Cob: finishing projects, truths about owner-builders

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003, D.J. Henman wrote:

[snip]
> Amanda Peck wrote:.......... snipped...
> > I'm delighted to see people on this list start with "Oh, wow, free
> > house" then go through the soul-searching, the planning and the building.
>
> Why are you delighted that people are deluding themselves?  That's a

While I agree with the premise that many people have unrealistic
expectations about doing a house for free, the problem is not that it
can't be done, but rather that it is highly unlikely to be anything
resembling the stereo-typical modern house that so many people envision.
In otherwords, the delusion is not the free house, but the free 2000
square foot permitted residential structure with full complement of
appliances, wall-to-wall carpeting, etc.

> little rash perhaps.  But, assume that they quit work, or don't seek
> gainful employment, to build the house, then they would loose those
> wages which they would otherwise have earned.   This lost wages is the
> cost of  labor for building the structures.   In some cases it would be
> cheaper to hire someone to build it for you.  Though one would miss a
> lot of the fun, pain, joy and drudgery incurred in building a structure.

The problem with this premise is you are assuming that the person is in
fact employable in whatever current economic situation they currently
live in.  Even if a person can get work, if the value of the combination
of their building skills and the cost of mortgage interest exceeds what
they can currently earn, it may still be a better choice to build a house
than work a regular job.  I was recently unemployed for a long period of
time (and actively looking for work the entire time), during part of that
time I built about half of the micro-cob house I currently live in.  Of
course once I got work, the price of the house started to rise rapidly,
because I now had more money than time, so buying things made more sense
than scrounging or improvising.

> Additionally, the cost of the land is a factor, as a house can't be
> built in the sky yet.   Not to mention the cost of fixtures, pipes,
> plumbing, wires, wiring, sewers, etc.
> I think it would be better to let people know the real cost, that
> letting them think that it'll be free.  Now the cost of the soil is low,
> but you have to own the land, and if not you might have to import the
> right soil at a probably low cost of it plus, there will be a
> transportation cost.

Many people I know have made arrangements to build and live on land
belonging to friends or relatives, and while this certainly has it's
hazzards, it is an option for some people.  As far as fixtures, pipes,
plumbing, etc., never under estimate the power of scrounging (one
person I know built most of his modern conventional (and fully
permitted) residential structure from materials he got from tearing down
old buildings for people in exchange for whatever materials he wanted
from the structure.  Sometimes all that is necessary is to just put the
word out that you are looking for some particular item and wait.  I
mentioned to a few people that I was looking for window glass to use in a
green house, and several months later, got a call from some people who had
alot of glass stored in a barn that they wanted to get rid of, all I had
to do was haul it away (alot of double pane, including really large
sliding door sized glass, and some framed windows as well.

> The best situation is  when people approach each project with a
> realistic idea of what they are about to encounter so as to not be
> discouraged by finding out that there are real costs and time and labor
> constraints, not to mention potential governmental, i.e., building
> regulations, problems which must be dealt with in one way or another.

Absolutely, and new comers to the list in particular show signs of
unrealistic expectations, but I think most people can succeed in
arriving at reasonable expectations if they will take the time to
read the old postings and learn about different techniques of building,
alternative methods of doing things (like compost toilets solar water
heating, etc.), and above all, spend some time actually experimenting on a
small scale in their current living situation by doing things like: down
sizing space requirements (try moving out of one or more rooms in
your current house/apartment), building cob dog houses, composting
toilets, solar water heaters and scrounging materials for projects rather
than buying them, etc..

I think the most important thing for people to keep in mind is that when
building a house, you are fighting a basic trade off of labor and money,
if you don't want to spend money, expect to put in ALOT of labor, and if
you don't want to do any work, expect to spend ALOT of money.  If you want
to build yourself the equivalent of a $100,000 house for as little money
as possible, you should probably expect to work full time on the building
and scrounging materials for at least three or four years (if not much
longer, depending on your skill and physical conditioning).  This is one
of the main driving forces that cause people to downsize their building
and expectations when doing it themselves.  The fact that it is also the
environmentally preferable result is a bonus.  Of course, for many of
these people the downsizing occurs during the project which can be costly
and time consuming, this is why it is better to design and build extremely
small (like a one room house), and then expand as time and money permit.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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