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Kiko Denzer on Art



[Cob] Initial planning questions

phil philhawnnc at excite.com
Thu Jul 10 20:44:09 CDT 2008


The amount of cob you can mix and place in a given amount of time depends on the method used for mixing. I can mix and place one standard size wheelbarrow of cob in less than one hour. This will make a section of wall that is two feet by two feet by one foot. If I use a cement mixer I can double (or better) my production. This summer I hope to use a bobcat to mix all the cob necessary for a 23'x16'x2' wall all at one time and then build as the previous lift dries over a period of several weeks.



I would contact the building inspectors in person, have an intial plan with you, and a packet of information to leave behind with them. They will appreciate you taking the time to come in and it shows that you are serious.



I would also suggest an alternate plan of construction where you build a hybrid structure with better insullation on the north side and utilize your mass on the southern face. I lived in Dayton for six years and know the weather rather well.



Phil Hawn



 --- On Thu 07/10, Virgil Vaduva < vvaduva+coblist at gmail.com > wrote:

From: Virgil Vaduva [mailto: vvaduva+coblist at gmail.com]

To: coblist at deatech.com

Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:25:36 -0400

Subject: [Cob] Initial planning questions



Greetings to all.My wife and I are in the initial planning stages of hopefully building a cobhouse here in the Dayton Ohio area.  I would like to have as many of theproject details planned out in order to estimate costs and time accurately,so I am wondering if anyone has a rough estimate on how much cob one personcan lay or stack in an hour or day, perhaps giving an average of a 2 feetwide wall, at a height of 2 feet?  Having never done this before, I cannotaccurately estimate this, although I will build a shed as practice beforeworking on the house.Also, I am kind of concerned about Ohio Building Code; I sent out some emailto the local county building inspectors and after I did so I am getting thefeeling that they are looking up "cob house" in a dictionary in order todetermine what it actually means; if anyone from Ohio is here on the list,please let me know if you have any words of wisdom.A third question is regarding the size of the home.  We would like to haveabout 1,500 
to 2,000 sq. feet of space because of a large family.  Is a cobhouse this large feasible?Many thanks_______________________________________________Coblist mailing listCoblist at deatech.comhttp://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist

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