How to find skilled workers to build a mud house?

No.080 — Read old posts on Tinyfarmlab.com
Reading Time 4 minutes

Struggling to Find Skilled Labor for Your Mud House?
You’re not alone.

One of the biggest concerns in natural building is:

"Where do I find skilled labor?"

The simple answer?
You train them.

You might still find skilled masons for stone masonry and the foundation.

But, skilled labor for mud homes especially buildings with cob isn’t always readily available.

But here’s the good news—
it’s not rocket science.

If someone has experience in cement work, they already have:

• The right tools

• Muscle memory

• Hands-on building skills

They need to learn the materials.

Some construction workers connected to their roots might have also worked with traditional mud dung plasters.

How to Train Labor for Natural Building

Before you can train anyone else, you might have to go through a steep learning curve yourself through books, hands-on workshops, and online courses.

Start with What They Know
Swap cement and sand for clay, sand, and fiber.
Draw analogies between binders i.e. cement and clay and how sand works as an aggregate in both cases.

Let Them Get Their Hands Dirty
Mix cob, try wattle & daub, test natural plasters.
It’s about figuring out the ratios based on the type of soil available.

Break it Down
Base coats, finish coats, and special techniques like Tadelakt.

Refine the Finish
Show how to smooth and burnish for a polished, lasting result.

Where to Find Workers?

• Local masons – They pick up cob techniques quickly.

• Farm laborers – Already skilled in working with the earth.

• Community builds & workshops – Train a team before you start.

Meet Jai Singh ji.
He has never worked with:

• Cob

• Clay plasters or

• Lime Plasters

But he had worked with cement plasters.

And guess what?

He went from 0-1 in three days.

On our first site visit to Agra for our project,
where we are renovating an adobe house, we taught him the following:

• How to make cob

• How to do Wattle and Daub

• Base coat for mud plasters

• Mud lime plasters

• Lime ash plasters

• Tadelakht plasters

Good construction worker requires good training.

Instead of searching endlessly for "natural building experts,"
create them.

A lack of skilled labor shouldn’t stop you from building your dream mud home.

With the right guidance, anyone can learn.



Love,
Raghav and Ansh

P.S. - Connect with us on LinkedIn. See what’s up with our latest project.


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