[Cob] Clay

[Henry Raduazo]

Philip: The last time I visited Ianto I noticed that he is building  
hybrid buildings of straw and cob. The cob portion was only 8 inches  
thick and the straw portion was half a two string bale. The way to do  
it is to make a bale press out of 2" x 4" studs. One bottom 2 x 4 two  
vertical 2 x 4s (side by side around the horizontals) and a  
horizontal 2 x 4. These are connected together with pivot pins. You  
place a two string bale between the horizontals and compress the bale  
then re-tie it to form a 4-string bale. Chain saw the bale in half  
between the 4 strings and use the half bales as building blocks for  
forming the walls and supporting the cob.
	If you build fast with wet cob you might need a dead man anchor  
extending between the straw and cob walls to hold the cob from  
falling away from the bale.
	If you do not understand this, I can probably draw you a picture and  
send it to you.
Ed
On Oct 30, 2008, at 2:00 AM, philmoulton wrote:

>
> <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=15565938/ 
> grpspId=1705041688/msgI
> d=464/stime=1225286169/nc1=4507179/nc2=3848640/nc3=4025338>   I  
> know living
> in Portland this even to me sounds strange, as all dirt in Portland is
> mostly clay.
>  However we are moving,to Otis (just east of Lincoln City and  the  
> ground on
> the property does not appear to be clay like.
> Is there a source for good consistent clay
> We are planning on building a cob home that  my probably incorrect  
> math says
> I need a LOT of clay.
>  3 exterior walls 24 ft long  one interior wall and the entry way  
> figure
> another 26 ft.
> figure also  8 ft high and 2 ft thick (may be able to go 18 inches  
> tho...)
>  That comes out to 1568 sq. ft. of cob, figure it rounded off to  
> 1600sq ft.
> Although Cob is a mixture of sand and clay and straw it still it  
> means I
> need a lot of clay.
> To be consistent I should have all my materials on-site before we  
> start.
> Getting a consistent mix is important, so getting it in buckets  
> from here or
> there with varying content of clay is not sound thinking.
>  The lot we have will need some excavation prior to pouring a  
> foundation but
> I do not feel there is near enough "dirt" to be worth while,As most  
> of the
> foundation work will only be 1-2 ft down and the interior will be a  
> adobe
> com[onsite floor of some sort so I may actually have to add  
> material to get
> it all even.
>
> Also the lot we have is not conducive to Solar heat as there is a  
> fairly
> large hill to our Southeast. There would be some solar gain during  
> high sun
> but not much. the hill is just low enough to allow a dish to clear  
> it but
> not by much so it could be as much as 30 degrees high.
>  Being in the coast range should we reconsider Cob and think more  
> Straw bail
> or a more clay/straw mixture for thermal insulation.
>  Btw We are still looking for someone who might be interested in  
> "mentoring"
> us a bit who does have hands on experience building a Cob home.
>
> Phil and lilpony
> __,_._,___  \
> _______________________________________________
> Coblist mailing list
> Coblist at deatech.com
> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist