Quote:
Originally Posted by reepicheep
What is your climate like? We would be building in Louisiana, I see you're in Texas so maybe the climates are similar... are you in a humid area?
Thanks for offering yourself for grilling...
Rachel
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No problem. Sorry I'm just now getting back to this thread. I don't always get a chance to check in here at MDC.
Sometimes it's humid here and sometimes it's not.
Cob is actually not supposed to be the ideal structure for us since it gets so hot here in the summers and doesn't always cool down at night for the cob to cool down as well.
We may have done better with combo of straw bale and cob to help insulate us from the heat. We compensated by making use of doors/windows to capture prevailing winds, deep eaves/porches, and deciduous afternoon shade. We also bermed the house into a hill a little bit. One average the house is a bout a foot below grade. Of course that meant a taller stem wall. Our rock work really took its toll.
The cob should do great for us in the winter, though, since they are relatively mild. Plus, we live in an area where tornadoes are common so we wanted something we thought could withstand that type of severe weather. We're tired of worrying through each tornado season.
We also get driving rains so we had to make sure our stem wall was a little higher than normally recommended in the books to avoid splashback. The porches and eaves will help protect from that as well.
If you build in an area that has really cold winters, straw bale on the north side may be something to consider. It's more insulatory. Then the cob in the rest of the house can heat up during the day and let that off slowly through the night. You can also place windows to let light shine on a floor with some thermal mass (earthen, tile, stone, etc.) to make use of passive solar heating.
One idea is to consider hosting a workshop at your building site. I don't know how easy it is to schedule, but I think all you'd have to do is be able to feed everyone who attends and have room to accommodate them overnight - I assume in tents and such. Then you charge each person enough to cover your costs of food, professionals, etc. and you get free labor. I'm not sure what all these cob groups/builders look for in workshop sites.
A couple of links we enjoy looking at are this flickr photoset that chronicles a small cottage some guy built pretty much all on his own. He used a lot of reclaimed/recycled stuff, incorporated a rocket stove with heated bench, and installed a composting toilet. Kind of fun to see his progress:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msstarr...107592/detail/
Then there's this site. This person is local to us and has photos of a number of projects she's worked on. I know on one project at least she and her crew rented a bobcat and mixed tractor cob. That was for a pretty big house, though, as cob standards go.
www.claysandstraw.com
Anyway, hope that helps. We're really pushing here to get our house roughed in before we get any freezes so I may not check in often. We want to get a roof up pretty quickly and we don't have much cobbing left to do. Then we are considering moving when the house is livable but not completely finished. That should be an experience.