[Cob] building codes

[raduazo at cox.net]

       Someone talked to my last week about doing a plastering project in New Orleans. I have mixed cob with a rototiller and I have mixed earth floor material with a rototiller, but never plaster.
       This week I did a very small scale test on plaster which I think could be ramped up to large scale production. I started by putting a bundle of news papers in a soaking pit and after two days removed the papers and tore them into strips. (The soaked paper tears very easily.) I then put it in a mixing pit and turned it for a bit with fire clay ($12. per 50 pound bag from places that sell brick laying supplies.) The result is a light clay insulating material with a little clay and a hard plaster with more clay. The light material could be molded and dried into blocks to fill cavities for insulation and the hard material makes a fairly decent wall plaster for covering a lath. 
         You can, of course, substitute screened clay for the fire clay. I usually dry clay, break it up with a tamper in my concrete slab and pour the powder through a screen.
             If anyone has a project where insulating blocks might come in handy it would be nice to see someone else experimenting with this and other new materials.
Ed

---- joe r dupont <joedupont at juno.com> wrote: 
> one more time.. houses should be able to be built as experimental.. 
> period. if you buy an experimental home .. its your risk.. that's all
> it is called freedom..  like i said.. if i lived in an earthquake area  i
> would sleep under a  steel cage to stop from being crushed.
> not a bad idea.
> joe 
> On Fri, 4 May 2007 15:21:12 +0100 "Wesley Sandel" <wsandel at gmail.com>
> writes:
> > I've been reading the posts on building codes.
> > 
> > It's true, it seems pretty damn silly that you can't just build 
> > whatever you
> > want to live in, but often have to conform to all kinds of standards 
> > that
> > may seem to make no sense (except in most rural areas, where 
> > apparently you
> > can just build whatever you want anyway).
> > 
> > But not all codes are just attempts by big brother to force you to 
> > give your
> > money to corporations.
> > 
> > I've spent a good bit of time in Central America. After awhile I 
> > started
> > remarking on how ugly and expensive all the structural concrete 
> > homes were,
> > and how much cheaper and more liveable the natural product homes 
> > were. Then
> > it was pointed out to me that every 20 years or so they have a 
> > series of
> > horrendous earthquakes and lots of natural homes fall down on 
> > people, so
> > they've fallen out of favor. The locals have opted, without code, to 
> > use
> > steel reinforced concrete when they can.
> > 
> > I was involved with a non-profit in Houston, building low cost 
> > housing. On
> > one project, someone hung the drywall before the electrical was 
> > inspected,
> > and the city inspector made us cut holes in the drywall every few 
> > feet to
> > verify that everything was up to code. We were pretty upset. But the 
> > fact
> > is, a lot of contractors will cut corners to save money, and one of 
> > the
> > functions of the code is to prevent that happening and compromising 
> > safety.
> > 
> > Codes are often safety driven.
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> > 
> > 
>  
> 
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