Cob: Interesting proposal

[Vicki Wicker]

Jeff.
In my opinion, a commercial use of cob would best be through the earth 
bags. I can imagine that a machine could be developed that would easily 
fill earth bags. For example, one of those really small back hoes that 
could scoop up the soil, drop it into a small hopper of some kind that 
filled a bag. The labor costs then would be similar to a block house I 
would think. The main trade off would be that instead of buying commercial 
blocks you would expend money on the labor and wear and tear on the machine 
to fill bags at the sight. Personally, I don't think the conventional cob 
of hand packing walls has much commercial viability.
vicki in arkie
At 05:46 PM 10/30/01 -0800, Jeff S. wrote:
>My name is Jeff and I work for a residential
>developer, this past summer I took a week long
>workshop and began to try and imagine how cob would
>fit into what I do.  As of yet I can't grasp how a cob
>house would translate into costs or if it would be
>worth the trouble to spend the time with the building
>official.  Have any of you out there kept track of the
>costs for your house or how long it took.  It almost
>seems like the time needed would make it undesirable
>to developers.
>
>I can see the realestate market slowing down in the
>near future and have a hunch that cob may be a way to
>cut some material costs, but, if the savings are lost
>to labor then it's a wash.  So, I wonder what a "Cob
>Developer" would look like and what advantage is
>there?  Maybe, marketing?
>
>take care
>Jeff
>
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