[Cob] please help my poor cob oven!!

[Ray Cirino]

Dear Nina,
  I've discovered that you can build a baking dome without sand so you don't have to work upside down when building the inside surface. You can also have it dry, which my not have happened. Sounds like lots of moisture is still in the area. Even when you fire it up it will steam causing more interior damage.
Here's the way to make an oven that has cleaner air and people could use as a model to further the evolution of cob ovens. 
   
  http://dervaesinstitute.org/photogallery/Cob%20Oven/index.html
   
  http://people.tribe.net/raycirino/photos
   
  I've perfected this one since I built this one with many more functions.
   
  Lighting the adjacent area with metal reflector
  heating your home and cob bench
  boiling water in a spiral coil
  smoking meats
  a marble surface for crepes
  roasting in fire chamber with bbq flavor
  even solar cooker extensions for veggies
   
   
  Don't limit yourself as we all should keep experimenting.
   
  I'd say wait till the spring as you are going to get lots of rain this year. Always make practice samples with more sand and straw than you think will work.
  Regards,
  Ray
   
   
  
Brian Lavelle <redtail at mail.springgrove.coop> wrote:
  Nina;
I'm no authority, but Kiko Denzer wrote a fine book on oven 
building. Consider a roof, even a simple shed roof. The oven must 
breathe or it will have crumbling issues. No finish coat needed, but 
protection from direct rain is advised. In fact, a cement mix on the 
outside will doom the oven to crumble. Although an oven can be quickly 
rebuilt, your labor has value, and the simple bee hive oven could last a 
very long time, if cared for. Elaborate and highly artistic designs 
have all the more to protect. My oven is in Minnesota, and I found it 
stayed dry with just a tarp thrown over. Only problem is that if used 
late in the afternoon with rain imminent, one day the inevitable 
happened. I went to bed without tarping and we had an inch of hard rain 
in the night. It drilled a hole almost through the oven. I got lucky 
and was able to mix up a small batch of cob and patch it. I have 
since built a shed roof over it, but still keep it tarped. As to the 
cracks, they are going to occur. Nothing to worry about. Good luck 
rebuilding and baking. Redtail



ninagrimmett wrote:
> i have built a cob oven after much research & book reading & thought i had the clay & sand to the instructions, it is all finished now, tho a few cracks in the surface, but from what i have read these are fixable, i have a clay,sand interior, followed two weeks later by a clay straw layer, again followed two weeks later by a clay sand bond crete(for waterproofing) layer, but we have had torrential rain here & despite all our efforts to keep the cob dry, it got soaked & the interior layer was so wet for ages & has started to fall down, i did start a small fire inside to try dry it out & stop the interior crumbling, but bits are still falling .... i was so looking forward to cooking in it soon & am so dissapointed, that all our hard work was in vein, any ideas?? i am new at this & thought all was going great, untill the rain came, any ideas, help, will be so greatly appreciated, i dont know if my oven will still be operable, with bits of the first layer of cob missing, it
 did dry out on the outside and started to on the inside when i had a small fire goin, but i was a bit worried about adding more fuel to the fire, but now more rain thankyou for your time
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