Berkeley Cob Project

[Otherfish at aol.com]

to paul salas
paul
not exactly what i had in mind
however am delighted to hear of your work

one of the beauties of cob as a concept is to work as much as is possible with
locally available materials - if natural pozzolans are available then no
problem
-if not then what......  hmmm

fibers?
have you tried micro fibers in your work
might work well with your "maquina infernal"
the idea being again to devise ways to strengthen the earth matrix with
natural material available locally

re the dreaded STUCCO
it really is a problem to put impermiable finish layers on earth walls
it will trap any moisture that gets into the wall - in the wall
-wrong place
-stucco actually does more harm than good in earth structures
-this is a proven fact

the wall needs to be able to breath
just like us

have you thought about this with your waterproof earth render?

thanks for your informative reply
regards
john fordice
TCCP
otherfish at aol.com