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[Cob] Cob R Value

Shannon C. Dealy dealy at deatech.com
Mon Jun 20 23:19:53 CDT 2005


On Mon, 20 Jun 2005, otherfish wrote:

[snip]
> Robin Clarke wrote:
> John
>
> I am not familiar with cob technique, except for a quick Google browse that
> I have just done.  Presumably walls made in this way have a density that is
> around rammed earth and mud bricks, possible somewhere between the two.  I
> suspect that the fraction of straw is relatively small and that there is
> some "ramming" of each layer.
[snip]

Just thought I should note here that while I think his general approach
and premises are correct, at 10+% straw, I would consider the level of
straw to be significant (though not overwhelmingly so), and the density
of cob (due to this level of straw content) is definitely lower than mud
brick, in addition, I don't think that the conventional method of
manually "knitting" the layers together would really qualify as "ramming"
in the sense that I suspect he meant.  Overall, this would result in cob
having a moderately higher R-value then his estimate.

FWIW.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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