Besides scientific journalism and building research I do a lot of hands on work as well. In the last 20 years I’ve spent a lot of time restoring a 17th century timber frame house in France, making my own daub and doing my own clay and lime renders, besides all the other work, e.g. carpentry – entire new roof in local douglas fur. We also built our own tile oven (kachel ofen, tegelkachel or poele de masse) and recently installed a wood pellet burner.

If you are interested in help (or advise) with the restoration and insulation of your daub walls (torchis), please get in touch by filling in the contact form.

In my thesis (MSc) I assessed several insulation techniques for historic timber frame buildings. And in the French research project Hygroba we assessed the hygro-thermal effects of different insulation materials used in traditional buildings. For this project the daub from our house has been subject to scientific measurement and characterisation at the University of Toulouse confirming it’s excellent hygroscopic qualities and use in moisture buffering.

Old wattle and daub to be reused in restoration