[Cob] Mike .. Dome home

[Dulane]

We get a fair amount of rain here in the NW. My lime paint (with clay, and sand and horse manure) has lasted 3-5 years between applications. And we get sideways rain. But not often enough to do the walls much damage. Overhang is everything when it comes to longevity of walls.

I love my clay floor now. But I swear it took 2 years to finally dry. I think you can be really water stingy with your clay floor mix. It is harder to work with tho and even then you should start it a week before the hottest driest part of your summer.

I had dents in my floor for awhile too. I actually saved some of the floor mix and used it to fill the dents. We didn't use my cob hut for the winter and it stopped denting the following year. I also put the wool things on the bottoms of my chairs and dusted them with cornstarch. Seems crazy to have to live like that especially when you put so much energy into creating these floors! 

Lime ash or limecrete floors might be a better option too, because they dry faster. I had just a cob floor for a couple years and it was fine (with a carpet covering) until I put on a dense wet top layer, and then sealed it a few weeks later with orange oil and bees wax.

> On Jan 15, 2014, at 12:37 PM, "Tys Sniffen" <tys at ideamountain.com> wrote:
> 
> Mike,
> 
> 
> 
> I haven't seen any positive info on adding cement to earth plaster, and I
> would strongly advise you to get actual, real input from someone who's done
> it - more than 5 years ago - and thinks it's a good idea.  
> 
> 
> 
> My thought (and notice, only thought, as I'm in a dry climate where the rain
> generally comes straight down) is that you go with a lime plaster.   We did
> that indoors in the kitchen and bath, and it's certainly not that hard to
> work with .
> 
> 
> 
> I have more experienced input on your floors question, but still not exactly
> what you're looking for: 
> 
> 
> 
> We put 1" rigid (white) insulation around the edge of our interiors, maybe
> 18" in from the walls, on top of the 1" base gravel, below a road base/clay
> mix, which then had a fine sand clay finish on top of it.  After 2 years of
> living in it, I can't see ANY difference in the resulting floor from where
> has insulation and where it doesn't.  that is, I don't think a vapor barrier
> below the floor hurts.  Remember though, I don't have a continuous one, and
> I live in a place where it's dry 8 months of the year.  (and of course, we
> did extensive site drainage work before foundation)
> 
> 
> 
> Also I did 6 (!) coats of linseed oil, some over 6 days, some all on one
> day, and I'm not really happy with the result.   It's not hard enough.  4
> legged chairs make dents in it.  maybe I did it wrong, but maybe linseed
> doesn't harden clay floors up as much as one would like. 
> 
> 
> 
> Tys
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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