Cob: Stewing. Long.

[Miranda]

I want to thank all of you who took the time to encourage me and offer me 
advice!

Several people asked where I live, and I thought I would tell you all about 
my area, my land, and my own situation.  I keep juggling through all these 
factors, trying to come up with something that will work.

If others know my particular algebra, you might know something that will 
work for me that I don't.  I'll gladly do this in return, when it seems 
like it would help.


I live about an hour southeast of Austin, TX.  The summers are terrible 
hot.  A mild summer is 100 degrees for a couple of months; a hotter one can 
get over 110 and stay there for a long time.

We can have droughts that last all summer long, with no rainfall 
whatsoever  (I believe the song, Not a Drop of Rain, was written here), or 
we can have a couple of months of rain several times every week, with 
rivers flooding and washing away some structures.

We have tornados from time to time.

Winters can be mild, like this one, with (so far,) few freezes, or can go 
below freezing for several weeks.  Every year it's something different!

My particular patch is not in the flood plain, but there is a sheet of 
water that flows straight across it from uphill, on its way down to the 
river.  A long, low wall will be necessary to divert the water away from 
the house; that's what is commonly done here in that situation, and it 
works very well, from what I've seen.

The ground is limestone.  Forget digging.  You can scrape a little topsoil 
off, if there is any, but then you'll hit rock.  It might be solid, or in 
chunks, but it's very hard to dig.  I don't *think* there is much of a 
frost line here.  You don't see many tall foundations.

There are juniper trees and scrub oak all over my acre, with some 
clearings.  Septic tanks are required here, and I'm looking at about 
$10,000 to install one, no way around that.  Must be done, and the rock 
makes it expensive.  I agree, it's sucky.  On the good side, the septic 
contractors will probably clear some trees where I want to build.

And now, my situation.  Oooooh.  I don't know if many people have less 
money than I do! :0)  I'm a single mom with two young children, and I make 
soap for a living, and clean houses.  That's not much money.  Most of it 
goes for bills.

So building will be pretty slow.  There will probably be a year or two in a 
nasty old trailer.  (I'm not whining!  Just trying to give a sense of why 
I'm thinking along certain lines, why I'm looking for cheeeep solutions.)

I have a steel rod in my back, and a couple of other gimpy bits.  I'm used 
to working hard, and expect I'll get stronger, but I prefer to avoid 
lifting really heavy stuff.  I will have the use of a scaffold, and I think 
I'll try to rig up something with a pulley and a counterweight to get loads 
of whatever up on a wall.

Whatever I use, cob or earthbags or anything, it's going to have to get 
lifted up high, once I build above my own reach.  Brain can make up for a 
lot of lack of brawn!

Earthbags are commonly placed on the wall and then filled, with one person 
handing soil up and another perched on the wall filling the bag.  If I can 
pulley a 5 gallon bucket up to the wall, that almost sounds easier than 
lifting cob, which is exactly the same, only filled with water, much heavier.

Or maybe not.  I really have not decided.  Cob is cheaper; you don't have 
to buy the bags or the barbed wire to go between the courses.  But you do 
have to get the straw.  Oh, all the factors to consider!!

With strawbale, you have to buy the bales.  It's always something.


I'm thinking that a few rows of gravel-filled earthbags should do for a 
foundation.  I saw this in "Building With Earth."  I like it because it 
requires less skill than laying drystone, and less money and skill than 
pouring concrete.


I've thought of using strawbale for the walls, as some people have 
suggested.  The Strawbale Book mentions the compression factor when trying 
to make the strawbale walls be bearing.  This gets complex, I understand, 
when you add doors and windows.  Is this still an issue?  Has this problem 
been overcome?

Whatever my walls are made of, I want them to be bearing.  My father is a 
framer, and will be willing to help me however he can, but the sticks are 
not cheap, and I would rather not mess with them.  Walls must bear their 
own weight and that of the roof.  I have spoken.  Besides.  Earth is better.

There is very little in the way of dirt around here, as I mentioned.  Most 
of the earth I build with will have to be bought and imported.  Many of the 
roads around here are made with caliche (we say co-LEE-chee, what do you 
say?) which someone has told me has a reasonable clay/sand ratio.  This may 
or may not be true.  It does have small chunks of limestone in it, up to 
about fist-sized.

It must be cheap; they pour it on the roads!


Roofing.  Are telephone poles a good option for rafters?  I think I'll have 
to build a roof, rather than a dome.  I'm not sure I trust my engineering 
far enough to live under a dome I built.  Maybe in later structures.

I'm thinking just the most simple shed roof.  I like living roofs, but 
wonder how they'd do in our occasional torrential rains.  I'd probably use 
straw/clay for insulation and just put whatever I can get my hands on for 
the roofing.

Earth floors, no question there.

Cordwood masonry is not too uncommon here.  You can use the juniper trees 
(tiny diameter, though,) but they have to age for a year or two.  There are 
termites here, though.  I like the idea of a fireproof house, and one that 
the bugs won't eat.

Everything on the outside should be smooooth and hard.  There are scorpions 
here too, and they love to nestle in little crevices.  No thatched roofing, 
for example.  I'd be overrun.  Heck, fireants might even nest up there.


I probably make it sound just terrible here!  It's lovely, though, if you 
can take the heat.  The Texas Hill Country is rugged and beautiful, and 
still kind of clean.  There are gorgeous limestone-bottomed rivers to swim 
in, and there is great music, and it would be a wonderful get-away for 
anyone who wanted to come help me build my house!

I also make great pizza. :0)

If anyone has actually read this ramble, thank you.  You're very kind.  I 
appreciate any suggestions.  No matter what, it's going to be a lot of 
work, and there just isn't any getting around that.  I think it will be 
beautiful, though.

Miranda