[Cob] Cob dome roof?

[Dulane]

On my small cob hut, I used some recycled pond liner (over lumber), plus 3
in of soils, straw and local moss. It is tricky to attach a rubber or
plastic roof over wood without putting holes in it, but it can be done.

In a pinch, heavy weight plastic will work, as long as there is a good UV
resistant covering. If it is well covered by organic materials, plastic
should last indefinitely. You can even overlap it as long as the top sheet
overlaps the bottom on an incline.

-----Original Message-----
From: coblist-bounces at deatech.com [mailto:coblist-bounces at deatech.com] On
Behalf Of orange_green_peace at hotmail.com
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 4:23 AM
To: CobWeb List
Subject: [Cob] Cob dome roof?

Hello Damon,

you mentioned "a 10 foot circular  mud hut with a dome roof (also mud)".
I am curious. How would that work? I always thought mud roofs only work
in desert climates or similar. Or is there a possibility to make it
waterproof? Where I live (northern germany) it rains a lot and it is
maritime climate. But there are also very few trees here, so my dream is
a small hut that uses earth, straw, probably thatch (it's just a
dream... reed thatch is expensive...), other natural materials and a
little wood, but as little as possible. This is all theoretical at this
time. But I like to think about possibilities and I'd very much like to
try something like this as soon as possible.

I hope this doesn't sound too stupid, it's just an idea I had. I have no
building experience yet, so it might be a very stupid idea. But I find
it fascinating, so here it is: A cob dome roof with straw/thatch worked
in so that the straw/thatch works like a fur. It is embedded in the cob,
but the long ends stick out in many layers (as on a normal thatch roof),
making rain water run off and hopefully keeping the cob dry. I hope it's
understandable what I mean with this description.
Or a slightly different idea would be to fasten the straw/thatch to the
cob dome with pieces of wood in about the same way one would normally
fasten it to roof timbers.

I wonder if anyone has tried/experimented with something like this before?

Leona

On 23.07.2010 21:33, Damon Howell wrote:
[snip] I read this "book" of 105 pages written by Hasan
> Fathy named Architecture for the Poor where he writes how unwilling
> building officials are to accept that mud can be used to build
> beautiful buildings that just isn't possible with conventional
> materials. He presents it from the viewpoint of the poor; they are
> suffering because they can't afford the type of home the building
> forces them to build; concrete. Build a 10 foot circular  mud hut with
> a dome roof (also mud), he says.[snip]

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