Cob: cob tubs/benches again

[John Russell]

>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.
>
Ahhhh, never mind, it was a thought. Not many people over here have
hot tubs outside. lol, not much point in having something you can only
use 1 day a year ! (Our weather's not really that bad, honestly !
<g>)
>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.
>
So a limewash/plaster coating should be OK ? Even if it's a little
damp from a morning shower ? Of course an alternative would be to
provide cushions to sit on, then my delicate flower petal like skin
wouldn't even come into contact with the nasty hard surfaces.
	Perhaps I've been watching too many old 60's thrillers where
they disposed of the bodies in lime pits !  ;-)
>Papercrete is a lovely sponge essentially, and need s a water proofing
>coat of
>( guess?) lime to protect it too.
Ahhhh, not a good idea as a foundation then ?
>
>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
>
rofl, I've seen this picture before ! It was the one that inspired me
to try and design and build my own. Aww, you had knock it down ? :(
>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