Cob RE: light clay in bags

[M J Epko]

At 08:42 PM 3/25/98 +0000, Patrick Newberry wrote:
>Joe:
>First of all thanks a million for responding!!!!

	Hey Pat, I just got off the phone with Joe. I relayed him your questions
at the end of the conversation.

>I am planning on a catenary roof. I am figuring that you can 
>corbell a bit more with the straw coated clay than with the earth. 
>Maybe three inches per row? since I'm 22 feet across on this dome so 
>that would be 44 rows to get to the top.

	He said that off the top of his head (without thinking about it) that your
reasoning sounded OK. He mentioned that at CalEarth they filled the
straw-clay bags and let them dry *first* before stacking them... because
they felt that the trapped moisture might not exit the bags quickly enough
to prevent the straw from rotting, and would be even more slow to exit if
the bags were stacked damp. The dry bags didn't situate themselves well
until a couple courses were laid up on top of them. There was an amount of
compression, but not as much as when the bags were laid damp rather than
dry. He suggested that sacrificial interior forms of saplings or pvc should
be considered, and stressed again that the stucco will be doing the work of
making it strong. He reiterated the need to keep the dome shape higher than
it is wide - a 22' dome will be pretty tall.

>Now the 64 dollar question?
>if you had a 22 foot dome would you use strawcoated clay in bags?

	He said, "Sure, why not?"

	I told Joe a bit about your plans and what you've been doing for the past
- what's it been now, three years? - and he was impressed, wishes you his
best.