[Cob] Super adobe: was Arches (long post)

[Shody Ryon]

--- Lance Collins <collinsl at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>
> I don't know where 6% comes from but it's a useless
> figure out of context.
Hi Lance,
Thanks for commenting about use of the terms “super
adobe” and “6% portland cement”. I should have
capitalized or quotized “Super Adobe”. The reason I
used the term is when I was on a job site in
California run by a person that claimed to have worked
for calearth.org's Nader Khalili at the Sustainable
Desert Village and Hesperia Museum & Nature Center,
AKA “the museum” is because he used the term, as I
recall. He called the mix that was put in the fabric
tubes “super adobe” and he said that super adobe was
made of 6% portland cement mixed with on-site earth
and water. Perhaps 6% is the minimum that is likely to
be strong enough.  So I assume that Nader Khalili, in
order to promote building with earth or perhaps to
facilitate communication, coined the term "super
adobe".
> Where I lived years ago 6% with my sandy soil made
> fairly soft but 
> quite good concrete blocks.
> Where I am now I need to add over 10% cement to get
> a result 
> noticeably different to a simple puddled block with
> no 
> cement.  There's nothing 'super' about it.
> 
> The properties of soil vary enormously from place to
> place.   The mix 
> for any building technique including soil must be
> site specific.
> 
> I would suggest that anyone pushing a mixture of
> soil and some 
> additive and describing it as 'super' should treated
> with caution.
<snip>
Thanks for the info. You could email calearth and let
them know. When I emailed them I didn't get a response
I would be willing to stop using this term if it is
incorrect or or there is another objection that over
rides Nader Khalili promotion of the term as well as
the builder I met's use of the term. The builder, who
worked for years using this system, still used the
term, last I heard.
These strucures are fantastic in my opinion. There is
a possibility that these domes and vaulted structures
might be better built with cob or regular adobe, I
don't know. To say there is nothing super about super
adobe seems to me to be an opinion, so fine.
I agree that super adobe may have problem that include
site specific ones, mixing material that have been
traditionally considered incompatable as I may have
stated on this list serve. You and others on this list
have worked with this material, I haven't, so in
general I will defer to your experience.
I agree this system requires attention or experience
and I am not promoting it accept to say it may have
been better than cutting down over 95% of the old
growth trees in california. I am not sure these events
are mutually exclusive. The harvesting of trees was
financaily motivated so it would probably have
happened anyhow.

Cheers,
Rudiger


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