Cob X-Mailer: USANET web-mailer (M3.0.0.11)

[Renewables at aol.com]

Wow, that is a very ambitious sized house for your first cob home.  I'd
recommend doing it in a two or more part sequence (and then you can take a
breather before committing to building the second half).  Remember cob walls
cannot be earth buried like what you would expect some parts of your earthship
to be.  You'll also want a generous 2 - 3 foot overhang protecting any
exterior exposed cob walls.

Before you commit to mechanical means to digging, mixing, or applying your
cob, I would seriously recommend that you read The Cobber's Companion, by
Michael Smith.  I just finish rereading it for the second time and feel
reenergized whenever I complete it.  Doing much of what you want to do
mechanically may not save you much time or energy, especially compared to the
many advanced methods there are today of making Oregon cob.  A work party of
six can make an awful lot of cob once the learning curve it flat.  Also, a
backhoe will compact the nearby earth and make future landscaping very
difficult as the microbes will not want to readily return to the soil and will
tend to want to erode during rains.

Think of a cob house as a cottage and an earthship as an ocean liner.
Earthships tend to take up allot of space due to their basic designs.  Trying
to make an Earthship design out of cob will be as much work as the intense
tire and can work you are trying to avoid.  In northern very cold climates,
you need to insulate the exterior high mass walls of either type design.  I
have seen many cob homes taking advantage of passive solar features, so you
should consider their ideas first before trying to make a cob earthship.  It
is possible to have gray water and all that, you just need to decide whether
you will want interior gray water planters and how you will water proof them
without using much high embodied energy products like aluminum cans or
concrete.

Just some thoughts from a cob novice!

Dave

In a message dated 2/24/99 1:51:18 AM Central Standard Time,
purplecloud at usa.net writes:

>  Does anyone have information on using cob in a earth ship design (versus
>  tires and cans). What might you think the advantages are, and
disadvantages?
>  Maybe cheaper? Also how much time does anyone thimk it would take to build
a
>  1500sq ft house using a cement mixer a rototiller and about six people
maybe 
> a
>  backhoe? Any broad estimates? thanks