’s Period Living magazine (September), for the work that we carried out at Kestle Barton: internal clay plasters, cob wall repairs, new cob walls and lime tadelakt plasters.
The Kestle Barton project has also won some recent awards, The national ‘Green Apple Award’ and a Cornish Buildings group award.
Kestle_Barton.pdf
In this 3-minute film, we show the essence of applying clay plaster; how simple it is in general, but also how to achieve some of the nuances that clay plaster is known for.
Here, Paul Fitzpatrick applies Clayworks clay plaster onto plasterboard, which has been suitably prepared with a primer. You’ll hear the term ‘pull back’. This means the relative ‘drying’ of the plaster between applications. Despite remaining breathable, our clay plaster system was recently deemed:
“better than that standard for hardened plasterboard. There is no maximum for conventional plasterboard, but your plaster is the same as conventional plasterboard with a gypsum skim” (BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath).
In later videos, we’ll show how to apply primers and our Protective Wall Glaze.
James and Paul from Clayworks attend the Owlsworth, Henley, Architects’ Day. We have the lunchtime slot and a captive audience of 30 conservation architects, to whom we introduce the concept of clay plasters…
Quite surprisingly, very few had ever come across clay used in such a way. Clay plaster is much better known on the continent; Germany and Holland have each known clay plasters for decades now.
Clayworks run monthly courses in clay plaster application in the UK for both novices and professionals. Details of our next course:
When: Thursday 29th September
Where: Cornish Lime Company in Bodmin, Cornwall PL31 2DZ (Cornish Lime for directions)
Time: 9.30am-4pm
Cost: £120 ex.VAT per person (includes lunch)
What: Training day for professional plasterers. Get familiar with the application of Clayworks base and top coat clay plasters. Qualify for the Clayworks UK Clay Plaster Network (CPN).
Contents: Identify suitable wall surfaces, prepare wall surfaces, application and finishing techniques
More details: Write to us at courses@clay-works.com; www.clayplaster.com
and follow our twitter updates at ClayplasterUK.
by Adam Weismann & Katy Bryce.
Our second blog-friendly extract from Using Natural Finishes on the science of clay plasters.
Clay plaster has some special characteristics when it comes to how it interacts with moisture, and this has implications for its use as a protective wall finish.
As has been established above, clay plaster will absorb moisture into and out of its open pore structure. This establishes it as being a ‘breathing’ material. Unlike lime, however, which is also a ‘breathing’ material, the clay plaster will self-seal itself because of the tendency of the water molecules, coming into contact with the clay, to bind themselves to the surface of the clay platelets and cause them to expand.
This mechanism prevents the further passage of moisture through the full body of the clay plaster. This moisture is held here until conditions are dry enough for it to evaporate safely out. This prevents the moisture from being wicked into the underlying structure, as would be the case with cement, and can be the case with lime.
This mechanism makes clay plasters ‘water-resistant’, meaning that they can resist the passage of moisture through them. This must not be confused with the concept of being ‘waterproof’, which would imply that moisture was unable to penetrate into its structure at all, like a waterproof paint.
When the Observer and Times photographer Ray Main comes knocking, you don’t turn down the opportunity.
Ray has the ability to frame the essence of Clayworks – he also manages to capture some rare moments when Directors Adam and Katy are actually the focus of attention (instead of the wall they are clay plastering).
Here Ray lets us have a peek at what his eye finds when roaming Claywork’s inner sanctum and private clay plaster projects.
Clay works uncut