Cob construction

Does anyone have experience building with cob. It has fallen to me to finish a cob bench. Should I use raw linseed oil or boilded linseed oil?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Love cob! Can you guess from my name? Here are pics from a cob house I worked on this summer-

http://photobucket.com/albums/v383/cobalow/August 2004/

The group I worked with is doing a workshop in Mexico-you can find details here-

http://www.housealive.org/mexicoflier.htm

Here are pictures of some other lovely cob houses-

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/7148/cobpics.html

 

oooh, those are so awesome! When the fiance and I settle into one place for good (airforce boy, can't stay places long 'yknow) I would love love LOVE to have a house like some of these. We had a look at different kinds of "green" houses in my environmental class my 3rd year at school, and there were a lot of these on the film the teacher showed us. They can be so nice! and so very different. My fav on that last page you posted has got to be this one though:



so awesome!

 

^^yeah, that's just fucking awesome

 

Update. I used 4 applications of boiled linseed oil over a 2 week period. I then waited 6 weeks and did another application. I'll see over the winter how it worked.

 

First of all, those were some sweet ass homes, it is my new goal to live in something like that.

Second, what the hell is cob?

 

For answers to all your questions, see here:

What is Cob

and the full site here:

Cob Construction

 

Interesting stuff, thank you

 

Here is a "Hobbit House" of cob and other materials.

http://www.pinemanor.com/hobbit/

And here are some more "Hobbit House" sites that you might find interesting-

http://www.earth-house.com/Mystery_Travel/The_Hobbit_Garden/the_hobbit_garden.html

 

If you like dome living, check this out:

http://www.ecotopia.com/baggins.end/

http://www.housing.ucdavis.edu/Alternative/

 

Those are awesome Mike! Thank you

One reason I think alternative construction is so important is the effect how we build and repair our houses has on the enviroment. I am interested in how people use alternative construction in terms of renovation and if anyone know of any message boards devoted to natural building. I can't seem to stop talking about it. Feel free to PM to me if you want me to pontificate back and forth with you.

Here are some more pictures of cob houses from Becky Bee's sight-

http://www.cpros.com/~sequoia/pictures.html

 

edited to say: ooops! co0kiezgurl here, accidently posted under the fiance's name! oh well .

Question about costs with these houses...how much time and money does it usually take for these kinds of things as compared to normal constructed houses? On top of the minimal bad effects on the environment, how easy is it to construct a cob house or other such house that is also good on power and such? We saw a program in my Environmental studies class I had a couple of years ago, about some house in Montana that used little to no electricity because it was built with windows and had trees and such placed in such a way that the temperature in the house rarely deviated from about 70 degrees. It was made from alternative material, but not quite as alternative as cob, just more earth friendly normal materials or something. It's hard to remember, the class was so short and we didn't get into this very deeply. I'd love to mix the two if it's possible. I love the idea of using the natural material and designing a house just so, in order to minimize the use of electricity and such. Anyone into this stuff that much . I think I'm going to go searching on the net a little about it.

 

The one I worked on in Oregon cost under 4,000 dollars, but I have heard of them costing anywhere from 500 to 20,000. The Oregon cabin took 17 people five days to build up the cob walls, so I would bank on spending at least a summer on building a small cob house.

You can put the cords and piping right into the walls as you build. It is a good idea to pay attention to passive solar orientation as you build, (example-bulk of windows facing south and few facing North in North America)

I think the house you saw was probably an earthship. A properly insulated cob house can be very cheap to heat and cool, depending on the climate. The temperature could be in the 100's in Oregon and the interior of a properly built cob house needs no air conditioning. In areas where the temperature drops below 0, they suggest you insulate your building against the cold or all that thermal mass will take forever to heat.

There are downsides to building with cob- Not a good building materials in a floodzone, needs insulation in cold climates, and I have heard that people have mixed results in terms of dealing with building officials.

 

The main feature of alternative building is not the materials used, but the consideration of the building site. Where the trees are, the local landscape, prevailing weather patterns and other matters are factors in the design of the house. The result is a building that fits with its environment.

This is always more expensive to build than the "traditional" method of scrape and build. Every building is a custom job. Operating expenses are lower. How much varies from place to place.

 

I have found natural building to be much cheaper than the usual methods. The house I worked on this summer cost under 4,500 to build, and I know of others that cost 500-20,000 to build. I would disagree that materials were less important than the building site, it is all important.

I don't think it is emphasized enough in the enviromental movement, how much of an effect how we build has on the enviroment. 30 percent of of our energy goes into making and maintaining our buildings- http://hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/95/950109.html

This includes the embodied energy of the materials used, how much energy is used to heat and cool the house, and how much high impact maintenance is required.

 

what an awsome thread. i had no idea what cob was, and now i think its the coolest stuff. check out earthships too, they are buildings made using old tires as the walls, with some clay/cob whatever over the tires. awsome stuff

 

i'm absolutely drooling over some of the pictures that you guys have posted. when i ever have some land that i can build on, i want to build something out of cob. there's a company in bc that does workshops...if you host a workshop, you can get your project built pretty quickly. cobworks... http://www.cobworks.com/index.htm

 

i checked that site out last night after reading this post. before that i had only seen examples of cob construction built in drier climates than bc tends to be. now i've got my daughter all excited to build one....sigh...one day....