[Cob] PaperCob!

[GlobalCirclenet]

>Unless I've missed something here, I think this still-conceptual wall
>system may be the easiest way to build an almost-all eco-earthen house for
>extreme climates, that's round, warm, and fuzzy, and still doesn't require
>any high-tech industrial equipment before, during, or after.  The Peak Oil
>Papercob Wall... can you find fault with it? 

I'm afraid it's a nobrainer. Most heat loss is through the ceiling, windows, and doors, obviously. Heat rises, and no amount of R-value in the walls alone will reduce total house heat loss enough to notice.

This "almost-all eco-earthen house" apparently doesn't have a roof, windows, doors, appliances, utilities, foundation, or anything else. Because all those things require other materials not "so eco-earthen". You can live in a round, warm, and fuzzy wall with the sky above and dirt below. 


paul tradingpost at lobo.net
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau 

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/6/2006 at 1:12 PM davidsheen at davidsheen.com wrote:

>[ diagram - http://www.davidsheen.com/shelter/papercob.htm ]
>
>Could this be it?  A way to make houses as beautifully sculptural as only
>cob houses can be... but to also make them effectively insulative?  Some
>have tried to incorporate straw bales into cob walls, especially on the
>North side of the house in the Northern hemisphere.  But because straw
>bales are cuboid in shape, although they make for excellent rectilinear
>building blocks, they can't curve well.  If you try to bend them into
>shape, you're left with lots of gaps that must be filled with loose straw,
>which doesn't have nearly as high an R-value.
>
>Cob-bale sandwich walls have tended to consist of a medium-thick cob
>internal wall for thermal mass, and a thin cob external wall for some
>structural support and plaster cover.  This model is an intelligent one,
>let's work with it.  Now, instead of first placing the bales, then cobbing
>onto them, letting the bales determine the shape of the wall... what if we
>first sculpted the walls with cob, internal and external, leaving a gap
>between the two walls of about 12 inches... and then stuffed the
>insulative layer inside after the fact?
>
>Straw-clay slip -- loose straw dipped in clay -- is one option, though an
>inferior one.  It is usually used in 2 x 4 inch thin wooden stud walls
>where straw bales won't fit, and although it provides a modicum of
>insulation, it's not nearly enough for our purposes, though certainly
>possible in milder climates.  But what about papercrete, hybrid adobe, or
>paper adobe?  Their insulation values are far higher, and they also lend
>themselves to a cob sandwich building technique.  In this case, the cob
>walls replace the wooden forms usually required, conserving even more
>resources.
>
>This use of paper building techniques is even easier for an owner-builder.
> Instead of having to create vast amounts of the paper blocks all at once
>using large industrial equipment, one could manufacture a relatively small
>amount of the mixture at any one time, and use it only to fill the gap
>created by that very day's worth of cob building.  It also means that
>instead of having to do the same tasks repeatedly ad infinitum, you could
>vary your workload, giving your muscles an all-around workout and your
>brain a bit of a break.
>
>Now, it's true that the paper blocks that a long time to dry.  Well, cob
>walls also take at least a whole season to dry fully.  Cob walls
>themselves will allow moisture to pass through, so the paper mix on the
>inside can evaporate, albeit very slowly.  The fact that the paper won't
>dry too quickly means that when the next layer is added on top of the
>first, the two layers can physically bond and integrate, creating a solid,
>incredibly strong monolithic internal insulating wall.  And of course,
>they'll always be able to evaporate upwards, where they won't be shuttered
>in.
>
>If there's a real concern that the internal paper mixture won't sure quick
>enough, and that it'll never have a chance to fully solidify, a small
>amount of cement can be added to stabilize the earth.  In that way, it'll
>mostly dry within a single day, quicker than the cob, yet still be
>slightly viscous enough to bond with the next layer of cobcrete a day or
>two layer, making sure the wall is internally consistent.  As soon as I
>mention the word cement, I know the cob purists are bound to freak out;
>but hear me out here:
>
>First of all, this is not pure concrete, it's papercrete (or hybrid
>adobe), which is still somewhat breatheable, it does allow moisture to
>pass thorugh.  And I know we have a knee-jerk negative reaction to cement
>being used to plaster the outside of an earthen wall, as we should.  But
>this small amount of cement won't be on the outside, it'll be on the
>inside of the wall; so both cob walls will still have ample opportunity to
>shed whatever water they take on and remain structurally stable.
>
>Unless I've missed something here, I think this still-conceptual wall
>system may be the easiest way to build an almost-all eco-earthen house for
>extreme climates, that's round, warm, and fuzzy, and still doesn't require
>any high-tech industrial equipment before, during, or after.  The Peak Oil
>Papercob Wall... can you find fault with it?  If so, then let me know
>before I break ground, so I can incorporate your ideas, because I'm
>itchin' to put it into practice and see what comes of it.  With love of
>earth =)
>
>P.S.  Thanks to Marlin Nissen for the Cob Scrap idea that sparked this
>trajectory...
>marlin_nissen at yahoo.com
>
>
>
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