[Cob] Tires For a Foundation?

[John Hall]

Beno,
Why the tyres?
What's wrong with just the gravel?
Rubber compresses, and decomposes with time.
Can't see any advantage.
John.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "beno" <beno at web.vi>
To: <coblist at deatech.com>
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 7:59 PM
Subject: [Cob] Tires For a Foundation?


> Hi, everyone;
> I'm new ;) Working on building a 3-room school in the Dominican Republic 
> where I live. I have read enough to recognize the problems inherent in 
> using concrete for a foundation. Where I live we don't have lots of 
> large stones (stones larger than a baseball). But we have lots of small 
> 'caliche' limestone. I was thinking about using a configuration of tires 
> kind of like this:
> http://web.vi/foundation.jpg
> That image isn't perfect nor is it necessarily representative of what 
> we'll end up building, but the idea depicted is 3 circular classrooms on 
> top of a bed of old tires (of different sizes) that would be stuffed 
> with caliche tamped down hard. The tires would be bound together by 
> nylon rope, wire or something (suggestions?). Outside the tire system 
> we'd also tamp down caliche. What do y'all think? Has anybody done 
> anything similar?
> Thanks,
> beno
> 
> 
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