Cob: Cob Homes in Canada?

[D.J. Henman]

Here are some more comments of mine to add to Jenny's in-between her's
below:

jenny walker wrote:

> .....Due to the thermal mass of cob, you would probably need to wrap
> your cob home with bales to help insulate it for the winter, then
> plaster over the bales. 

Not necessarily on the solar south facing side, especially if you have
plenty of solar insulation during the winter. Moving insulation batons
could be used on the south side if you use it to capture solar energy to
aid heating the house. Depends on building orientation to the sun and
amount of sunlight in the winter, no sunlight obstructions, etc.

> Many long cold winter days could make a cob home difficult to heat as
> it took on the freezing temperatures. 

Not if you store extra heat you don't need in a thermal storage area.
You'd only need to store enough to let you cruise through maybe a week
or two of sunless days if that many. Some people use the earth's mass
under house to do this as in annualized geothermal solar design, AGS.

> As for getting around the code, there are some ideas in 'The hand
> Sculpted house'. Structurally though, cob has withstood earthquakes
> when other houses have fallen all around.

It all depends on the design; walls width & height, shape of structure
and the characteristics of the material used, in this case cob. I
recommend Gernot Minke's manual for earthquake design for earthen built
houses. Off hand walls thicker than 30cm (say 12") have very good
earthquake resistance, but you have to consider the walls height as
well. There is a ratio relating wall height with its width, but I can't
find it now. Does anybody recall this?

>
> If you do this, you may want to look into getting a masonry stove
> (also theoretically could be made from cob).

Not theoretical. Ovens and fireplaces (forgot the Indian name for them)
have been made for ages. Some people have also made heated cob benches.

Darel