Cob: stucco question

[jamie.ayres at m2.com]

One thing I've seen on a few houses in rainy England is the use of slate. 
It's not cheap but it is flat and very weather resistant.Looks good too!

You could also use a coating of a tar paint (like in Old Minehead and 
other picturesque English towns).

My worry with the stucco would be that the mud plaster on the outside wall 
will expand and contract faster or slower than the stucco at the bottom 
and you'd end up with a ridge  between stucco and mud plaster. That would 
probably act as a moisture trap even worse than simply allowing the bottom 
of the wall to get wet (surface wet) and dry off naturally.  Also the 
stucco will heat up and cool at a different rate to the mud which will 
attract condensation... possibly inside the wall if a gap forms.

The tar paint appears to be the most popular method used over here in 
coastal towns where the rain gets rather heavy and persistant!  It might 
look quite nice as well :o)

btw, indirect splashes at the bottom of the wall is to be expected. It 
shouldn't actually cause dampness inside the house because it'll simply 
dry off and not soak in (it's not being soaked directly from the rainfall) 
but it'll require more maintenance to stop the wall eroding over time.

HTH
Jay


Jamie Ayres / M2 Communications Ltd / http://www.m2.com
Any views expressed in this e-mail are not necessarily the same as those 
of my employer.






Roxboro Yurt <theyurt at yahoo.com>
Sent by: owner-coblist at deatech.com
07/30/01 03:35 PM
Please respond to Roxboro Yurt

 
        To:     coblist at deatech.com
        cc: 
        Subject:        Cob: stucco question


I am sufficiently convinced of the inadvisability of
applying cement/concrete/stucco to a whole cob wall,
but I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on putting
a small stucco border, perhaps two feet high from
ground level, up the foundation and covering the
bottom of the cob wall, then changing over to mud
plaster?  I want to protect the wall base from rain
splashing up, as I have noticed it definitely gets wet
at the bottom  when it rains very hard, even with a
two foot roof overhang. 
I can't see why a small border would harm the wall,
the inside would still breathe, and the moisture would
be able to wick up and out over the stucco. 
Alternately, I have thought about a tin border, or
board and batten but the tin is sort of ugly and wood
has its own problems.  Does anyone have better ideas,
or any reason to doubt the stucco border idea? 


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