[Cob] Cement/adobe plaster and cob floors

[Dorethy Hancock]

For Mike Creedy:
I'll add my vote with Tys Sniffen on the cement.  If you'll read what Ianto
Evans says in *The Hand-Sculpted House*, you'll find that the expert has
had bad results with cement.  I don't qualify as an expert, perhaps; but I
put earthen plaster over cob, (about 1:3 clay to sand, plus chopped,
strained straw; and then a lime plaster over that.  My cob house has
weathered almost 10 years now, and I only have to patch a few cracks in
this lime plaster now and then, and they are very easy to mend.  Anyway, it
sounds like you have good overhang, so you don't have to worry much about
water damaging your plaster.  I'll admit, I don't know your weather there;
but in Kansas we sometimes get rain *sideways*, with heavy winds.

As for floors:  *You can't use JUST linseed oil*!  I have a nice hard floor
which admittedly had some damage by renters who somehow managed to gouge
holes in it (they apparently neither knew nor cared anything about them
because they didn't own them!); but for everyday normal wear-&-tear, it's
good.  It's a "poured cob" floor:  bottom layer (3" deep) is clay and sand
with rocks up to 3/4", plus chopped straw and a little manure;  next layer
is 1 1/2" deep, and has small pebbles, and the straw is strained through
1/4" screen; then the third/top layer is about 1/2" thick, with same
ingredients (clay, sand, straw & manure) that are strained through window
screen and troweled on.  Now, for the protective coat:  The first coat was
3 parts linseed oil to 1 part turpentine.  Second coat is half and half.
Third coat is 1 part linseed oil and 3 parts turpentine.  You must wait
between each coat for it to thoroughly dry, just as you do with each layer
of cob.  I've read where one builder does 7 coats, and guarantees her work
to stand up to anything.  Suit yourself on that.

I hope this helps.  Good luck!
Dorethy from Kansas