[Cob] RE: cob and code

[Mary Lou McFarland]

I was wondering how rammed earth building became coded in California.  It 
gives other natural building processes a precedent, so it might be 
worthwhile to find out the steps they took there.  Also, it seems that the 
coding should move forward cautiously or it could end up like the adobe 
problem where builders were forced to add portland to their mixes...and we 
all know how that works out.
Another precedent was the Watts Towers.  It had to be proven that they could 
withstand a certain amount of stress to let them stand.  And along that same 
line...I have Jack Henstridge's book on cordwood building and they built a 
wall and caught it on fire to submit the results to some official body to 
prove how fire resistant the cordwood actually was.  The wall didn't ever 
really catch on fire, it just became heavily charred and it maintained it's 
integrity.  So, that might be the lead to follow and build a small cob 
structure and try to burn it and knock it down and invite some inspectors to 
take part.  Tape the results and submit the tape with a copy of the Devon 
cob building booklet
I'm not sure the IBC/UBC should actually be changed.  Then we're inferring 
that it is flawed and then people get defensive.  What I think we need is a 
natural building appendix to the code.  The code is meant to address the 
process of stick building a house and cob/cordwood/rammed earth/strawbale 
doesn't behave the same way.  We might have to submit petitions to show that 
there is sufficient interest to perform that kind of review.  Between all of 
the weblists, colloquims, workshops getting enough signatures shouldn't be a 
problem.  Then we would just need to build a 'victim".