[Cob] birth of the home building professional

[Amanda Peck]

Why is one form of traditional building tiny thick-walled houses "nothing to 
it" and the other a sure route to sickness and mold?  Why is plastering the 
buildings the same thing.

Remember that Heart House is under 200 square feet.

Sure I know people who fit the description of a cartoon up in some friends' 
place:  Guy meditating in his dome, wind comes up, dome goes down, he 
exclaims, "I knew I should have used longer staples in my balsa wood!"

Some of them hung out their shingles as experienced professional builders, 
whether or not they had learned from their mistakes.

I also know amateurs (comes from the same root as "amour!") who study and 
re-study the books and then go by them, annoying the pros who stop by to 
watch because they don't go by what is standard streamlined procedure among 
real builders.  Who is right?  couldn't tell you, both work.

Consider the people on this list--single mothers juggling job and children, 
some retired, some on fixed incomes without the support of a market garden.  
Lots of people are reporting on their experience with workshops, most of us 
I would think are starting our buildings with a wall, a bench, an oven, or 
by helping a friend. There are at least three who qualify as pros in natural 
building, probably more than just me with a couple of years of construction 
experience.  You may be careless and clueless, but maybe the rest of us 
aren't.

None of us are going to build with balsa wood--it's too expensive!

...........
Paul wrote (snipped):

I used the term "playing around" to denote careless,
clueless messing around with methods and materials people know nothing
about, and that probably covers 99 out of a hundred "alternative"
self-builders - the people who don't put their failures and disasters up on
the Internet for all to see.  I'd say it's a shame NOT to think they're
detrimental to the movement.

It should be noted that those "women of Mexico" who replaster their houses
every year live in one or two  room adobes without heating, cooling,
sanitation, or building codes.  Adobe is very forgiving, and you don't get
mold and sickness if you don't plaster it right.  Bottom line: it doesn't
matter if they do a good job or not. Nothing to it.

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