Cob:

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, Jill hotmail wrote:

> Where have successful cob builders built their homes? We keep finding
> land, but struggle with what we can and can't do.. so the search
> continues.
> Help!
>

If you are talking fully permitted residential structures, there have been
very few of those built, and the only ones I can recall having heard of
required architects and at least in some cases were done using a
conventional frame and cob infill.  There are some areas which don't
require permits, though from the little I have heard, they appear to
generally be very rural, agricultural areas.  Unfortunately, I don't know
of any list of areas that do not require permits for residential
structures.  You may wish to read (if you haven't already) my web page
which summarizes the different approaches (legal or otherwise) that I am
aware of which people have taken or could potentially take for building
their cob houses:

   http://www.deatech.com/natural/articles/code_alternatives.html

It probably could use an update since it has been a few years, in
particular, for areas which have adopted the new international building
code (and which haven't overridden this provision), I believe the 120
square foot building size for unpermitted structures is defined as
interior floor area, where in the past, different locales defined it as
interior square feet, exterior square feet (at the walls), exterior square
feet (to the edges of your roof), or simply left it undefined, leaving
you and your local building officials to argue what the 120 square feet
actually meant if the issue ever came up.

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
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