Cob: steel reinforcement

[Patrick Newberry]

My brother-in-law once was doing a cob dome, in a very arrid area. 
He decided to use some rebar, but the mud did not stick to the rebar very good. 
He then would coat the rebar in cement, which stick quite well to the rebar. Let it dry, 
then use the mud. He never used it in the walls, only in one overhead dome section. 

Pat 
www.gypsyfarm.com  

-----Original Message-----
From: Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder [mailto:tms at northcoast.com]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 1:25 PM
To: Brad Calvert
Cc: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: Re: Cob: steel reinforcement


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