[Cob] hybrid bales bags with cob

[Amanda Peck]

I need to re-read my copy of the Hand Sculpted House, but heck, it's time.  
It's amazing what leaps out at one about the fifth go-through, especially 
with lots of study and thinking in between.  I remember it as being pretty 
useful on the subject of hybrid.

Yes, straw bale walls DO squish, even with non-loadbearing walls.  The "old 
way" of allowing for that was to let them sit for a month, by which time it 
was assumed that they would have settled down--literally.  Keeping them dry 
for that time was sometimes a bit of a trick.  This was only 10-15 years 
ago.  Now, in the interests of moving along, and keeping the bales dry, one 
normally pre-stresses them.  There are probably a handful of ways to connect 
the two--bamboo poles inside the walls comes to mind.

If I were doing a hybrid, I'd probably start with the straw-bale, come 
around the corners at least the bale-and-a-half minimum, pre-stress it and 
then switch.  Considering buttresses in any medium--internal loadbearing 
walls in stick-built, for instance, is not a bad idea.

I have no feeling for earth-bags--yet, anyway. But one intriguing thing is 
that proponents claim that they are nearly perfect put-up-in-a-hurry 
emergency shelters after a tornado that has left lots of small urbanite 
around.  They're talking about small DOMES where you don't have to change 
building materials in mid-course to put on a roof.   I keep thinking that 
the filled bags are (bag is? since sometimes one just keeps filling on the 
wall) ROUND, but they're not really--more like bags of rice, strangely 
enough.

...........................
Oh I DO have the book, The Hand-Sculpted House.
That is where I first was given the impression to use straw-bale or hybrid 
system.

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