[Cob] Indoor plumbing and other utilities.

[Amanda Peck]

I would think that if newly built log cabins with mains electricity are in 
your area, inspectors would be familiar with those and not freak out about 
the not very much difference at all between the two methods--burying conduit 
in chinking vs. burying conduit in cob.

Plumbing, though, involves NOT GETTING WATER ON YOUR COB.  Part of it is 
design--no water pipes in the outside walls--not a bad idea anyway, they're 
more likely to freeze that way in 2x4 stick built houses (boy do I hate 
patching PVC pipe that has shattered because of ice under the house, under 
kitchen cabinets, having to remove some paneling to get to it.  Not one of 
the fun jobs of my life.).

Friends have their water catchment tank built into/under their house.  If 
they had chosen to do things this way, they could have had an interior 
utility room with hot water heater, pressure pumps, etc., just coming out of 
their big tank somewhere in the middle of the house.

I'm likely not to have water pressure to speak of, rather relying on a hand 
pump to go from outside/underground tank to loft or attic, gravity flow from 
that.  This is an old way of doing things, I got the idea from an early 20th 
century Canadian book on homestead systems.  No reason for any of that 
system to be on an outside wall.  Solar hot water to a second tank in the 
attic, maybe.

Waste water?  it's often routed through the foundation anyway.  If we're not 
sure quite what we're going to do after we finish building, how about a 
biggish pipe like a 6" hunk of cast iron pipe through the foundation there 
somewhere, make up our minds later?  (being careful not to either plug or 
lose the pipe).  I've also thought about an insulated ditch--they make 
u-shaped channels for drainage in your yard, one of those maybe--into the 
utility room, pipes running through it to come up somewhere reasonable.  
Take the cover off, you've got access to your pipes.

Just at the moment my shower and washing machine are plumbed to a sand 
filter.  I'm assuming it's reasonably acceptable for those, but not for 
blackwater, and maybe not for stuff from the kitchen sink.

Haven't I read that unless you have a really sophisticated greywater 
system--the constructed wetlands route--you are likely to need a septic tank 
to handle what you aren't running into the garden today because you had four 
inches of rain yesterday or the ground's frozen.  I can guarantee that 
greywater turns into blackwater right quickly if it sits.  I have to hand 
empty the trailer greywater tank into the septic tank every months or 
so--it's evil, and one of the many reasons I don't cook much.
.........................
Depends on what you want to do, following the stick frame model, they can
simply be placed in the wall as you are building it.

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