Rethink Your Life!
Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy 		The Work of Art and The Art of Work
Kiko Denzer on Art


Cob: Using Bricks While Building With Cob

Kim West kwest at arkansas.net
Wed Dec 4 23:58:32 CST 2002 

When I made my decision to build a cob cottage I used hundreds of pieces of paper, and probably five or six leads for my mechanical pencil, drawing plans and making computations before I ended up with what I now intend to build. At first I just drew what I wanted, but when I made a scale drawing it became clear that what I wanted and what would work were two different things! I then made more drawings and ended up with plans for a home that I thought would be, not only sufficient for my two children and me, but also very well planned as far as heating, cooling, ventilation, and passive solar heating were concerned. After weeks of excavation on the old house place here on our property  it soon became apparent that we were not going to find enough rocks to use in the foundation of the home I wanted to build. We did find quite a few rocks, some very large, and also a nice amount of bricks. I had intended to use the bricks on the floor and the rocks on the foundation, but once I realized there were not going to be enough rocks for the foundation I went back to the drawing board and "came down a thousand" as they say! I drew plans for a much smaller house that would just get us by instead of one that would be very comfortable; and instead of building horizontally, I decided to go vertical. It looks though as if we are still going to be short on rocks for a foundation that, without question, will be sufficient for our new home. I called the concrete places and found that it could be up to $800 to make up for our lack of rocks! It is embarrassing to admit, but a lack of funds is the major factor that played into my resolve to build with cob. I am a widow and have three children, two of which are still at home. I am trying to build a suitable home to replace the one we have which has nearly fallen apart. I figure if I go VERY small and economical with the new place, re-using everything that I possibly can from our present house and the old place, I might be able to afford to build a decent house so long as it comes out to $5 a square foot or less. Otherwise we will be stuck in this place, falling through rotten floors and freezing in the winter while burning up during the summer. Anyway, my reason for making this post is this: Has anyone here used bricks in their foundation to supplement the rocks? I figure that, if I find that it is safe to do so, I can use the bricks in my foundation and make other plans, such as clay slip, cob, or poor man's concrete for our floors. Anyone here have any suggestions? You can go to my geocities site and see pictures of the rocks and bricks that we have excavated if you would like. It takes a while for the pics to load though. I plan to keep the site updated in our progress towards a good home for us, and maybe soon I will upload some of the smaller drawings, plans, and computations I have made so that visitors will have a better idea of what is happening. Any help will be greatly appreciated and there is a guest book there if you would rather comment at my site instead of here. http://www.geocities.com/kwest_1961

Thanks,

Kim

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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When I made my decision to build a cob cottage I 
used hundreds of pieces of paper, and probably five or six leads for my 
mechanical pencil, drawing plans and making computations before I ended up with 
what I now intend to build. At first I just drew what I wanted, but when I made 
a scale drawing it became clear that what I wanted and what would work were two 
different things! I then made more drawings and ended up with plans for a home 
that I thought would be, not only sufficient for my two children and me, but 
also very well planned as far as heating, cooling, ventilation, and passive 
solar heating were concerned. After weeks of excavation on the old house place 
here on our property  it soon became apparent that we were not going to 
find enough rocks to use in the foundation of the home I wanted to build. We did 
find quite a few rocks, some very large, and also a nice amount of bricks. I had 
intended to use the bricks on the floor and the rocks on the foundation, but 
once I realized there were not going to be enough rocks for the foundation I 
went back to the drawing board and "came down a thousand" as they say! I drew 
plans for a much smaller house that would just get us by instead of one that 
would be very comfortable; and instead of building horizontally, I decided to go 
vertical. It looks though as if we are still going to be short on rocks for a 
foundation that, without question, will be sufficient for our new home. I called 
the concrete places and found that it could be up to $800 to make up for our 
lack of rocks! It is embarrassing to admit, but a lack of funds is the major 
factor that played into my resolve to build with cob. I am a widow and have 
three children, two of which are still at home. I am trying to build a suitable 
home to replace the one we have which has nearly fallen apart. I figure if I go 
VERY small and economical with the new place, re-using everything that I 
possibly can from our present house and the old place, I might be able to afford 
to build a decent house so long as it comes out to $5 a square foot or less. 
Otherwise we will be stuck in this place, falling through rotten floors and 
freezing in the winter while burning up during the summer. Anyway, my reason for 
making this post is this: Has anyone here used bricks in their foundation to 
supplement the rocks? I figure that, if I find that it is safe to do so, I can 
use the bricks in my foundation and make other plans, such as clay slip, cob, or 
poor man's concrete for our floors. Anyone here have any suggestions? You 
can go to my geocities site and see pictures of the rocks and bricks that we 
have excavated if you would like. It takes a while for the pics to load though. 
I plan to keep the site updated in our progress towards a good home for us, and 
maybe soon I will upload some of the smaller drawings, plans, and computations I 
have made so that visitors will have a better idea of what is happening. Any 
help will be greatly appreciated and there is a guest book there if you would 
rather comment at my site instead of here. <A 
href="http://www.geocities.com/kwest_1961">http://www.geocities.com/kwest_1961</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kim</FONT></DIV>
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