Cob: RE: patio walls?

[John Schinnerer]

Aloha,

-----Original Message-----
From: Sarah Kopp [mailto:kopp at kinneret.kinneret.co.il]

>Has anyone successfully built outdoor cob walls - garden walls or the like?

Yeah - even if uncovered, they will wear down very slowly unless rain is
heavy and constant, based on historical evidence (and isn't your climate
rather arid?).

I would suggest capping them with roof tiles, or even wall or floor tiles
(overlapped like shingles), with a bit of overhang (maybe you can get
seconds, leftovers, etc. cheaply).  A trick I have seen photos of for
exposed walls is to put rows of small pointed stones in the wall with the
points sticking out and slightly down - some of the water running down the
wall then runs out the stones and drips off the points rather than washing
down the whole wall.

>The slab is
>elevated on pilings and not engineered to support the weight of stone
walls,

Cob is heavy...definitely heavier than unfilled cinder block of the same
thickness...so this might be a problem...?

John Schinnerer