Cob: mixing cob/clay

[Charmaine R Taylor]

Hi Charmain,

Do you know what amount of R you get with a light straw clay wall?

C:  No I do not...I have only read info from Ken Kern and talked with
German- Frank ANdresen...there is no study that I know of to back them
up...maybe the SB folks know? it is intuitive that light straw clay is
insulative- maybe you can call Robert LaPorte- of Mooseprints?


Have you built a regular cob wall then, with forms, done a light clay
wall
on the  interior from floor to ceiling?

No I did  an infill in a barn wall dirct to the planks between studs 4",
with a form board in front to hold the mix in. I used a paper cob
recipe, and it took a while to dry in the dark barn, on a north wall.
but  it did dry, shrank a little and coul dbe filled in with a thick
plaster mix.  I have also plastered test straw bales with a thick mix
and left exposed to weather.


How did you design the forms for all the
curves? How did the light clay stay up on the cob walls? any
separation?

I did not do cob walls, so am not sure where you got that Idea. I
expreiment alot..I am not buildiing a house. My goal is to pretest many
ideas on a small scale so when book customers call me I can at least say
what I know about the situation.  as I get a lot of questions. I also
enjoy the testing process, and some day when I am done renovating this
old redwood cottage, I will build a retreat/studio with a papercoblime
recipe of some sort.

Also if you had a curved cob wall already, you could lay a wet straw
clay mix against it, and lay over a wire or burlap "sheet" to hold it in
place possible, while it dried..

The BIGGEST idea I want to get across is that one does not need
permission to try things, nor does one have to be building a house to
experiment..just tinkering around is very useful. I have a pile of
goofy, cracked, unworkable experiments composting back to the earth ,
and I learn from all of them. I have made sculptures, pottery, stepping
stones, a gardfen bench, bricks, infilled a pallett and more..just to
see what would happen.. : >

Hope this helps....

Ian Marcuse