Cob: how do folks handle other responsibilities duringbuilding?

[crtaylor]

 The solution in my opinion is for someone to devise a machine which will
prepare the raw materials, mix the cob, and place it ON the wall.  When
this  is done, then we will be very close to providing to folks such as you the
 means to build with cob at a low cost amidst the demands of everday life.

>jeanne keevan-lynch said:
>	Will machine-applied cob give us the sculpted-house look of current cob
>design?  What benefit would there be in building with  machine-applied cob
>rather than rammed earth?  Wouldn't you need forms to apply the cob to?


hello all,
The rammed earth projects seem to require tons of lumber for formworks,
lots of big strong guys to run the pneumatic tampers, etc, while I think
the    "hosed in cob" is more like filling up a formworks, and letting the
weight help it settle.  In manual RE there is a ton on back breaking
tamping going on with a big flat iron thingy ...tedious looking.

In the Alternative Sampler video of homes it shows a papercrete  mix being
hosed into a simple form works...to a certain level, left to set up, then
hosed again...lookings interesting to me, slipform pour a house!

and to get the finished cob look  a nice 2-3" finish plaster can give any
effect you'd want, either tinted and colored, lime plaster or traditional
cob applied by hand.  the jpg below shows a wall with "wild" plaster colors
on a strawbale house, using a lime based plaster.

http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/colrwall.jpg  The house was plastered by
Gary and Shahoma of Our Helping Hands in OR...they've designed in tree
shapes, free form art, etc, plus the wild color schemes



Charmaine R. Taylor
Taylor Publishing 1-888-441-1632
More than 300 books for Building & Sustainable living
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms
Take a Sneak Peek at "Cobwood"at:
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/cobwood.html