[New post] How I built my first mud cottage in the Himalaya
An Unknown Indian posted: " July 2021 was when I first decided to build myself a small cottage made of mud in a remote high altitude Himalayans village of mud. In October 2021 a friend of mine responded to my Instagram post, asking for volunteers to help build my mud home and w" Unknownindian
July 2021 was when I first decided to build myself a small cottage made of mud in a remote high altitude Himalayans village of mud.
In October 2021 a friend of mine responded to my Instagram post, asking for volunteers to help build my mud home and with just one positive reply, I took the leap and we decided to start working on the house by November 8th.
And that is how it began, with me and Pallavi, a college friend taking a shared taxi to Wan.
At that time, I thought I could finish this build in a month. Oh, how wrong I was. I had helped build two other mud houses from scratch to almost end, so I was confident I could do it. But the others had more volunteers, labours and well, material. While I had sourced about 200 cement sacks for my earthbag walls and had discovered a few landslides around the village for my soil, building it with just the two of us skinny girls wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!
We started with a dry stone masonry foundation, raising the base to about a foot above ground level. This was to ensure the heavy monsoon or the snow wouldn't damage my earthbags by letting moisture seep in.
For the next two weeks, all Pallavi and I did was shovel dirt, soil, stones or whatever had fallen from the landslide into the cement sacks. Since it was only us girls, we never filled the sacks more than half. We would put about 6 to 7 shovels full of soil in the sacks and leave them aside. Then we would get the neighbour's pickup truck and load these sacks on and unload them back on site. Our site didn't have much soil around, as there was farmland all around, so I had to source it from a kilometre away.
Back on site, we would first empty some sacks in buckets, then place the other half-filled sacks in position, fill them up with the bucket soil and seal it. So, a simple process of laying earthbags became a challenge for the two of us. Filling, emptying, and filling again. Loading, unloading. Lifting, placing, moving, adjusting and by the time we had reached four layers, it had been almost 20 days!
Pallavi had taken a sabbatical for 3 weeks, so I knew this was not going to happen in a month. But winters meant snow and rain so I was unsure of how I would get a roof on before it started. I got my fiance, Yash to come to help me after Pallavi left.
With his help, we got 7 more layers in a week but this meant I had spent a month in this remote village, where the bathroom was 200 meters from my room, where there was no running water supply, no hot water, and well, just overall remoteness. So, I fell sick. I got a major stomach infection and started shivering. No amount of sitting in front of the fire helped, and to make matters worse it started snowing on that day as well.
So, I decided to risk it, cover the earthbag walls with a tarp and cross my fingers. I left on 9th December. Of course in the world of mud construction, this isn't advised, but I didn't have the option of hiring labourers as I had to build this house with a lakh budget. And off I went. Back home.
APRIL 2022:
After the winter, with my fingers crossed as tightly as they could be, I went back to my site. Luckily, the tarp was still in place, the sacks were all in perfect condition and nothing seemed to be weak or torn. And I continued filling sacks to get my wall to the needed height. This time I had two friends come to help, but both for 3 to 5 days only. So I hired one local village kid to help me fill the sack and lay them during the days when my friends weren't around.
This meant that this month I was the only constant while friends and this labour came and went. So by the end of three weeks, my body was majorly tired. My walls had reached the needed height and I had started mud plastering the walls as well. I had spent three days running around the village, meeting people trying to source wood for the roof. When I successfully got the wood after paying a little extra, I couldn't find a carpenter who was free so again, I had to cover my walls with a tarp and leave by April 22nd. I had to stop to take a break as my body couldn't support my zealous brain.
May 2022
I came back on May 9th. I now had to get the roof up before monsoon which could start by June. This time Payal, another friend had decided to help me for two weeks. I had a constant helper and companion which helped. I also had a carpenter and he immediately started working on the rafters for the roof. While he worked with wood, Payal, me and the local village kids started making the mud plaster. We would play local songs, the kids would dance and within half an hour, a batch of cob would be ready. My youngest helper was 2 years old and my eldest was 13!
By 15th May, we had a roof! With a sigh of relief, I took to the next task in hand, plastering all the exposed bags before they rotted away. As for the roof, while I wanted to do a slate-tiled roof, I had a free-standing load-bearing wall which was shaky as the plot of land I was given (for free) had to touch the existing building. Which meant one wall of my earthbag ended on the existing wall.
Again this defied all logic of earthbag structures, which are said to stand only when it is circular or held together with each other. So apart from this free-standing two-meter wall, all other walls, the bathroom, and the 2 walls of the room were held together with a single piece of barbed wire. But this two-meter wall was definitely of concern which made me choose a lighter GI sheet roof instead of the heavy slate roof.
Content that the roof was up, and the walls were almost plastered from the exterior, I decided to head back home again, to source materials for the interior and come back the next month. Payal also helped me get some financial support this month using her contacts, which helped me source materials on time.
June 2022
I was then back on June14th, this time with Pallavi and Yash, with the intention of finishing it up! We started making big batches of cob each day. We not only finished two coats of plaster on each wall but also started doing small sculptures. Alas, my ratio was not perfect as the walls started developing some cracks, but we filled them up and covered them with clay slip.
I then got a dry stone masonry layer done for where I wanted to place my bed and put a layer of earthbag on top. This time Yash did the hard work of getting the sacks while I simply placed them on the stone.
The inbuilt bed
The woodwork on the windows happened, and the shelves and toilet plastering happened. Electric lines were laid by the electrician and by the end of ten days, the house looked kind of liveable. Of course, a lot had to be done, piping, painting, another layer of clay slip, and smooth plaster for the sculptures, but the monsoon started and the mud was all drenched. Pallavi and Yash left on the 22nd. I stayed back for four more days to ensure that my doors got placed. I reused old wooden doors from the neighbouring house which had been demolished. As for the frame I got a metal one welded, as wood was getting scarce to source.
I finally laid a layer of clay with straw for the floor. We first raised the level with stone masonry so that the water had a free channel to flow, and then on the insistence of the villagers, I put pieces of my torn plastic tarp on which I used to make cob and then finally the 1-inch clay layer. Then I left, hoping that the house would withstand its first monsoon without any extra waterproofing measures.
September 2022:
I was back on site, almost a year since I first started, hoping to wind things up this month. The monsoon though severe hadn't done any damage to the house. The walls were all dry and cracked. The floor also had cracks, but I was told to just use a cloth and paint clay slip on the walls and the floor. Which I started doing and the crack did slowly reduce.
I then started applying linseed oil on the bed, as I was told it would help with water repelling. After six layers, it didn't seem that waterproof but I continued. As for the toilet,. since I wasn't sure how well my lime plastering skills were, I used cement. On one wall I placed a metal mesh before applying cement while on the other two, I directly coated it with cement. I then did the broken tile mosaic design on it, and it also seems to be working well. The cement hasn't cracked or gotten loose anywhere.
I also painted the wood green, to go with the roof. My doors, my wooden electrical points, and the windows, all had a green theme. The floor also got two layers of linseed oil.
Finally, my house started looking like a home. I used external metal pipes for the water connection, worked on a small shelf near the kitchenette and placed an induction and kettle, I got two foldable chairs from decathlon and nice blue bedsheets with pillows.
By the end of September, when I left the house it looked livable. I still have to get some good carpets, connect the toilet pipes to the septic tank, and work on a nice bamboo false ceiling, but if any of you want to visit and live in this homestay, you are more than welcome!
And yes, it was built in 1 lakh. But since I still have carpets and false ceiling etc to do, it will go above. But I am still looking at sponsors or just people who want to come stay here and I keep improving on the go.
No comments:
Post a Comment