[Cob] Straw and cob together

[Christopher Reinhart]

Starr,

I, too, live in southern Indiana, near Bloomington, and our home has cob
walls, bale-cob walls, and straw-clay walls.  To answer your questions:

"Can we "plaster" cob over straw bale?"
Yes.  Earthen plaster is essentially cob with chopped straw.  Where we have
plastered over bales, the thickness varies, but is probably between 1/2" to
1-1/2" of earthen plaster.  If there were going to be large projections
(sculptures, bookshelves, etc.), then you would need some method other than
just "sticking" the plaster to the bales in order to support the
projection.  Check out "The Natural Plaster Book", by Cedar Rose Gulbreuth
(sp?) and Dan Chiras.

"... how long does cob take to dry inside?"
It depends... atmospheric conditions will determine this.  We've had good
success drying cob inside the house faster by using fans during times of
high humidity.

Now a question for you:  when you say your foundation is "four foot urbanite
walls", is your dimension referring to the foundation's height or its
thickness?

Best wishes, fellow Hoosier!
-Chris


On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Starr Guffey <ladystellar at insightbb.com>wrote:

> Hope this topic is OK, I am working on plans for our house. Can we
> "plaster" cob over straw bale? and if so how thick should it be? We are
> building in a wet, cold area, southern  IN,  the house will set on four foot
> urbanite walls. Also we are putting in a cob stove and a cob vanity and
> other cob details inside the house how long does cob take to dry inside? If
> this topic does not work for the list my e-mail is
> ladystellar at insightbb.com
> Thanks, Starr
>
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