Cob: Showers in Cob houses

[Cheryl Bailey]

A freestanding shower design is exactly what we are trying to get together
for our dome (dome is up, we have floors, but nothing else yet).  Since we
have no interior walls to speak of (we plan informal room screen dividers),
we wanted to design a shower that is freestanding.  In fact, I have found
that and other intersting bathroom designs in an architecture book called
"Hot Water" that I leafed through in Barnes and Noble.  (I loved the sink
made of a galvanized water pail perched on a log of wood in that book).

We have so far purchased a round pond liner that is 47" diameter and has
sides 12" high.  We plan to cut a hole in the bottom for a drain (how to
make the hole have that sloped rim?).  For a round shower curtain rod I
have looked at 1) making one out of piecing together PVC pipe with 45degree
angle and straight pieces and 2) seeing if I could bend conduit or
something like that in to a circle.  Then we plan to have 2 wooden posts
hold the shower curtain rod and to run the plumbing on.  I figure that 2
shower curtains should be able to enclose the whole thing.  When you look
at the shower curtain mechanisms for those old fashioned claw foot tubs,
they are very similar, except they attach on a wall or ceiling.

Any ideas or comments are welcome!

Thanks, Cheryl

At 01:10 AM 5/17/00 -0700, you wrote:
>
>It seems to me that the simpler and safer approach is to keep the water 
>away from the walls in the first place by using a free-standing shower
>over a tub or rimmed basin built into the floor, with a fabric shower
>curtain that completely surrounds it.  This keeps the water away from the
>cob or straw bale walls, and avoids the potential problem of moisture
>trapped behind any tiles, or sealants.