[Cob] Looking for answers

[Shannon Dealy]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2013, Jeff Houston wrote:

[snip]
> exactly HOW hard is it to build one of these? I love the idea, and love the 
> concept. I would LOVE to build one of these myself but I am just not sure I 
> am physically able to do it. I was hoping someone could give me an idea of 
> exactly how strenuous, particularly on the back this process is.

I have a long history of serious back problems, including some time on 
disability as a result, so I understand your problem.  I have kept my back 
problems under control for the last 20 years using an exercise program I 
found on video tape called "Say Goodbye to Back Pain" (I found it on DVD a 
few years ago when I sent a copy to my father).  They claim an 80% to 90% 
success rate in eliminating back pain.  It took about 16 weeks (30 minutes 
a day) for me to be pain free, though I believe that for most people it 
only takes about six weeks to eliminate the pain.  It has allowed me to 
control the back problems ever since, the only recurances occur when I 
haven't been doing the exercises for a while, and no recurance has ever 
been anywhere near as severe as the episodes I had prior to starting 
this program.

I started building with cob about 18 years ago and have built several 
buildings working entirely alone.  I have also worked on many more 
buildings as both a student and an instructor.  Most of this was done 
mixing and applying cob entirely by hand and feet.

While there is no question that building with cob is a lot of work,
one of the advantages of cob is that if you are patient and don't have 
any other reasons to hurry, you can do it entirely without mechanical 
assistance, simply by adjusting the size of the batches you mix and the 
size of the "cobs" you apply.  On occasion, I have been known for 
tarp mixing 45 gallon batches of cob working entirely alone.  On the other 
hand, there have been a few occasions over the years when I haven't been 
keeping up with the back exercises and it has gone out, so (once I was 
back on my feet) I was limited to mixing seven to ten gallon batches until 
the exercises cleared up the pain.

Of course there are a wide range of back problems so it is hard to say 
what your experience would be like, but it is at least possible for 
someone with back problems to build with cob.

FWIW.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
Phone: (800) 467-5820 |          - Natural Building Instruction -
    or: (541) 929-4089 |                  www.deatech.com