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Kiko Denzer on Art


Cob: Using Bricks [David]

David & Sheila Knapp solar at aeroinc.net
Sat Dec 7 08:15:50 CST 2002 

Kim,

Wood lends itself to working in colder weather, which is why we did our cabin in 90 days back in 1974 and cob building slows down in cold weather.  However, our cabin took a lot of wood to keep it heated compared to using cob had we knew about it!   I encourage you to keep seeking a solution and not put a ending date on your construction yet.  The more helpers you have the faster you will get done, but even the experts build small on purpose as they found that 1 or 2 people can work a long time to build even a few hundred square feet.  I don't encourage building extra small just for the time factor even though it will always take longer than you planned for.  If it was just you, it doesn't matter much, but I had two brothers and cabin fever was a bit factor in our cold winters in NW IL living in our little cabin.

One of my favorite cob houses is here, perhaps you have visited this site many times.  I visit it often just to appreciate it and to get inspired.  I have built a few cob loaves just for the practice, but nothing big yet.  I keep the samples around because it reminds me of adobe and keeps me looking forward to the day we build.
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/7148/pat_cob.html

What would be really great is if there was enough interest that there could be a formal cob workshop on your property, perhaps taught by one of the many industry cob experts, to get you started on your project in a big way.  Folks would gladly pay for their food & shared workshop expenses in order to gain a week's worth of cob building expenses.  To make a workshop project like this successful, it would be a lot of work to coordinate the acquiring of all of the materials and to get set up ahead of time so that when the workshop starts everybody is building cow walls fast.  You'd also have to have the foundation done or mostly done, etc.  You almost need an experienced cob expert as your co-foreman to pull it all off.  I don't have that experience, nor the ability to be of much help at this point as I'm still working in the corporate world for a couple more years until our son graduates from high school and then we're off to S. CO to build our solar hybrid earthship which will include many opportunities to use cob in many places.  It would be a neat idea to entertain talking to several of the cob experts to see what it would take for you to hold a workshop and maybe even an open-build work session for the weeks following that would gives folks able to stay longer a chance to build their own skills even further.  These are just some ideas, now folks with actual workshop experience can tell us how it really works, ha!

Dave
http://www.geocities.com/renewables
See our Building With Earth Web Ring

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kim West 
  To: Cob List 
  Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 3:57 AM
  Subject: Re: Cob: Using Bricks [David]


  Interesting! Thanks for the encouragement! 

  Kim

  PS: Wow! 6X90 days is a long time!  I better get it in gear, huh? I don't know if I can wait that long! I may have to forego the second story and learn to live with 256 sf. I might could put a steeper pitch on the roof of a one story and have a semi-second story. Hmmmmmm.... What you think?
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>Kim,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>Wood lends itself to working in colder weather, 
which is why we did our cabin in 90 days back in 1974 and cob building slows 
down in cold weather.  However, our cabin took a lot of wood to keep 
it heated compared to using cob had we knew about it!   I 
encourage you to keep seeking a solution and not put a ending date on your 
construction yet.  The more helpers you have the faster you will get done, 
but even the experts build small on purpose as they found that 1 or 2 people can 
work a long time to build even a few hundred square feet.  I don't 
encourage building extra small just for the time factor even though it will 
always take longer than you planned for.  If it was just you, it doesn't 
matter much, but I had two brothers and cabin fever was a bit factor in our cold 
winters in NW IL living in our little cabin.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>One of my favorite cob houses is here, perhaps 
you have visited this site many times.  I visit it often just to appreciate 
it and to get inspired.  I have built a few cob loaves just for the 
practice, but nothing big yet.  I keep the samples around because it 
reminds me of adobe and keeps me looking forward to the day we 
build.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><A 
href="http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/7148/pat_cob.html">http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/7148/pat_cob.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>What would be really great is if there was 
enough interest that there could be a formal cob workshop on your property, 
perhaps taught by one of the many industry cob experts, to get you started on 
your project in a big way.  Folks would gladly pay for their food & 
shared workshop expenses in order to gain a week's worth of cob building 
expenses.  To make a workshop project like this successful, it would be a 
lot of work to coordinate the acquiring of all of the materials and to get set 
up ahead of time so that when the workshop starts everybody is building cow 
walls fast.  You'd also have to have the foundation done or mostly done, 
etc.  You almost need an experienced cob expert as your co-foreman to pull 
it all off.  I don't have that experience, nor the ability to be of much 
help at this point as I'm still working in the corporate world for a couple more 
years until our son graduates from high school and then we're off to S. CO to 
build our solar hybrid earthship which will include many opportunities to use 
cob in many places.  It would be a neat idea to entertain talking to 
several of the cob experts to see what it would take for you to hold a workshop 
and maybe even an open-build work session for the weeks following that would 
gives folks able to stay longer a chance to build their own skills even 
further.  These are just some ideas, now folks with actual workshop 
experience can tell us how it really works, ha!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>Dave</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><A 
href="http://www.geocities.com/renewables">http://www.geocities.com/renewables</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2>See our Building With Earth Web 
Ring</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr 
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
  <DIV 
  style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> 
  <A title=kwest at arkansas.net href="mailto:kwest at arkansas.net">Kim West</A> 
  </DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=coblist at deatech.com 
  href="mailto:coblist at deatech.com">Cob List</A> </DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, December 07, 2002 3:57 
  AM</DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Cob: Using Bricks 
  [David]</DIV>
  <DIV><BR></DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Interesting! Thanks for the encouragement! 
  </FONT></DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kim</FONT></DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PS: Wow! 6X90 days is a long time!  I better 
  get it in gear, huh? I don't know if I can wait that long! I may have to 
  forego the second story and learn to live with 256 sf. I might could put a 
  steeper pitch on the roof of a one story and have a semi-second story. 
  Hmmmmmm.... What you think?</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>