[Cob] Coblist Digest, Vol 8, Issue 118

[Heather Howard]

Hello there,
Would you please, please, please send me some pictures of the dead man
scenarios you recently described regarding attaching a roof to cob columns?
Thank you,
Heather at friscomomma at gmail.com

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:50:14 -0400
From: Henry Raduazo <raduazo at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Cob] Attaching a roof to cob columns
To: Kevin Brown <brownkc at care2.com>
Cc: Cob List <coblist at deatech.com>
Message-ID: <D30DFC49-3571-465A-8631-08F5941FE153 at cox.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=UTF-8;  delsp=yes;
 format=flowed

Pictures available upon request

Kevin: This is an essay on dead man anchors:
       In the cob industry "dead man anchors" are commonly used to attach
door frames or backings for door and window frames to cob and dead
man anchors are usually used as hurricane ties.
       ?There are two basic types of dead man anchors commonly used in the
cob industry The first is the all wood dead man. Fig. 1 below shows
the construction process where a pine dead man is attached to a
slender oak tensile member. The oak has been pre-drilled to prevent
splitting and both the oak and pine dead man have been roughened up
to take glue then they are bonded together with glue and screws.
(Note Fig. 2 below)




       Fig. 3 shows the dead man anchors in their final position in the
wall. ?The anchor near the fence must be cut shorter and the anchor
closest to the camera must either be taller of placed at a higher
position in the wall because because the roof will slope front to
back at a 45 degree angle and the oak tensil member as shown in this
picture is not long enough to to reach the and be secured to the roof
beam.
       The roof beams will run from the L-shaped column in the background
to the T-shaped column in the foreground and be secured to the dead
man anchors which will be imbedded in the columns. A second set of
roof beams will extend to a third L-shaped column not seen in this
figure.


       An alternative way to make dead man anchors is using wire tensile
members instead of wood. Fig. 4 shows such a dead man anchor with
horseshoe nails used to attach the anchor to the roof beams. In use
the dead man will be buried in the wall during construction and the
two wires will extend above the top of the wall. The first wire will
be wrapped clockwise around the beam and nailed to the front, top and
back of the beam while the other wire will be wrapped counter
clockwise and nailed to the back, top and front. The best way to do
this is to have one person grip the wire with pliers and tension the
wire while a second person nails the wire to the beam. Use lots of
nails and pound them in far enough to firmly grip the wire but not so
far as to cut it.

?

       I have selected oak tensile members for my roof because the slender
pieces of oak will provide both tensile strength and shear resistance
against wind forces.

Ed

On Jul 9, 2010, at 10:33 PM, Kevin Brown wrote:
Hey Ed,

Thanks for the response and info. Is there often some play in the
wire? I'm having trouble envisioning how to secure it snugly.


<-----Original Message----->
 >From: Henry Raduazo [raduazo at cox.net]
 >Sent: 7/8/2010 7:43:50 PM
 >To: brownkc at care2.com
 >Cc: coblist at deatech.com
 >Subject: Re: [Cob] Attaching a roof to cob columns
 >
 >Kevin: I would suggest a dead man anchor. A dead man anchor is a
 >piece of scrap wood buried in the mud a foot or so below the cross
 >beams and attached to the cross beams by means of a wire cable or a
 >thin stick. The wire can be wrapped around the dead man and will
 >extend perpendicular to the dead man to the beam. It will be wrapped
 >around the beam and attached to the beam by wire staple or horse shoe
 >nails.
 > The thin stick is attached first to the dead man with screws when it
 >is buried in the wall and then attached to the roof beams by screws
 >when the pillar is high enough to support the beams.
 >
 >Ed
 >On Jul 8, 2010, at 3:10 PM, Kevin Brown wrote:
 >
 >> Greetings all,
 >>
 >> I'm building a gathering place of sorts in central Montana (Big Sky
 >> Country) and am building a roof with two cross beams attached to cob
 >> pillars. Any suggestions on how to attach the roof to the pillars?
 >> The surface area of the top of the pillars will roughly be 16-20" x
 >> 16-20". Thanks
 >>
 >> Kevin Brown
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >> <p><p>Care2 makes it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green
 >> lifestyle
 >> and impact the causes you care about most. Over 12 Million members!
 >> <a href="http://www.care2.com" target=_blank>http://www.care2.com</
 >> a><br /><br />
 >> Feed a child by searching the web! Learn how <a href="http://
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 >> Coblist mailing list
 >> Coblist at deatech.com
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 >
 >.
 >

Care2 makes it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green lifestyle
and impact the causes you care about most. Over 12 Million members!
http://www.care2.com

Feed a child by searching the web! Learn how http://www.care2.com/
toolbar


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End of Coblist Digest, Vol 8, Issue 118
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