Cob Re: cordwood homes

[M J Epko]

Pat -

	Best collection of cordwood/stackwall links I know of:
http://www.interlog.com/~ewood/Links.html

	Rob Roy's the cordwood building honcho having published three or four
books and a video out of his Earthwood Building School in New York,
following in the footsteps of Jack Henstridge and others. 

	He uses a cement+sawdust mix for the mortar, with a sawdust+lime mix for
the insulation between. I don't know that cob has been used instead of
cement, but if it were I think the 'standard' cordwood technique would have
to be modified, with the cob running fully as wide as the wall (or nearly
so) rather than having a couple inches of it on the interior & exterior
with the resulting interior pocket filled with insulation (as is the case
with cement mortar). I know that cob has great compressive strength, but
I'd worry about it if it were only a couple inches wide.

	I'd think (but don't know) that mold or decomposition prior to complete
drying after construction wouldn't be much of a concern, even if it
happened that a full-width cob/stackwall matrix using green logs and
too-moist cob in real humid weather was employed. Moisture travels best
through the log-ends (as long as they're not sealed), so I think excess
moisture would mitigate easily.

	Cob/stackwall would be a *very* quick way to build, I'd think. Once the
materials were gathered and prepped, anyway.

	Matts M (that strawbale yuppie!) was talking about binding loose straw
tightly into 'logs' (4" diameter or so) using a rudimentary hand-press,
dipping them into a mud slurry and stacking them to make walls. Interesting
concept. The Steens have worked with what amounts to straw/clay
hand-pressed into block forms, sun-dried like adobe blocks, and used
successfully as lightweight bearing material for whole walls.

	But now I'm losing focus.

>I saw a cordwood home. 
>The mortar look like cement based
>Do they every use cob?
>
>any other sites or information on this technique?



   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      M J Epko        duckchow at ix.netcom.com
      almost Wyoming, north of Nebraska, USA
      (not soon enough) - for now, Minnesota
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Never believe that a few caring people
      can't change the world.  For indeed,
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                              -Margaret Mead