Cob: RE: commercial clay- Urban Earth Building

[puppetman at ix.netcom.com]

Hi Brad;

You have some of the same concerns that I have been thinking about here in the Detroit, MI, USA area. I am in the process of moving out of an economically depressed, and racially segregated city, where they are tearing down about 200 houses a week during the deconstruction season. Yet we have many homeless people who live in cardboard boxes and old cars on lots where they just tore down a house! Material for repairs for these 100 year old houses cost more than what many with jobs can afford. And the housing stock in the city contiues to deteriorate. Clearly there is a need for houses that are affordable and that can be maintained with affordable materials. Building with earth would seem to be a good solution until you factor in the size of the average city lot and the basic amount of earth the average city lot owner has to work with. 

Some solutions I have considered but have not been able to implement.

Idea 1: In our area there has been a suburban fad of having small fish ponds put into the yard. The smaller ones redistribute the earth to support the little plastic pond. The larger ones however sometimes require the earth to be removed. Usually in small 3 yard dump trucks that might easily be enough material to keep you going for a week or two. Do you need a fish pond? Are there landscapers in your area that might need to get rid of some earth on a regular but small unit basis? 

Idea 2: Fill dirt- There is a lot of construction in Suburbia here. The newspaper adds weekly have an Absolutely Free section where there is always free fill dirt. I haven't checked this out yet but I figure it this way. This fill must have a high clay content, otherwise these builders would be selling it to the cement companies as sand. It might be worth taking a shake jar over to a free fill dirt site and doing a quick test.

Idea 3: This is the one I have been persuing. Compressed Earth Block- Here is a URL for a fairly comprehensive report on CEBs.

 http://www.gtz.de/basin/publications/books/CEBVol1.pdf 

Land in suburbia where I just purchased a home goes for about $30,000.00 an acre. Land 100 miles away routinely goes for $1-3,000.00/ acre. You could set up a one acre brickyard and make very transportable CEB units for use on your city lot for the price of a few dump truck loads of clay and sand. You own the property (and new fish pond!) to boot. 

These are just some musings on the question, theory rather than practical experience. Has anybody else tried to build with earth in an urban environment. How do you deal with issues of material and "the hole"? 

I just got my Cinva Ram this week and have made a few test bricks. This is so far from cob it is almost embarrassing to discuss it on this list-serve. Interesting enough it is starting to win my wife to "earth building". The bricks are very smooth, very straight, and look infinitely more tame than a cob loaf with straw sticking out of it. She will withold full judgement until I can present a cured block in a few weeks. The girls promise to help me make blocks this weekend. 

Happy Mudding, and Bright Blessings
Michael Fitzgerald
Anthropologist/Woodcarver/Puppetmaker


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I live in suburbia and don't really need to dig a big hole in the ground.

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