Cob and Bathrooms

[Patrick Newberry]

OK, I'll start with the bathroom, then move on to your house.

The bathroom, I'm not that far from putting in an open shower and the walls are 
earth bags walls. For the shower areas, I'm going plaster the walls with 
cement and then coat them with something that will waterproof them.
This will only be on the side that will have the shower. The opposite side will 
be earthplaster, thus I feel they will be ok. 

I'm going to add a smaller, maybe three foot wall near the shower area which 
will serve as a splash guard. That will be from sand filled bags coated with 
cement. This wall will receive the most water. A floor drain will be in the 
floor here (of course).


Now on to your dream house.
Well talk about flash backs. 
It's interesting to me to see your plans and think back, a couple of years ago 
and remember starting my place. (http://www.gnat.net/~goshawk).
I've been  telling people that I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now.
The reason I say that is becuase, I'd probably go a lot smaller or at least 
make it more modular than I am going to end up with. I mean I love the house I 
am going to end up with, it's just it really is a BIG undertaking. I think now 
that I'd like to have already been living "down the hill" as we call it here.
Now I was thinking about 1800 sq ft when I started and I'm down a bit(1600)
I could hardly imagine 2500 sq ft.

Now in my situation:
I work a full time job and only build evenings and/or weekends.
How much time are you going to have?

Where are you located? I'm lucky as in Mauk GA, I can at least cob some even in 
winter. Try that in North Dakota... not as easy.

Your link for your house.gif link didn't work so I didn't get a look at the 
picture, but I checked out your floor plan.

Two floors? both cob?
Thats a lot of mud.
Now maybe you have a reasonable source of assistance. I get about 1 or 2 days 
worth of help each month from visitors but other than that not much.

Curves and Corners are good things in cob designs as a long straight walls are 
more unstable. Of course I lean more toward organic shapes rather than box 
shapes. I just think curves are cool with cob.

In my design, I've not added any interior walls at this point. (other 
than the 22 ft dome) Initially I'm going to just use the structure like a loft 
apartment. Then as I live in it, I can let the rooms develop before I put in 
any walls. My design is basically a circle in the middle of an octagon with 
three doorways in this middle circle (dome). Visitors have said it reminds them 
of a yurt.

Well good luck and keep us posted 
Patrick Newberry
 
> 
> So, my question is, for those of you living in cob homes, what steps have you
> taken to protect showers and other high-moisture areas?  I'm thinking of using
> tile or some other moisture-proof material, but at the same time I'd like to
> keep the home as natural as possible and avoid using any type of mass-produced
> building materials.  But if cob will work, that would be great.  I think in
> previous posts Uwe (Tag Uwe!) has recommended a soap-like wateproofing for use
> with cob.  Plus I've read the posts concerning cob cisterns and such, so I'm
> curious what the rest of you think.
> 
> Oh...for anyone curious enough to look, I've posted a quick page of the house
> and plans at http://members.aol.com/keftydia/dreamhome.htm.  The house is
> ambitious, so I may well scale it down, but I don't think it's unmanageable.
> 
> 
"There is No Hope, but I may be wrong."