[Cob] reinforcing!!

[Patrick Newberry]

Cob is not going to stick to rebar worth a hoot. I have seen on
situation where rebar was coated with cement, then placed in cob dome
situation as cob sticks to cement pretty good.

I'd say going with round or curved shapes is a better bet for use of cob
and earthquake areas as well as keeping with the original ides of
building with cob. I Assuming that earthquakes are why you are trying to
reinforce the cob. 

Not all that familiar with rammed earth but I believe the put some
cement in there earth mixture. Nader Kahlili has build stuctures using a
technique he calls superadobe. Which in essence is a free from rammed
earth type contruction (IMHO). It can be stablized or not. It has held
up quite well to earthquakes, but then that brings us back to round or
curved shapes again.


Pat Newberry
www.gypsyfarm.com






-----Original Message-----
From: coblist-bounces at deatech.com [mailto:coblist-bounces at deatech.com]
On Behalf Of laythss at yahoo.com
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 9:52 PM
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: [Cob] reinforcing!!


Hello all,
First of all, This question is for my  architectural masters thesis.
   I was wondering your thoughts about how to reinforce a  cob 
structure. (to be approved by local authorities).  I am in california.
what i was thinking of is  adding  5% cement to the cob walls, using a 
reinforced cement foundation along with a wooden (or cement) bond beam 
for the top, and reinforcing the walls with rebar.  The problem is this 
method seems to contradict the original idea of building with cob 
(adobe or rammed earth for that matter).  I was not able to get the New 
Zealand standards to see what they are doing (it seems there must be a 
better way, especially for rammed earth, since How are you supposed to 
ram the soil if you have rebar sticking out).

I hope to hear your ideas, comments, links, insights. Every, and any 
thing is helpful for me.

Layth 
  


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