[Cob] coating The mobile home...

[Lee Courtney]

Oh the ideas that are forming in my head! I can't wait to get started and 
thankfully, it's supposed to be a very nice weekend.  Just as a thought, 
what about the other idea? Say removing a section of the wall (let's say a 
4' x 8' section at a time), leaving the frame work (though it may be thin, 
the reason for only a section at a time) and infilling the existing 
framework with cob? Will this keep the integrity of the structure?  When 
done it will basically be a cob house with a conventional roof and I think 
the cob would then take over the load bearing. I could make the walls thick 
still (about 2' I'm thinking) and can carve the niches and arches on the 
interior wall as well as use the glass bottles in different colors (I really 
love that about cob building).  However I don't want the house falling in on 
me so the suggested way with the mesh and clay plaster is a very good idea. 
Thanks so much for understanding what I'm trying to accomplish.

Blessings
Lee

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "dirtcheapbuilder-Charmaine Taylor" <tms at northcoast.com>
To: "Teresa Banks" <tbanks98926 at yahoo.com>
Cc: <coblist at deatech.com>
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Cob] coating The mobile home...


>
> On Apr 7, 2006, at 6:27 PM, Teresa Banks wrote:
>
>> Hi Lee,
>>
>>   I don't think you are as wacky as some have perhaps made you feel.  I 
>> used to live in an old mobile home also, and if I had owned it, I would 
>> have been exploring the idea of covering it with cob also, perhaps.
>>
>>
>
>  On the thin metal walls  Lee will actually be adding a clay finish 
> plaster  rather than  heavy cob  I would think..... it cant be more than a 
> couple inched thick or it will start pulling off of the walls.
>
>   I have used  ladies dress netting ( an open weave polypropylene) as the 
> fiber layer attached to old drywall before plastering with lime..
>
> You can also use onion sacking,   cut open, flattened, or other sacking 
> that holds vege, potatoes, etc.
>
> my latest "find" is the   action-back  mesh webbing that is on the  back 
> of carpet. I go to the new carpet store, and in the  dumpster van are all 
> the  long  strips and left overs
>
>  the grid of mesh on the back of carpeting is polypropylene, is free, 
> clean and new, and I get dozens of yards of it by just pulling it away 
> from the carpet.  widths of 6"-15" are average.  ( more than 20" wide is 
> too hard to pull off )
>
> This mesh would be attached tightly  to the  metal walls, and a thin layer 
> of clay , or clay-lime  smeared over, then more layers can be added using 
> more netting or sacking. The open weave is important so  burlap doesnt 
> work as well.
>
> there is a guy in TX building a ferrocement home, he used the dress 
> netting as the final fiber layer to do a thin finsh coat of cement on his 
> walls.  Netting provides a  surface grid, and gives "tooth" to any  alien 
> surface... since cob-clay will not stick straight to the metal, an 
> in-between is needed.
>
> I did this to make a flower planter  using a cast off  metal dryer drum. 
> dress netting is only .70 a 6' WIDE yard, so it goes a long way, and is 
> perfect for plastering on   (non natural)  walls
>
>
>
> Charmaine Taylor Publishing
> www.dirtcheapbuilder.com
> PO BOX 375 CUTTEN CA 95534
> Tel:  707-441-1632   Venetian Plaster DVD in stock
>
>
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