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Cob: sacrilegeShannon C. Dealy dealy at deatech.comFri Aug 16 01:21:06 CDT 2002
On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, David Kammer wrote: [snip] > structures over the benches. Is there any ways of > finishing off a bench so that it doesn't require a > roof? The group has said that they are willing to look [snip] I'm not sure where you are located/what your climate is, or what the long term prospects for maintenance of any protective coating are, but both of these could have significant bearing on how effective a given protective coating might be. I have no idea how effective this would be never having tried it, but you might try doing a few things: 1 - Design the bench seat so that it will naturally shed the water, leaving no place for it to puddle. This would probably involve putting some large holes at the base of the back to provide a channel for the water to run out. You will probably want this design to be corbelled out slightly with some kind of a drip edge placed on it so the water doesn't run down the sides of the bench. 2 - Make sure its on a good base up off the ground. 3 - Try sealing the surfaces which would get direct rain fall or water flow on them (seat, seat back, drain holes, drip edge, etc.) using an approach similar to what is used for sealing cob floors, repeated coats of linseed oil mixed with thinner, followed by a final coat of bees wax (check the coblist archives: www.deatech.com/natural/coblist/ for more details). Using this approach, you could leave a significant area of the cob untreated (the sides) which would allow it to breathe, while providing a smooth sealed surface for people to sit on and rain to run off of. As I said, I have no idea how well this will work, I think if it's done right, it could work reasonably well, providing someone is willing to give it a fresh top coat of bees wax/linseed oil on a periodic basis (how periodic I don't know, though if I were to guess I'd say once every year or two). Shannon C. Dealy | DeaTech Research Inc. dealy at deatech.com | - Custom Software Development - | Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications or: (541) 451-5177 | www.deatech.com
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