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

[kimelia]

see comments below!
-----Original Message-----
From: Renewables at aol.com <Renewables at aol.com>
To: Coblist at deatech.com <Coblist at deatech.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 1999 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: Cob X-Mailer: USANET web-mailer (M3.0.0.11)


>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.
>
This is true if you do absolutely nothing to the soil afterwards!

>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.

Interior greywater has many, many conditions needing to be met to work
effectively.

The aforementioned lack of microorganisms is a problem in spades if you try
to make an organic system native to outdoors work interiorly. How will you
supply enough sunlight, how will you re-create the variation in temperature,
the air circulation, the connection to other natural systems that are cut
off when you bring this system indoors. You run the risk of creating (very
quickly) a pathogenic bacterial environment. Basically you cannot create
outdoor diversity in an indoor environment. I would recommend people not do
this.
>

>Just some thoughts from a cob novice!

There's a lot more than just cob!
>
>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
>