[Cob] Re:Cob structures and "basements" or sunken floors

[Thomas Gorman]

Congrats on ferreting out a way to get your cob house built (or at  
least getting a building inspector to say what conditions you can do  
it under- did you have a micro-cassette recorder running at the  
time....?)!

I'm interested to hear about cob/below grade construction ideas too.   
I suspect the problem is likely to be with proper drainage, and also  
that there may not be a lot of info/experience with such building  
because digging down so deep would probably require machines that a  
lot of natural builders try to avoid as well as more significantly  
'impacting' the environment the house is in.  You'd also have to  
really insulate the below-grade walls and probably with non-natural  
materials to withstand the damp.  On the other hand, you'd get some  
of the thermally regulating effects of underground houses.

Where do they take the roof height measurement from?   Maybe building  
somewhat below grade but then berming earth up around the house would  
be a possibility.  That might eliminate some potential drainage  
issues, though the walls in contact with earth would still have to be  
masonry or concrete or something other than cob.
Tom