[Cob] Stone houses and "Natural" Building

[dirtcheapbuilder-Charmaine Taylor]

> Jennifer wrote:
>
> So, here is my dilemma. All my ventures into natural building began on 
> the premise of "use what you have," materials as local as possible, 
> etc. I moved to a high valley desert surround by mountains, where 
> there is no clay in sight for miles. Scoria, etc., even strawbales 
> have to be trucked in (60 miles or more), while my next door neighbor 
> just dug out his basement and came up with enough rock for my house 
> and then some, which he offered to me free of charge.

  Picking your battles is a very smart thing to do.   Considering that 
you would be getting materials within 60 miles or so that is probably 
the SAME county you live in which seems very reasonable to me.   I 
believe most  non-green people think about hauling    floor boards from 
old barns to CA from  RI or shingles from IL to FL..as fine to do to 
use green materials-- but that sucks for fuel costs  and seems elitist 
and not true to real natural building.

But even a couple hundred miles away  is still the ecoregion you live 
in with vernacular housing probably the same.

Making a slip form stone wall is heavy work, but once done, its done 
and no where near as complicated a full on SB walls...so hiring muscle 
to help on stonework   seems smart.    you could do a thin  slipform 
wall with ply on the inside walls and maybe just a 6-10" rock wall with 
a thin layer of mortar ( lime mortar may not set up fast enough so you 
may need to use cement as the mortar, and put your LSC or SB  
insulation on the  inside as thick as you need for the N side, and 
thinner on E & W, or full cob mass on the S side.

do you have enough flat faced stones to make a nice looking  wall? or 
if they are all an unattrative color, and are fully round or diamond 
shape you may not ant to use them for a stone wall, but only a tall 
foundation.


vitsit Ton Elpel's site on stone wall construction,  
http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/do-it-yourself/stone_masonry.htm

  I carry his book and video/DVD,   
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/dvartofslstm.html



the DVD is good to see his decision making, mistakes and work-arounds 
but a better book is  one on stone 
building--http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/sthogutosewi.html


good luck on your decisions




Charmaine Taylor Publishing
www.dirtcheapbuilder.com
PO BOX 375 CUTTEN CA 95534
Tel:  707-441-1632   MORE Building DVDs in stock