Subject: cob house walls

From: [email-masked] (Carl Steen)
Date: 6 Jul 1996 23:03:42 GMT

A friend of mine recently attended a lecture by Ianto  Evans
on cob house building.
He was inspired to find that there is a method to produce
almost a concrete hardness and durability before the age
of cement production  etc.
Is the recipe:  mud, straw, sand, water  and does the mud
composition have a big effect on wall strength?
Apparently there are multistory cob houses in various
parts of the world that are hundreds of years old.
I can see an advantage or two over straw building, no
rot problems and much greater mass and strength.

Anyone who has first hand experience with this cob  earth
building please post about it.
thanks
carl steen

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From: [email-masked] (M J Epko)
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 1996 00:08:26 GMT

>building please post about it.

I don't have first-hand experience, but would also be interested in
seeing posts from people who do.  I'd like to know more about it.

Here's a web site about cob, the only one I've found:

The Cob-Web
http://www.deatech.com/cobcottage/

Also, the May / June '96 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine has a 5-page
article about it.

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From: "Michael T. Bishop" <[email-masked]>
Date: 6 Jul 1996 17:41:02 -0700

Carl,

You might try checking into the Cob Cottages (Ianto's company) web page. 
You may find further information and you could request more from them if 
needed. The URL is:

[snip......]

> building please post about it.

Regards,

Michael
'A believer in Straw Bale Homes'

-- 
Michael T. Bishop		[email-masked]
	http://www.complexity.org/mike	

"If all the straw left in the United States after the harvest
of major grains was baled instead of burned, five million
2,000-square-foot homes could be built every year."
					-Matts Myhrman-