• Biblical Families is not a dating website. It is a forum to discuss issues relating to marriage and the Bible, and to offer guidance and support, not to find a wife. Click here for more information.

Cob Houses

BelovedLily

BelovedLily

New Member
Just wondering if anyone else has done any research on Cob or natural houses? I have heard that building this way is not only has health benefits but costs way less.
http://naturalhomes.org/
This is the site I've been reading up on it. I thought it was a great option for people trying to build homes cheaper. :) I really like the idea of a personalized non-toxic home.

Amy
 
We have also been very interested in straw bale construction. Not only non toxic, (providing there's no mold in the straw,) but amazing insulation and nearly endless possibilities for design.
 
CW has a complete DVD series on the subject, because I remember sitting down with him at Nathan's one afternoon at a BF get together and watching them.

I have done a lot of reading on the subject, and it has fascinated me as well.

Doc
 
We've looked into cob, it is way cheaper, less impact, etc. but it is very labor intensive. A planned house raising party sort of thing is what I'd suggest if pursuing this. I've found that most friends will work for free as long as you feed them and they can participate in something unique.
 
Cob is very time-consuming, but is a great way of building. As Doc has pointed out, Cecil is the guy to talk to about this, when he's out of hospital he'll be posting here I'm sure!

My main experience with this sort of construction is with a local 1860's rammed clay building that was rebuilt in 1977. At the time of the rebuilding no trace of fibre was found in the original clay, so the building was rebuilt with the original clay again with no fibre, to both maintain historical accuracy and avoid deterioration of the fibre weakening the walls. Although adobe construction in arid climates uses fibre, we're in a very moist climate so fibre may have its drawbacks. The original cottage had survived for so long even when poorly maintained possibly due to a lack of fibre, so moisture didn't track along it into the walls and destroy them. The walls were a foot thick, and the house kept a very steady temperature. Whenever you entered in the summer it was nice and cool inside.

Unfortunately we had a series of severe earthquakes here in 2010-11, which destroyed many buildings including historical stone churches, and this cottage was severely damaged also. The walls cracked badly and one collapsed outwards. Although some considered it repairable, bureaucracy ensued... and the entire thing has been sadly pulled down, and is currently being replaced by a replica made out of "pseudo-cob" (gravel, sand, mud, cement, straw, plastic netting, steel rods... very unoriginal and highly questionable). It's a shame to lose it. But the steel reinforcing in the new one could well expand and contract over time, cracking the cob, requiring a third rebuild which would give us a chance to redo the original again, who knows! :D

I've learnt from this that rammed clay buildings are brilliant. And they'll come through standard earthquakes fine also (this one survived many over its history). But if you want it to come through a severe earthquake you need fibre in it. It may be possible to use inorganic fibre (glass and/or plastic) to avoid having anything in the walls which could potentially decay, but I'm not sure whether this has been actually tested at all.
 
Can you post them please? Oregon looks like a fine part of the country, I love the forests. :D
 
http://www.cobcottage.com -- pics, videos, and books. Ifo on practical demonstrations or longer seminars ...

They're the folks who brought cob to the USA, or at least popularized it in the 80s - 90s. They have a whole village at their construction school outside of Coquille, OR -- each building more interesting than the last. Well worth the trip. For that matter, well worth the price of their on-site seminars.

The technique comes from Wales -- an extremely harsh and moist environment comparable to Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The folks at CobCottage specifically chose Oregon's south coast as their test site due to it's highly moist conditions & often harsh storms. If the technique holds up there, it should be fine anywhere.

Moisture / fiber: Does not seem to be a problem. Because the structure and finish are not what we would think of as sealed, moisture enters the wall, and just as easily leaves. The difficulty causing deterioration of the fibers is when moisture gets in but is trapped and can't get out. Cob is neither constructed nor finished that way.

Conventional wisdom says that if you give a cob building good boots and a hat (foundation & roof), it can last forever. There are homes in Wales that have been continuously inhabited for upwards of 600 years.

The method IS labor intensive, but FUN! Friends who get involved for a day may well find themselves hooked. And for those who just must, it is possible to mix large batches of cob quickly using power equipment, though for many folks that defeats half the joy of the experience found in the peacefulness of doing it all by hand.

One doesn't have to do a full house to play with and experience the technique. It can be used to build hot-tubs, wood fired ovens and cook stoves, a fireplace in an existing structure, garden walls with unique little nooks, etc. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

Putting a point on it, if I weren't devoting the rest of my life to ministry, chances are good I would do so to cob construction.
 
Doc: My DVD series is on moving to the country and establishing a self-sufficient, off-grid home as preparation for the coming difficult economic times, not on cob per se.

However, YouTube has a surprisingly fun variety of informative videos on the topic.
 
For those of you attending the New Years Retreat in Florida, I will be putting on a short demonstration for self-sufficiency and wilderness survival, it will probably be about 1-2 hours long so I won't be able to cover as much information as I would like to but perhaps you could offer your suggestions on what you would like to hear and I will see what I can include.
 
My wife and I went to the cob houses in Oregon. They were really neat. I still wonder about their viability here in the high desert. I am going to start this spring on my "man" cave built out of cob and bottles.
 
I'm partial to earth-sheltered homes myself but I'm very intrigued by this concept.
 
These are actually homes that my husband and I have been talking about building together for a long time. Easy to heat in the winter and easy to keep cool in the summer and makes it easy to live off the grid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top