Cob Codes

[Stephen H. Kapit]

If you can, post some pictures of your structure as you finish it.

Thanks.

Stephen

Jeanne Leimkuhler wrote:

> Hello Everyone, This is my first posting to the list, in fact the first
> posting in my life, although I have been reading avidly for the past 6
> months or so. This list is invaluable.
> My husband, and I are building a small cob building in Bloomington, Indiana
> as a practice project before building our own home. We do not yet have the
> land that we wish to live and build on in the future, so we talked some
> friends into letting us practice on theirs.
> What we are building is a 200 sq. ft, one room guesthouse with cob
> fireplace and earth floor. There will be electricity, but no plumbing. The
> foundation is a gravel trench with 4" concrete cap. The metal roof will be
> additionally supported by a post at either end and a curved ridge beam, all
> from found trees on the property. The design was greatly inspired by Gayle
> Borst's design for the Rainbow Ridge house in Austin, Texas.
> The point that I wanted to make is that although we are building the first
> cob structure in our county, and as far as we know in the state, we have
> had very little resistance in getting a permit. The structure was
> originally classified as a residence, but they were giving us some trouble
> about the earthen floor. They wanted engineers drawings on this, which we
> doubted exist. So we reclassified it as an accessory building and that
> solved the problem. I realize that this is not an option for people
> building a full blown home, but we figured that if we could get this
> permitted it would make things easier for the next project, which might be
> a home.
> The most work that we had to do was drawing up the plans and working out
> the math on a round ridge beam, but with that done we are permitted.
> Granted, there were sceptics down there but Joe found the inspectors that
> were open and curious and asked for them when he went in. Showing them
> sections from The Cobbers' Companion was very helpful. Now they all want to
> come out and inspect.
> So the trench has been dug and inspected and we are on our way. It is hard
> for me to believe that we would have less conservative inspectors in
> Indiana than where most of you are building, but then again maybe we got
> lucky here.
>
> Happy cobbin'
> Jeanne Leimkuhler and Joe Davis



--
Stephen H. Kapit
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