Cob: Ianto's house

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Darel Henman wrote:

> Those are nice pictures and a lovely country setting.
> 
> It is what I'd call a hybrid house, with the northern walls being cobbed
> and the southern walls being what look like standard wood siding on the
> second floor over nice large windows on the first floor.
> 
> Does anybody have any details about utilities.
>   a.) toilet      flush or compost

Outside, compost

>   b.) hot water (on demand or heat it in a pot on the wood stove, or
> coleman gas stove?, or other?)

No hot water out of the faucet, but it can be heated on the gas stove.

>   b.) shower/bath facilities or jump in the creek?

Jump in the creek :-) Of course bathing using a sink and a wash cloth
is perfectly feasible if you want to do it indoors and use hot water
(heated on the stove).

>   c.) kitchen sink  wash in the creek?

Yes it has a kitchen sink

>   d.) I guess the heating is direct solar and the wood stove?  stove
> wood is easily available it seems

Yes, and since the building is small and it uses a thermal masss bench
stove, it is easy to keep warm when wood heat is needed.

>   e.) Any roof insulation used?  light clay or there?

Lambs wool if I remember correctly.

> I hope they have good movable insulation for those first floor glass
> doors for during the cold nights.

Not really needed, climate is moderate and the wood stove can easily 
handle any really cold days.  In addition, they do get good solar gain
through those windows which charges up the thermal mass of the floors.

> Last question and I don't care either way on this, but some people
> should now that there are differences in what is required in a legal
> residential building, i.e., with the required building permits and
> bootlegged buildings.   I just advise anyone building to consider what
> they are building and see if there will be any problems with the
> building department etc.  You don't want to build something then be told
> to tare it down.  If that's not a problem do what you want.  Just be a
> knowledgeable builder about what can go wrong in this area.

This was actually built on an agricultural building permit, and I
absolutely agree, everyone should make sure they know what they are
"required" to do, what permit types are available, and what the possible
consequences are if they decide to go renegade.


Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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