Cob: consider stone in the tropical rainforest

[Taylor Publishing-DirtCheapBuilder]

Mike, I have a friend living in a wooden shack in Costa Rica, they 
covered the walls with plastic sheeting, this is a TEMP dwelling as 
there is a TON of native stone,  they did have mositure problems in the 
wood.   and they will build a stone walled house.  2000 ft is pretty 
high up,  cool weather  but still hot at times, and muggy at times my 
friend tells me.

if you HAVE stone I would consider the stone slipform method ( stone set 
between  forms, and CLAY can be used/stabilized with lime as the 
mortar.) cement could be used, but is very costly there.

Clay does not host bacteria, the earth is made of it, and the  clay 
under  the ground is not moldy, it is any organics that mold. straw left 
wet too long, etc.
 I am not sure of the earth quake factor there, so you could actually do 
5-6 high stone walls, with bamboo embedded in the center, for bamboo 
wattle and daub higher up for lighter weight.


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


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