Cob: finishing projects, truths about owner-builders

[D.J. Henman]

Comments below.

Shannon C. Dealy wrote:

>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, 
>
The problem is that it can't be done.  Period, but I'm thinking of real 
costs.
Shannon's last paragraph below gives a good reccomendation and 
explaination on what to consider.
Real costs can be dollars for out-sourcing or man-hours for in-house (in 
this case your time).

The real total cost is  =  land cost + labor cost + material cost + 
systems' cost

* Where materials' and systems's costs include transportation. (at least 
use gas + car wear & tear)
   You might wish to include transportation costs seperately.

Now, one can calculate labor in any unit you wish, be it  man-hours, or 
$dollars. etc., but it is a component of the cost of a house of any kind.

>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,
>
There is this to, but there people who don't understand, or want to,  
that the labour cost is always there, be it man-hours required or 
dollars required.

>but the free 2000
>square foot permitted residential structure with full complement of
>appliances, wall-to-wall carpeting, etc.
>
There is this, I agree.

>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. 
>
There is no problem with the premise.  It is accurate.   You are just 
giving a situation in which the person decides that its time is more 
valuable  to build than do nothing, but the labor cost, in this case 
man-hours  still exists.  (Note: that if you build a legal cob house, 
the taxing authorities will  impute a labor cost in deriving a value for 
the property..)

People should at least be thinking in terms labor cost in  man-hours to 
complete a project or even better man-hours required for units of a 
project.   This  would be a valuable guide to everyone in making 
realistic estimates of the labor cost (man-hours) required to build a 
cob structure of a certain size with certain units.

For example we should have data on:

   labor_hours ::= digging out (on-site) of one cubic yard of soil and 
preparing it for use
                           (There is the cost of tools, in this case a 
shovel at least, but can be ignore I suppose..)
                           (If not on site transportation costs come in)
   labor_hours ::= perparing straw for use in cob per cubic yard.
                           ( most likely you'll want to include its 
transportation costs here with it. or do we?)

   labor_hours for :: =  mixing the material to cover one cubic yard 
(assume all material is prepared)

   labor_hours for ::=  forming and applying (one cubic yard ) of the 
mixed cob to a wall

these can then be totaled and appled on a  "ttl_labor_hours" per cubic 
yard per wall if a wall is the subject.    Metric users could easily 
convert this.

>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.
>
It may.  But, as you said there are all kinds of people.  Some people 
like their current work and want to keep it, so they will need methods 
to consider what a cob building will cost them and they will likely hire 
someone who likes doing cob and everyone is happy in this case to.

This is as I said a decision that one has to make, and on the other hand 
as I said it might be less expensive to hire someone who has the tools, 
knowledge to do a job right and faster.   This can apply to sub-parts of 
a house, such as plumbing, electrical, etc., not necessarly to the whole.

>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.
>
Right, so that cost you how many man-hours did it cost?

>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.
>  
>
This makes sense.

>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.
>
Very few I would imagine have people we can ask or would ask for, or 
want to put into jeopordizing positions (zoning or building problems).  
A more realistic approach is consider that people want to own their cob 
house.   A cob house built on someone elses property does not belong to 
them, but the property owner since it is attached  to the land and 
non-movable.  A legal document could change that perhaps.

>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.
>  
>
This gives a good picture of what people should consider.

Darel