Rethink Your Life!
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The Work of Art and The Art of Work
Kiko Denzer on Art



Cob: vermiculite

SANCO Enterprises <Paul & Mary Salas> chansey at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 15 05:36:53 CDT 1999


Answ999 at aol.com wrote:

> Vermiculite   has been used alone for a poured in insulation in stick built
> homes (fills the gaps left around the edges of fiberglass or rock wool) or in
> place of the fiberglas.  The dust is classified by the EPA as non toxic.
> particles are too big to be the problem fiberglass and asbestos have been for
> the lungs.  All you need is a common dust mask.  Has been used in potting soil
> to hold air.  Has been used on concrete as a way to lighten the weight without
> weakening the concrete itself and it traps lots of air to provide insulation
> (like R Value increase)   It has been in use with concrete for decades so the
> engineering has been done.  My guess is it could work much the same way with
> COB, lighten it without weakening it, and offer much needed resistance to the
> thermal transfer of heat or cold.

This response is a bit late, however, the owner of Southwest Vermiculite in
Albuquerque, made blocks (same size as adobe) and built his home out of the
material.  The few remaining samples I reviewed were very light and strong.  He
indicated that the house performed extremely well.

As for the dust, let me tell you that I would not want to work in production
environment.  I coughed for 3 hours after I let the factory. I don't know if one
gets used to it, but one visit was enough.

There is also a company, Adobe Lite, who uses a vermiculite material to build
Southwest style fire places without the mass.  They build a steel and mesh frame
work abound the fire box and then coat the frame with the vermiculite mixture.
When completed, the finished fireplace looks like the real thing.

Paul Salas
SANCO Enterprises, LLC
Albuq., NM