Cob: Re: small cob housing

Sun Jul 6 09:51:41 CDT 2003

I live in mid-Missouri and my wife and I along with the help of some of our highschool students have built a 30 ft. circular cob cabin and we used a mortar mixer to do the mixing, it was a lot faster than foot stomping, but you have to shovel or lift buckets of clay into it and then add your water and straw. the hardest part is turning out the cob from the mixer, it takes two of us( 1 old person +1 highschool kid) to pull over the drum.  It took us all of last summer to build almost all of the cabin, working 6days a week and from 6 to 8 hrs a day.  toward the end of the summer we rented a mortar mixer along with the one we already had and could really turn out the cob, but it was and extreme amount of work.  I doubt that you could find a a cement mixer that would allow you to put clay, sand, straw, and water in his machine.  But I think it would doable.  You might wnat to look into papercrete, or Fidobe, there are some people out west who are using it in monolithic pours.  Hopes this helps Terry    
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mary Hooper 
  To: coblist at deatech.com 
  Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 4:14 PM
  Subject: Cob: small cob housing

  Now I'm going to try to send this message to the list instead of just the one person who brought it up!!! 
  snip snip snip:::
  Cob buildings can be large, they can be made with large machinery and
  theycan be made relatively quickly. However, it is also a human scale
  technologythat can be made almost completely by hand with simple tools and
  .... ::end snip

  Now, there's a thought I had not had.... using large machinery.... has
  anyone used a cement mixer instead of feet to mix the mud????
  I imagine a big truck size mixer and the construction guy saying "You want
  me to mix WHAT in it?" and the forms people saying "You want to me to pour
  WHAT in my forms?"
  Anyone have any wisdom to impart for either sitution? Would a large poured
  wall dry without cracking? Would those of us who have tricky knees and
  reduced energy levels benefit from thinking "outside the box" on this? Not
  to go fully industrial strength, but how could we utilize modern equipment
  to make the job easier on our old joints and/or speed up the work?
  Mary in NC
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I live in mid-Missouri and my wife and I along 
with the help of some of our highschool students have built a 30 ft. circular 
cob cabin and we used a mortar mixer to do the mixing, it was a lot faster 
than foot stomping, but you have to shovel or lift buckets of clay into it and 
then add your water and straw. the hardest part is turning out the cob from 
the mixer, it takes two of us( 1 old person +1 highschool kid) to pull over the 
drum.  It took us all of last summer to build almost all of the cabin, 
working 6days a week and from 6 to 8 hrs a day.  toward the end of the 
summer we rented a mortar mixer along with the one we already had and could 
really turn out the cob, but it was and extreme amount of work.  I doubt 
that you could find a a cement mixer that would allow you to put clay, sand, 
straw, and water in his machine.  But I think it would doable.  You 
might wnat to look into papercrete, or Fidobe, there are some people out west 
who are using it in monolithic pours.  Hopes this helps 
Terry    </FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr 
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
  <DIV 
  style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> 
  <A title=mjhooper at trccomputing.com 
  href="mailto:mjhooper at trccomputing.com">Mary Hooper</A> </DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=coblist at deatech.com 
  href="mailto:coblist at deatech.com">coblist at deatech.com</A> </DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, July 03, 2003 4:14 
  PM</DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Cob: small cob housing</DIV>
  <DIV><BR></DIV>
  <DIV> </DIV>
  <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now I'm going to try to send this message to the 
  list instead of just the one person who brought it up!!! </FONT></DIV>
  <DIV>snip snip snip:::<BR>Cob buildings can be large, they can be made with 
  large machinery and<BR>theycan be made relatively quickly. However, it is also 
  a human scale<BR>technologythat can be made almost completely by hand with 
  simple tools and<BR>.... ::end snip<BR><BR>Now, there's a thought I had not 
  had.... using large machinery.... has<BR>anyone used a cement mixer instead of 
  feet to mix the mud????<BR>I imagine a big truck size mixer and the 
  construction guy saying "You want<BR>me to mix WHAT in it?" and the forms 
  people saying "You want to me to pour<BR>WHAT in my forms?"<BR>Anyone have any 
  wisdom to impart for either sitution? Would a large poured<BR>wall dry without 
  cracking? Would those of us who have tricky knees and<BR>reduced energy levels 
  benefit from thinking "outside the box" on this? Not<BR>to go fully industrial 
  strength, but how could we utilize modern equipment<BR>to make the job easier 
  on our old joints and/or speed up the work?<BR>Mary in 
NC</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>