[Cob] cobbale

[Amanda Peck]

There wasn't much in the discussion of cobbale.  There is a fair discussion 
of hybrids in Ianto's book, but cobbale was apparently the term of choice in 
a recent newsletter from that group.

Building with Awareness is the video (DVD) it's pretty wonderful, if 
occasionally annoying.

Seems like both Cob and Strawbale both require some sort of serious top 
plate or bond beam--at minimum, something solid to lay the rafters and 
ceiling joists on.  A major consideration would be compressing the bales so 
that they will mesh permanently with the cob.

Some of the codes approved bale systems may still require all-thread to the 
top of the bale wall,  rebar in various directions.  AFAIK, the people 
working out in non-codes areas are mostly using bamboo.  Partly because 
there has been a suggestion that rebar collects moisture and tends to give 
little mildewy rebar shadows in the bales. (people do or did think the same 
of rebar in adobe--take it apart years later to find little rusty 
holes--don't know if that always happens--might be more serious in any 
clay-based system because rust takes up more volume than plain iron)

.................
Judith Williams wrote (did she also overwork her guest??  ;-) I've NEVER 
EVER EVER done anything like that--not since the last time anyway--and as I 
recall he was 80 at the time).

I think I may have missed some of the discussion of cobbale. I don't 
necissarily want to rush the building of my house but if I could shave some 
time off by using bales on the north side I would like to try it. I've been 
interested in straw bale construction since I first saw an article about it 
in the Santa Fe paper about 12 years ago. But after I learned about cob it 
seemed so much more doable for me working alone most of the time. So my 
question is: if you use bales as the middle of your cob sandwich do you 
still have to do all the extra work like pinning the bales and using a bond 
beam etc? That just seemed like too much engineering to me. I'm thinking of 
the video (the name escapes me now but it's the one that just came out). 
I've had help this week so am almost done with my trench for footings. I 
think I'll have to take a day off tomorrow. My guest is hobbling around and 
has moved his departure date up a couple of days.



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