[Cob] demolition

[dhowell at pickensprogressonline.com]

That is awesome. I'm sure I sound like a pessimist on the list, but  
what it really is is that I live in a county that requires building  
inspections and they are anal about following the book here. All I'm  
doing is trying to come up with convincing information for them to  
nod their heads at. Like every field, those who have the hands-on  
experience with cob are going to know much more about every aspect  
than someone who has never heard of it. It is my opinion that because  
people are building with natural materials more and more it is the  
building official's job to know about them so they can carry out  
inspections and get people into homes. Why is it the fault of the one  
who builds his house that authority is clueless of what he's doing?  
They are on the tax-payers payroll, so they should at least try to  
work with the tax-payer on getting a house built for him instead of  
shutting him down because of ignorance on their part. Sorry, I just  
talk a lot!    I will tone it down for everyone's sake...

On May 25, 2012, at 3:00 PM, coblist-request at deatech.com wrote:

> Having also demolished most of a redesigned cottage, built by fresh  
> interns who had no experience, i can honestly say cob is tough, and  
> straw does help. Namely one section we managed to sledge to head  
> height but had a 3 or 4 foot protrusion holding fast above our  
> heads, without any support but the Tensile strength of the straw  
> and the integral strength of the aggregate. after soaking, it still  
> required enormous amounts of enertgy to demolish.