[Cob] compare stonemasonry

[Amanda Peck]

That the floor is a slab, that's good, but maybe not enough.  On the tiny 
exchange-for-rent building we put up when I was a carpenter's apprentice 
trainee, we poured the slab after the footings and the foundation were in.  
Don't remember if there was (might or might not have been) something like 
that fiber padding between the two.  (The stuff that goes between sections 
of sidewalk)  But even if there wasn't there wasn't much connection between 
the slab (maybe 4 inches, don't remember if there was reinforcement--e.g. 
wire mesh--there or not) and the foundation. But I know we didn't do the 
serious kind of tamping in the floor area that is recommended for putting in 
a rubble trench foundation or an earthen floor.  Had we put, say, a 
load-bearing wall or a fireplace in there, we would have had additional 
concrete depth and probably reinforcement under those areas.  A fireplace 
might have the kind of weight per square inch as an 18" wide 8-foot wall.

I'm NOT a structural engineer.  Someone who is MAY be able to tell you 
easily.  (Does anybody know off-hand about relative weights--concrete, 
stone, cob?  I know there's a lot of "it all depends" in there.)

Cob and straw bale buildings need to be protected from water, especially 
water down around the foundation.  Most of them do have stone/block/concrete 
wall/something anyway at the base to protect the bottoms from blown rain, 
flood, and broken pipes.  Heights range from, oh, 10" to 10' (the last in 
pictures of an odd-looking historical British building).

Yes, and do everything you can (no matter how you restore the building) to 
keep water away from the foundation.  Swales, french drains, etc. etc. etc.
...........
Donna replies (snipped)

About the foundation -- it's a slab, so it need not be widened and the
weight of the eight foot high wall is nothing that worries me (right? It's a
cement slab.)

About the flood line.







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