[Cob] (no subject)

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2004, The Pruett's wrote:

> What is the average cost per square foot (or length foot) of cob?
> Not including all the other house building needs there are, of course.
> A site I follow says it is $400/LF for adobe. Isn't that a lot?
>
> jill

No meaningful average is possible.  If you do it yourself (and don't pay
yourself), use only materials from the site, the cost is $0.  If on the
other hand, you hire someone to do it, have all the materials trucked in,
then it depends on a whole lot of things (foot mixing or mechanical
mixing, do you hold a workshop to offset some of the costs, how readily
are materials available in your area, what does it cost for trucking,
etc.)

That $400/LF for adobe is almost certainly for paying someone to do it,
but there are many factors not stated which need to be considered: how
tall is the wall (1 LF 8' tall is alot cheaper than 1 LF 16 feet tall),
does this include foundation, was it engineered for a heavy earthquake
zone, how far are the adobe blocks being trucked to get them to the site,
are they figuring just the wall costs or are they averaging in the total
cost of the building, etc.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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