Earthships & cob

[Timothy Tikker]

>Tim,
>I think you are asking if you can build a cob style home while
>incorporating the earthship type sustainable characteristics.

Yes.

>The answer is probably yes. I have seen several photos of cob
>construction incorporating passive solar.

That's standard procedure with the Oregon Cob style, the type I'm most
familiar with (I just moved from Eugene, OR to Charleston SC last Sept).

>You could probably add the
>grey water, rain catch water, and PV/wind systems also.

The latter two are especially interesting, since we have more than enough
rain and wind here (though hurricanes _are_ a little extreme!).

>I definitely
>would not expect the construction method to be any faster. In fact
>(speedwise), cob lends itself toward smaller square footage, where as
>Earthships tend to get big really fast. I'm a fan of building small, but if you
>feel you need 2,000 sq ft, then cob may not be your best choice (unless
>you have a few years to devote to building, even Earthships take along
>time). I grew up living comfortably with our family of five in a 384 sq ft
>cabin, so I know about downsizing.

We now are living in 1200 ft2, and are about to move to 1400+.  Much more
than that would be luxurious... (we're two people, but with a lot of
musical instruments!).

>Another consideration is soil types. If you have all sand, all gravel, or all
>clay, you would have to import some of the ingredients for the right
>mixture. With Earthships you can pretty much use what you have (with
>an engineer's help).

I'll be interested to learn more about the soil here.  Being so close to
the water, I'm sure we've got lots of sand.

About 2-1/2 hrs drive from here is Stateburg, site of the historic church
and plantation buildings of rammed earth -- we visited them some weeks ago.
The soil there is said to be highly sandy, but it looked to me to have a
respectable clay content as well.  I suspect it may be close to what the
Oregon Cob folks call "ready-mix", though will have to test a sample I took
to know for sure.

(BTW, when I find time I plan to write a report about the Stateburg
church... it's the one picture in David Easton's rammed earth book, though
he calls the town by its older name, Statesboro.)

>Earthships were intended to address the problem of the world's garbage
>and as you know the tires and cans are one aspect of them.

Indeed.  As I said, I understood and respected the reasons for using these
materials.  Yet I also have an interest in the idea of avoiding metal
whenever possible (Baubiologie, magnetic fields...).  Thus the idea of pure
cob is especially attractive.

- Tim Tikker