Last edited 13 Mar 2019

Wattle and daub

The old wattle and daub construction system found at the 19th century Razboishte monastery, Bulgaria. By MrPanyGoff [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Wattle and daub is a composite building technique that has be used for wall construction for thousands of years. It consists of a woven lattice (the ‘wattle’) which is daubed with a sticky filler material.

Wattle is typically formed by wooden strips or thin branches woven between upright stakes. Other materials that can be used as wattle include reeds, vines, and bamboo, and it can aso be formed as a loose panels slotted between timber framing.

Daub is typically formed from mud plaster made from a combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. For more information, see Daub.

Once the daub has been applied to the wattle (sometimes in more than one layer) and left to completely dry, it may be whitewashed to give it better resistance to rain, increase its solar reflectance and enhance its appearance.

Wattle and daub is still used in many regions of the world but in modern architecture it became superseded by lath and plaster for wall and ceiling applications, and more recently by plasterboard. However, it has become more prevalent again with the rise in popularity of sustainable building techniques and materials.