[Cob] 500 yr old cob

[Ocean Liff-Anderson]

wow...now there's some wisdom from the ages...

the walls in their home were, say, 3 feet thick?  and the cottage was  
lime-washed in & out ?

thanks kathryn

ocean


On Jul 22, 2007, at 2:22 PM, Kathryn Marsh wrote:

> I've seen five hundred year old cob dissolve in a few weeks when  
> the thatch was allowed to deteriorate but my grandparents' wattle  
> and daub house was built in the 13th century and survived the 1947  
> flooding of the English fenlands when they escaped by boat through  
> a hole in the thatch. Although the cob was damaged in places it  
> dried out and was easily repaired. Same thing in the great flood of  
> 1953 - tho' that time grandad got out before the water arrived but  
> again it was flooded almost to the eaves.  I think both times the  
> secret to its survival was that it was whitewashed every year and  
> that the water didn't actually get into the top of the walls. Alas,  
> it didn't survive greedy developers who demolished it to make room  
> for modern expensive executive homes in the days before the  
> protection of ancient buildings. Could have been older - the road  
> by the front gate was on roman foundations but it was only recorded  
> back to 1280 or thereabouts
>
> kathryn
>
>
>
> On 22 Jul 2007, at 15:50, Ocean Liff-Anderson wrote:
>
>> one of the cardinal rules with cob:  never build in a flood plain.
>> basically, flood is catastrophic for cob.   ianto has some great
>> "before and after" shots of a beautiful, completed cob that he helped
>> build for some folks in texas - who insisted it was a "hundred year
>> flood plain" - turned out the year after the building was finished
>> was the hundred year flood.  totally destroyed.
>>
>> don't do it.  of course, my restaurant's cob was is also in the
>> hundred year flood plain.  and the last "big" flood was in 1970.  but
>> you never know...
>>
>> ocean
>> wildfire restaurant
>> http://www.wildfirecorvallis.com
>>
>> On Jul 22, 2007, at 6:05 AM, paul wrote:
>>
>>> Anybody know how flood resistant a cob wall would be?
>>>
>>> Would it be able to withstand holding back flood water for up to
>>> two days at
>>> a time without breaking down?
>>>
>>> Is plaster effective or would some c-word in the mix be better?
>>>
>>>
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>>
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