[Cob] Sealing earthen floors with ox blood?

[Dulane]

You can buy a box of blood meal from the plant shop too. I haven't tried it,
but I hope to later this summer. Many butchers buy already drained
carcasses.

I've either heard or read that in places like Africa, when they need to do
work on their house, they make a sump and start adding all their sticky (but
not too chunky) organic matter, like left over oatmeal, pot liquors, sour
milk, etc. This would include any healthy liquids or excrements from your
farm animals and perhaps some human urine etc. 

And maybe they would butcher an animal as a spring time/home remodeling
ritual and give the goop some good sticky color in the process. And the sump
would happily froth and ferment until you were ready.

This would be the basis of the 'mud' they would then add clay or other earth
to, to make or renew a plaster, or add to the normal floor making
ingredients, including fresh manure or chopped straw and fine sand.

I've heard these floors come out feeling like leather. However...I think I
would still add some boiled linseed oil and beeswax to the final
layers...for a nice finished surface.

BTW - since I will be doing this in more than one layer, I will save the
deep colors for nearer the surface, because my local clay is a dull grey.

I have heard that the organic proteins like milk and blood can form hard and
shiny surfaces. I added milk to my lime based interior paints. And manure to
the outside limewash with good results. But the manure paint smelled until
it was completely dry. The paint wasn't chalky at all. I plan on leaving my
hut open until my new floor dries, as to encourage the smells to dissipate
before the nest cool season. 

I hope to have more experience in this process soon. I have a 4" poured cob
floor that I hope to add a 2" finish layer to. I was very impressed that
this cob floor did OK under a carpet, and the floor was never cold to the
touch in the winter.

Dulane  

-----Original Message-----
From: coblist-bounces at deatech.com [mailto:coblist-bounces at deatech.com] On
Behalf Of Brian Liloia
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 4:50 PM
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: [Cob] Sealing earthen floors with ox blood?

Hi there:

I've heard a bit about sealing traditional earthen floors with ox blood, but
I'd love to hear from someone who has experience actually trying it. Does it
replace the need for linseed oil, or should it be used with it? What about
other kinds of blood? Why ox? Can it be cow or pig blood?

There is a local butcher from whom I could probably get some blood -- I'd
love to try some experimenting with the floor in the mud room addition I am
putting on my cob house.

Any thoughts out there?

- ziggy

-- 
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