Cob: steel reinforcement

[Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder]

My opinion---why mess  with  good thing?  adding metal to a natural 
material that has been used for thousands of years by itself , is  
proven  (ala' 5 story earth walls in Yemen, Africa, and elsewhere) and 
simple, very low cost to do... K.I.S.S ( the last S = sweetie). ya know.

Metal will rust over time, so why have the expense and trouble of using 
it, plus the aggravation of future  people to come upon metal eroding 
away as the building goes back to nature.

Papercrete builders found placing pole, rebar, rods, etc inside walls 
only served to break the uniform mass, and the papercrete pulled away 
from the embedded material.  this  weakens the wall at that point, 
allows moisture to collect ( metals do not absorb moisture as wood does, 
allowing water to soak onto the cob, straw or paper wall)

Is your concern for code approval? mistrust of   cob wall strength? 
earthquakes?


Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com    http://www.papercrete.com
PO Box 375, Cutten (Eureka) CA 95534 707-441-1632     tms at northcoast.com