[Cob] strawbale, geodesic domes, and igloos

[Marlin]

I think from what I've seen of finished SB walls that Cob, highly penetrated into the straw, makes an excellent buffer of moisture, that breathes and creates an excellent internal thermal mass.

On the other hand the harder, more water resistant skim coats appear (and acoustically sound) like they're not well attached to the bales - things such as cement with chicken wire for example. That would seem to be a major enemy of straw, namely a place for water vapor to settle and not be wicked away with clay as a buffer.

I'd like to see more  tests with Cardboard bales (and Cob) to assess the insulation value/thermal mass of the combo,  as Cob (as Shannon says.....sorry to those who disagree) makes a poor insulator for consistently cold northern climates (by itself, I like it's use as PART of a building envelope)

Just my 2 cents, chill out on the personal attack dog crap! there's plenty of that in the 'real' world already, keeping people from accepting all the various good building materials (straw, clay, cob, wood, stone) from being fully utilized.

Marlin


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-----Original Message-----
From:     Dognyard <dognyard at stockroom.ca>
Sent:     Thu, 22 Jul 2004 13:21:47 -0600
To:       coblist at deatech.com
Subject:  Re: [Cob] strawbale, geodesic domes, and igloos



GlobalCirclenet wrote:
> 
> Which raises the inevitable question: how on earth would you keep moisture
> out of the strawbales when you plaster it with cob inside and out?

You don't. You let it breath. Just like a purely cob home. It's
inevitable that moisture gets in. You just have to let it get back out again.

Try this link for an explaination.

http://www.webace.com.au/~agstraw/cedar.html

Karen in Alberta

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