Cob: Re: Fwd: which counties in CA allow earthbermed/earthships

[Darel Henman]

Jmy,

"j. gann" wrote:
> Have been looking for California earthships for months. Have not found any.
> Mike Reynolds concrete model would probably be the easiest to get approved,
> but would still have to be engineered. Earthbermed
> buildings are more common ( one near me). 

These also have to be engineered to make sure that the walls are sturdy
enough to hold the earth and depends on the amount of earth, hill slope,
type of soil, etc.  Does it not?

These are like earthships, but with less thermal mass and made with
concrete, probably without thought to solar south orientation, and
without the tires and other built in systems such as water collection,
grey water systems, power generation, solar hot water, etc.


>These are usually partially bermed concrete structures. Have not found any code cob
> structures. Have spoke to several engineers. The problen is that there is no data
> available to them so one would have to come up with it-(very expensive)..
> 

I'm sure there are cob structures in California.  But code or not?
Regarding data such as strength etc..... there must be cob data out
there.  Contact the Cob Company in Oregon and see what they have.
Samples may need to be tested, just as concrete samples are required to
be cored and tested also site tests for standard homes.

    http://www.deatech.com/cobcottage/

Darel