Rethink Your Life!
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The Work of Art and The Art of Work
Kiko Denzer on Art



[cob] soil cement foundation

francine fran2000a1 at yahoo.com
Tue May 31 21:00:49 CDT 2005


Hello Everyone - It's been great reading all the good ideas
and useful advice this spring.  I'm into my second week of
digging a foundation trench, very good progress is being
made.  The trench should be completed in few days for about
a 500 sq ft cob cottage. I've had a little help but mostly
dug myself by hand.   

My plan is to  make a stemwall from soil cement and add
urbanite to the top of the soil cement, around 16-18 inches
to go on top of the rubble trench. The plan includes
landscaping cloth on the rubble trench to keep the soil
cement from seeping into my trench.  I'll be using 1/4"
masonite to make forms hopefully that will be flexible
enough for any curve.   According to Becky Bee in her book
soil cement will work.  My goal is to shorten the time
spent mortaring stone work since I am not a spring chick
anymore, stones are heavy.  The house site is on a slight
slope facing south, and I will be building the wall with a
step down in the stemwall to work with the slope.

Has anyone on the list tried soil cement in their
foundation?  Looking for advice, pros and cons on using it.
 Ways to improve my plan above.  Any help would be really
appreciated. 

Francine



		
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