Cob: cob tubs/benches again

[Charmaine R Taylor]

Hi John...first of all the Becky Bee book is about a METAL stock  tank or
Ceramic bathtub, which is coated on the OUTSIDE with cob to retain
heat...not the tub itself.

this confuses many people...the only  clay  that holds water that I know
of is a large clay-lime-paper bowl that I made 2 years ago, and it holds
water all the time, but it is the Lime stabilizing the clay that does that
trick.  Don't see why a lime-clay plaster could not do the same thing over
a bench too.

And lime is just fine when hard to sit on, walk on, etc..after all
limestone walls don't hurt anyone, and lime putty turns back to limestone
as it carbonates.

Papercrete is a lovely sponge essentially, and need s a water proofing
coat of
( guess?) lime to protect it too.

this is a pic of a bench I built 3 years ago, and designed to let water
run off the sides, it had a clay lime plaster, but I was planning on a
pure lime plaster ( but bought a house, moved, landlady made me knock it
down, boo hoo, RIP cob  garden couch.)

http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/bbench.jpg

of course I muck about with recipes like paper-sawdust-clay lime etc to
see what will hold up in water..you need a lot of lime...and Tufastone
which is a hyper-tufa mix is supposed to be cement-sand-pearlite/or
moss--but I substitute ( guess?) lime, and get great results!!.

Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com
http://www.papercrete.com
PO Box 375, Cutten (Eureka) CA 95534
707-441-1632


John Russell wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>         My first post to the list so I'm a newbie (virgin ???  <g> ).
> I'm also thinking of building a bench as my first venture into cob
> building and also don't want to put a roof over it. Down south (I live
> in Yorkshire, UK) they use lime plaster on cob walls but would this be
> ok to sit on, lime being not very good for the skin ? Or is it OK when
> it's dry ?
>         One of my 'to get' books is "The Best Hot Tub in the World" by
> Becky Bee. I don't have a great deal of experience with hot tubs but
> don't they need to hold water ? How is the inside waterproofed and
> could this be applied to a bench ?
>         Another option could be removeable covers. If the benches
> don't have roofs then it's unlikely anyone's going to sit on them in
> the rain so some sort of removable waterproof cover could be made, a
> space could be left in the bench to store them when removed.
>         As well as a bench I'd also like to try a hearth and some low
> walls but as my rear garden is only 30' x 30' I'm limited by the
> ammount of potential cob I have. Although the local farmers have now
> been banned from burning corn stubble and have to plow it in instead
> (ready made cob ?). I don't think a midnight raid on a local field is
> really ethical (and the wife would complain that I'd filled her boot
> (umm, trunk ?) with dirt !). I was thinking of 'padding' the cob out
> with old plastic pop bottles and various other containers similar to a
> can wall struture. A bench really isn't a load supporting structure,
> except for my weight and I could go on a diet, so I could possibly use
> mostly empty bottles with a cob covering ?
>         I was thinking of a papercrete base as where I work generates
> a lot of printouts that are just thrown away (which I'm trying to cut
> out !) and I'd like to reuse them somehow (papier pachie (?) isn't
> water proof is it ? )
>         As an aside, I mentioned my interest in cob and natural
> building to my wife, her reaction to living in a cob house was, "Ewww,
> it would smell of dirt. " I guess we could always inport some petrol
> fumes and plastic smells, perhaps a discrete dispenser in a corner of
> the living room ;)
>
> >Hi All,
> >I'm working with a local p-patch (community garden)
> >that is very interested in having a few cob benches
> >built.  Unfortunately, due to some draconian city
> >codes, and some semi-draconian city inspectors, the
> >group is very nervous about putting up roofing
> >structures over the benches.  Is there any ways of
> >finishing off a bench so that it doesn't require a
> >roof? The group has said that they are willing to look
> >at, if necessary, (and here comes the sacrilege)
> >un-natural compounds?  Ideally I would like to do the
> >whole project with a clean and clear conscious and
> >building ethic, but I would rather see the benches
> >built of cob with some kind of an evil coating than
> >see them built from entirely evil things like PTL.
> >Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Dave