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The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
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Cob: House plans/living roofWaiting4 TheDay waiting4theday at hotmail.comSun Mar 30 10:52:06 CST 2003
Hello, Been lurking on the list for quite awhile, but have yet to see my particular problem(s) addressed. I am building a 20' inside diameter round cob house with a clerestory living roof system. The circle will be split by a cob wall running east/west the the diameter of the house. The base of this wall will be 24", while the base of the curved outside walls will be 18". All walls will be load-bearing. I've cut 12" diameter timbers to span the (maximum) 10' length from the inside wall to the outside. Now for the issues... I intend to use a rubble trench system for the foundation. Rather than build a stemwall of expensive material (block, rock, concrete), I have access to a large number of incredibly sturdy plastic soda cases with solid quarter-inch sides. The idea is to fill these with gravel and use them as blocks, thus providing a moisture break. Stakes can be driven through them to secure them to the gravel in the trench, and flashing can be used to secure them to each other. As an outside covering, I envision using a thin coat of concrete/fiberglass slurry sold in a bucket. (I don't want to use this or the aluminum flashing or the pond liner for the roof, but can see no long-term, working alternatives.) Here's the question: I plan on having 12" of cob on the gravel in the soda case, while the other 6" will be resting on the gravel that will underlay the cob floor. Is this a problem? I can't find any reference to this situation anyplace (and I've read Ianto Evans' "Hand-Sculpted House" twice). Next issue is the living roof. Evans does deal with it some, as does Rob Roy. The problem I'm having tho' is with the design of the fascia and how the water drains. Evans states that the waterproof layer goes over the fascia, yet his diagram in the book doesn't show that. And everyone says that the waterproofing should be covered to avoid degradation from UV, but if it runs over the fascia it will be exposed to the elements. Besides the obvious, my question is would a fascia even be necessary if the slope of the roof were shallow enough to prevent erosion and you had plants aggressive enough to hold the soil in place? (BTW, I'm a nurseryman, and there are two genus that, in my mind, would work wonderfully on a living roof: the mints and the bellflowers (specifically Campanula rapunculoides and C. punctata)). That's it for now, but as things continue/evolve, I'm sure I'll post more questions. Thanks for any insight. Chuck _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
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