Cob: RE: Cob In The South

[W]

Just to pass along a story I heard along those lines - I heard it third or fourth person, and have no way of knowing how true it is... can anybody verify this?
Apearantly someone (here in the U.S) built a cob home on a floodplain, and sure enough, it flooded a couple of years after completion.  Even with  four feet (a bit more than a meter) of standing water, it stood for almost four days before collapsing.  This makes me think that a well-constructed cob home can actually handle quite a bit of water - if it is not actually _in_ the water.



On Mon, 8 Jul 2002 16:52:58   
 Patrick Newberry wrote:
>As far as size goes, it's really a matter of time and effort, rather than any particular size limitation 
>with cob itself. I have about 1600 sq feet of space, could have made it larger but not sure if I'd have the 
>time or energy to do so. 
>
>As far as hurricanes, or any wind driven water source, I guess the duration would be the most important fact. 
>At this point I have plastered the outside of my house yet, I'll leave that for latter on down the road, but 
>I will more than likely plaster the outside with a lime plaster. I believe that would handle most situations. 
>
>How close to the ocean are you, as I might be more worried if I was right on the beach. One thing to bear in 
>might or at least from my humble experience, it would be obvious that there was a problem prior to the 
>cob building collapsing. My father was in a multi story building build of earth in Africa one time and a lot 
>of rain had been falling for some time. It was some kind of hotel in the back country. Anyway, a police man 
>came up and knocked on the dock, rather calmly, and said he must leave as the building was in danger of collapsing. 
>He packed up and left and sure enough, the building collapsed the next day. 

Where in Africa was this?  If it was in the Northern/Eastern regions, they generally don't get much rainfall, so they tend to use small eaves and from what I can tell, (when it's a large multi-storey) often don't plaster the exterior.

>
>I had one vault collapse after a week of slow rain, but I could tell at that stage the structure was not going 
>to last and sure enough, the next morning after I said that, the vault collapsed. 

I'm sorry to hear that.  Was this an "unprotected" vault?

>
>Thus wide overhangs, lime plasters and I feel you'd be ok. 

"A good hat, and a good pair of boots" - and I suspect a good coat couldn't hurt, unless perhaps you like being nekkid in the rain?

>
>Other thoughts, from others?

>From what I've read here, it seems that if your building is in danger of failing, it seems to give sufficient warning so you can get out in time.  However, I did hear about someone being killed when his cob dome collapsed (I don't know if from rain or what)- I don't know what he was using for roof/protection though.

>
>Yea, Valdosta is not that far from me, as I work in Americus. 
>
>Pat 
>www.gypsyfarm.com
>


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