Cob: RE: breathing wallls.

[Kelly, Sean]

Perhaps an interior shower would be a good idea, using thinner, curved, non
load-bearing cob (or even framed I guess, if one were to be really safe...)
walls that had tile on the inside so that any moisture buildup could go out
the open side of the thinner wall?  Dang I gotta get building.

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob [mailto:owl at steadi.org]
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2000 11:52 PM
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: Cob: breathing wallls.


Don't we all wish we knew how tiling our cob walls would affect them ten or
twenty years hence.  I believe it is at present a common practice to tile
over cob walls in a bathroom.  Probably the tiles have not been there long
enough  to tell us what they will do to the walls.  Perhaps a 6 to 8 inch
wall would not be so thick that it would hold the moisture in and it would
"breathe" the moisture back out the side away from the tiles.  That might
depend on the climate, too. 

 I wish we had a laboratory that would test such things.  When we get the
All People's College going I'm sure our environment-technology students
will want to make such tests and we will get the basic equipment for doing
such tests. In the meantime it is good to have the Cob Net to exchange
experiences and ideas.
Bob