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Kiko Denzer on Art


Cob: fibrous concrete reinforcement

terry tbryan at tigernet.missouri.org
Sun Aug 10 09:28:43 CDT 2003 

Re: Cob: fibrous concrete reinforcementMy wife and I also used some paper in a mix in place of straw, and felt it worked great.  We finished off a 2 ft. thick will in a cabin. The only major draw back that we could see was that it srinks a lot more than traditional cob, and we had some serious cracks where it met with the other cob, but we just took more fdobe and stuffed it it the cracks and they never came back.  There are people in the southwest who are working only with paper, clay, and sand.  I am going to use it as an infill for a post and beam shop.  I will let you know how it goes.  Terry  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: otherfish 
  To: Raduazo at aol.com ; umbrella at netspace.net.au ; coblist at deatech.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 10:13 PM
  Subject: Re: Cob: fibrous concrete reinforcement


  I did an experiment one time using a papermache like pulp mixed in place of the straw in cob - it made an excellent cob.  Very resistant to rain erosion and much lighter than normal cob.  I only did some small brick tests & so cannot attest to how it would work in a building, but I feel it has some definite possibilities.  Also, the fibers are so small, that all the components could probably be mixed in a standard cement mixer.  This would be a great advantage over the current straw based "oregon Cob" model we all seem to be pursuing.  It is possidle to purchase already prepared dry paper pulp in a loose powdery form.

  john fordice

  on 8/5/03 6:07 PM, Raduazo at aol.com at Raduazo at aol.com wrote:


           Straw is much cheaper and works fine. Also straw adds considerable volume to your mix whereas, fibers are quite expensive, they tend to clump and will require considerable mixing to separate them and will not add bulk to your mix. I have never used plastic fibers in cob but I have plenty of experience using them to make cement flower pots, and I would expect they will act the same in cob renders.
    Ed 



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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My wife and I also used some paper in a mix in 
place of straw, and felt it worked great.  We finished off a 2 ft. 
thick will in a cabin. The only major draw back that we could see was that it 
srinks a lot more than traditional cob, and we had some serious cracks where it 
met with the other cob, but we just took more fdobe and stuffed it it the 
cracks and they never came back.  There are people in the southwest who 
are working only with paper, clay, and sand.  I am going to 
use it as an infill for a post and beam shop.  I will let you know how it 
goes.  Terry  </FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE 
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=otherfish at comcast.net 
  href="mailto:otherfish at comcast.net">otherfish</A> </DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=Raduazo at aol.com 
  href="mailto:Raduazo at aol.com">Raduazo at aol.com</A> ; <A 
  title=umbrella at netspace.net.au 
  href="mailto:umbrella at netspace.net.au">umbrella at netspace.net.au</A> ; <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> Tuesday, August 05, 2003 10:13 
  PM</DIV>
  <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Cob: fibrous concrete 
  reinforcement</DIV>
  <DIV><BR></DIV>I did an experiment one time using a papermache like pulp mixed 
  in place of the straw in cob - it made an excellent cob.  Very resistant 
  to rain erosion and much lighter than normal cob.  I only did some small 
  brick tests & so cannot attest to how it would work in a building, but I 
  feel it has some definite possibilities.  Also, the fibers are so small, 
  that all the components could probably be mixed in a standard cement mixer. 
   This would be a great advantage over the current straw based "oregon 
  Cob" model we all seem to be pursuing.  It is possidle to purchase 
  already prepared dry paper pulp in a loose powdery form.<BR><BR>john 
  fordice<BR><BR>on 8/5/03 6:07 PM, Raduazo at aol.com at Raduazo at aol.com 
  wrote:<BR><BR>
  <BLOCKQUOTE><FONT size=2><FONT 
    face=Arial>       Straw is much cheaper 
    and works fine. Also straw adds considerable volume to your mix whereas, 
    fibers are quite expensive, they tend to clump and will require considerable 
    mixing to separate them and will not add bulk to your mix. I have never used 
    plastic fibers in cob but I have plenty of experience using them to make 
    cement flower pots, and I would expect they will act the same in cob 
    renders.<BR>Ed</FONT></FONT> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>