[cob] soil cement foundation

[francine]

Thank you Lance for the info, fortunately there is a sand
pit close to me and I plan to bring several loads to the
site for the stemwall.  My soil is sandy but contains a
good bit of clay.  Perfect I think for cob, but I will add
the sand for soil cement.  I read somewhere that clay is
not good for soil cement, and that cement would need to be
increased if there was clay in the soil.

I will follow your advice and make a few "stepping stones"
for the yard and see which is the strongest. That is if it
will quit raining here this week.  In the Becky Bee book it
recommends 9 parts soil to 1 part cement I think.  I'll
start there.  I have collected over the past 2 yrs lots of
rubble, rocks, broken brick etc.  If I add rock/brick I'm
wondering if I should use the smaller pieces in the soil
cement?  And at what point in the drying/curing should I
add the urbanite in the top for the cob to hold onto? 


--- Lance Collins <collinsl at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
<snipped>

> 
> There is no definite answer to your question.  It depends
> on your 
> soil.   Some years ago when I lived on sandy soil I used
> soil with 5 
> percent cement. 
> 
> With sand 5 percent is passable, 10 percent is OK and
> more than that with 
> stones is on the way to proper concrete.

> 
> You will have to make some sample blocks with varying
> amounts of cement and 
> test them to see how much cement you need in your mix.
> 
>

> 
>


God Bless America
 
Francine



		
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