[Cob] plastic jugs in walls?

[Henry Raduazo]

	If you are making good quality cob the wall can be as thin as 7  
inches. At cob cottage in Coquille they have been retying bales of  
straw and chain sawing them half. The half bales are stuck in the  
wall and this results in an insulation layer on the outside of 7 inch  
thick cob walls. It saves tones of cob.
	I just finished putting a cob wall on top of two cinderblock  
retaining walls 7.5 inches thick. Two 7 inch thick cob walls support  
12 foot living roof 50 pounds per square foot.  They are short cob  
walls with a good overhang so I expect no trouble supporting the weight.
Ed
On Dec 10, 2009, at 2:46 PM, john fordice wrote:

> Tys,
> I'll venture to say (without really being able to prove it) that it  
> will weaken the wall.  A cob wall gets it  strength by being  
> thick.  A structure resists forces acting on it by being made as  
> continuous as possible.  Making a void in the wall will create a  
> weak spot which compromises the continuity of the structure.    I  
> would not do anything which creates voids in the cob based on this  
> reasoning.
> john fordice
>
> On Dec 10, 2009, at 10:07 AM, Tys Sniffen wrote:
>
>> So, as my walls get up over 7 feet high, I'm starting to remember  
>> how lower
>> down, when I had them laying around, I would toss in the  
>> occasional urbanite
>> chunk to take up some space.
>>
>> Now I'm starting to think about tossing in some one gallon plastic  
>> jugs
>> (vinegar jugs, that are slightly thicker plastic than the common 1  
>> gal milk
>> jug) again, to take up space, but also I'm thinking having a void  
>> in the
>> wall that size could insulation in a way, and, of course, would  
>> make my tall
>> parts a bit lighter.
>>
>> Does that sound like a bad idea to anyone?
>>
>> Tys
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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