[Cob] Foundation for cob

[Kristen Davenport]

Well. Here's another question. The cob section we are adding, we are adding 
on to a house that has an old river-rock foundation without any mortar. This 
house has been stable for nearly 100 years-- it was built we believe in 
1918. The walls are still solid and no shifting has occurred. The rock 
foundation on the old house is only 10 inches or so deep, just some 
mid-sized rounded stones thrown into a shallow trench. It has been suggested 
that we not bother with ANY foundation because we live in an area with very 
stable soil and no frost heave that anyone is aware of... What if we just 
dug down past the level of the grass roots, built a stem wall a foot or two 
high, and started on the cob walls? This would also help us protect our old 
foundation because we wouldn't have to be digging in next to it.

Opinions?

Kristen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Becker" <ron45 at tularosa.net>
To: "Kristen Davenport" <kristen at boxcarfarm.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Cob] Foundation for cob


> Hi Kristen, perfect opportunity for a compromise. Bags or rubble, my  last 
> choice would be poured concrete. The ease of bags below grade  would get 
> my vote. No use laying up rock work no one will see. Then  go with laid up 
> rock stems to get you above splash height. `Be good  to have some sort of 
> moisture barrier no matter what you do to keep  it out of the bales and 
> cob. Most contractors are more worried about  what their peers and code 
> people will think than what will work, is  inexpensive and right for you. 
> You can see pics of our stem walls we  did for our adobe back before many 
> of us knew about cob. They are in  the pictures section of the myspace url 
> below my signature. There are  tunes I wrote to check out as well. All 
> recorded on solar energy.
>
> Ron
> Living and playing outside the box.
>
> http://www.myspace.com/ron45becker
>
> On Jun 24, 2009, at 4:38 PM, Kristen Davenport wrote:
>
>> Hi there.
>> We are going to soon dig a 2-foot foundation trench for a 16-by-30 cob
>> addition to our adobe house. The walls will be some parts cob and  some 
>> parts
>> straw bale. Our inclination is to build a foundation and stem wall  out 
>> of
>> mortared stone (we have plenty around here) but a local contractor  guy 
>> is
>> discouraging this , urging us to instead pour a concrete foundation  with
>> rebar, etc, etc. Meanwhile, my local "cob dude" expert urges  earthbags.
>>
>> Advice and stories of your experiences welcome.
>>
>> Kristen
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coblist mailing list
>> Coblist at deatech.com
>> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist
>>
>>
>
>