Use of forms in superadobe

[goshawk at gnat.net]

Mauk, Georgia

Well the weather around here is quite wet.
We are still working on the road "again"
but really really expect to be finished by next week. 
The "problem" section is a hill with basicly pure sand.
I plan on laying down a bit of red clay 
then a layer of crush and run gravel. The hope is the clay
will bond with the sand (kind of a road cob) and the gravel
will sit on or mix with it. I'm countin the pennies a bit 
since I still need to get a well in  so this seems the best 
solution within my price range. (after the well it will be  more 
labor  and less money)
 The road was dozed and 
bladed but the fellow did not have a road grader so it 
ain't real smooth. I expect it will pack done. (the clay and 
gravel will arive after this rain finnally stops.

While I am waiting I hope to start on some forms. I'm not sure 
if they do much in the way of forms with standard cob but 
using the sandbags filled with earth, cob, stabilized earth or 
clay coated staw you can build arches. The arches are then 
used to put windows and doors in the dome structure. This 
eliminates the need for headers or lentals (sp?).



You can build a standard sized form and use it for all you windows.
I'll just stick a frame in the arc and put cob infill where ever it is
needed.  


In the large dome (22 ft diameter) we want to have a sky light of 
some type. But that's a bit down the road.

Latter,

Pat.


"If you don't have enouph madness in you, go and rehabilitate yourself" - Rumi