Cob in the Northeast

[Speireag]

Sgrìobh Doug Patterson:

>Hi, I am interested in building a cob house in Southern Vermont. I have

Doug -

    I don't know of any cob buildings up in this area.  I do know of some
straw bale buildings.  In fact, there's one in Dunbarton, VT, which is a
demo house, made of local materials with minimum impact.  You might want to
check it out.

    Be aware of the difference between thermal mass and insulation.  Cob
houses work well in the southwest, where they have daily temperature
extremes, and in the northwest, which isn't quite the heating climate we
have around here.  There has been some speculation on the list earlier that
a cob house would not be a tremendous improvement on a stone house.  When
the temperature is regularly too high or too low, massive structures make a
lot of sense.  Whether they do up here, where temperatures are too low in
the winter and stay that way for long periods, I don't know.  I do know
that people in northern Minnesota report that stone houses are very
uncomfortable all winter long no matter how you heat them.

    I am planning on incorporating earth into my straw bale house; an
earthen floor, cob to fill gaps in the wall, and an earthen plaster over it
all.  But all of the earthen mass will have insulation around it, mostly in
the form of straw bales.

    You may have considered all of these issues, but I thought I'd write it
out just in case you hadn't.  Good luck!

-Speireag.

0>>>>>>(---------------------
Speireag, aka Joshua Macdonald Alden (speireag at linguist.dartmouth.edu)
Usually found somewhere in the wilds of New Hampshire.
Ma 's e bhur toigh le, sgrìobh sibh dhomh anns a' Ghàidhlig
 agus tapadh leibh airson mo Ghàidhlig a cheartachadh.