Cob: Re: Cob sauna?

[John Schinnerer]

Aloha,

The folks at Pragtri farm hosted a workshop facilitated by Becky Bee a few
years back to build a cob cordwood sauna.  Didn't get finished, and what
did get built has been "repurposed," so to speak.  I think all the cordwood
saunas a la Rob Roy have been built with cement mortar rather than cob...?

Although a sauna is basically dry heat (as compared to a steam bath, for
example), there's plenty of humidity involved, so I doubt cob would do well
in the long run.  Also, in cold climates it would take a long time (and
lots of fuel) to heat up the sauna if the cob had cooled to winter air
temperatures between uses (which seems likely) - all that cold thermal mass
would have to warm up to sauna temperatures.

John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
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Cultural & Ecological Designing
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