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cob Archives - Page 2 of 4 - The Year of Mud

Aug 18
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Moonlight cobbing

By Cob Building

cobcampfire

This weekend, I had a strong urge to do some cobbing after dinner, during the sunset hours. So, last night we (myself and Dan and Danielle [my two work exchangers], later joined by Liat) ate dinner and stomped a batch of cob as the sun went down. By the time we were done stomping, it was super dark and pretty dang difficult to actually get the cob on the walls, but we managed.

After that first batch of cob, we figured it would be a good idea to make a campfire inside of the house. Ted and I set one up, and the house glowed like a giant woodstove. It looked great from the road, with a bright orange aura.

There was a full moon that cast a great light on the walls as it rose towards the sky later that night.

Fun stuff.

Aug 15
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Installing shelf joists in cob and inching closer to the roof

By Cob Building, Cob Shelves

in-window
(Satisfied after today’s good progress – See the new cob at the top of the wall there?)

With help from my most enjoyable new work exchangers Dan and Danielle, I am inching closer and closer to the roof of my cob house. Today marked the completion of one of the few remaining and more challenging elements before that happens, though — installing joists for a wide shelf positioned above the (future) cob bed.

shelf-joist

Yesterday, we built a joist rig with some 2×4s that could be buried in the cob: three 38? long joists attached to one long 2×4 banged out with lots of nails. This whole thing was placed on the cob wall and leveled, joists braced, and then cobbed in place. Hopefully the joists will be strong, as they are buired in all 16? of the cob wall. The shelf will be 22? wide and 7.5? long and will mostly be for storage.

leveling-joists joists-buried

Time will tell whether or not the joists are buried in enough wall to support the weight of potential clutter on the shelf. I am hopeful!

Aug 08
Love0

Installing lintels above windows

By Cob Building, Lintels

The past week has been extremely productive, thanks to some help from Apple and a few other folks from Sandhill Farm. The cob walls are nearing 85% complete, I’d say. But before I finish them, there are other things to take care of, too. Namely, I need to install lintels above my windows and doorway, and start preparing for the roof.

Lintels are lengths of material (usually, slab wood, pole wood, milled lumber, bamboo, etc.) used to span window frames in natural buildings. They help to bear and spread the weight of the material (cob, in my case) above windows and doorways. Depending on the material, they can be pretty decorative, too.

I cut some osage orange wood for my smaller window lintels, leaving the bark intact for a more ‘raw’ look. I’m pretty happy with the effect.

For my large south-facing window (see top photo), I chose to use some pole wood that I got from Skyhouse. I wanted something straight and easy to work with, but also round, so these fit the bill. These lintels are shorter than is ideal (they only overhang the window by six inches on both sides), but hopefully they will still get the job done.

I am just now starting to think about how the rafters of my reciprocal roof will be placed on the walls, so these next few days will be heavier on the “thinking work” side of things…

Jul 29
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Cob water damage

By Cob Building, Moisture

Here’s a normal cob wall (with no/near zero significant water damage):

And another wall that has been pelted in a flash flood:

The damage isn’t that significant (it’s just surface runoff), but it sure still bugs me…

Jul 28
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Back to… the rain

By Moisture, Cob Building

Rainiest year. Ever.

When I left DR three weeks ago, I figured all that rain we’ve been experiencing had left us, too, but boy was I wrong. Yesterday, we experienced yet another incredible flash floor, dumping a good 2″ or so of rain on us in less than half an hour. We just can’t seem to get a few dry days.

The day was gorgeous until a mere hour before this storm rolled in. We went to a party at Sandhill Farm, and before we left I decided against covering my house, noting the clear skies, but I should have known… never take a chance… (Covering the walls is really annoying at this point because it takes a good half hour to do it right, hence my reluctance.)

Needless to say, my house was left exposed (although it was quickly covered pre-storm with the help of some folks who were staying back at DR, the wind [60 MPH+!] whipped any and all tarps off the walls).

The north wall took a bit of a beating, washing away a decent amount of cob surface material, exposing a lot of straw. But really, it’s only just surface damage (although it still really sucks to see), and the integrity of the walls has not been lessened.

Let’s just say: lesson learned. I don’t want to see that happen again. (But I wonder if it really would have even mattered had I myself tarped the walls before we left… oh well…)

Jun 28
Love0

A bit more rain…

By Moisture

I didn’t get a heck of a lot of time to work on the cob house since it was very wet and gray and rainy throughout much of the past six days. I must say that it’s a real drag constantly worrying about the weather and covering up the walls every night with tarps, and hoping that gusts of wind don’t come in and mess things up. (Usually, if it’s raining and not very windy, the building gets less wet than when it is both rainy/windy.) I frequently have a hard time sleeping when it’s thundering and storming at night because I worry about the condition of the building.

Of course, it’s my luck that I just so happen to be building a cob house during one of the wettest years on record. But I must say, the house is faring quite well despite the numerous flash floods and constant storming. The walls have gotten significantly wet in some spots a few times thus far, but the damage has been minimal. There has been nothing more than some minor runoff of material and the integrity of the walls has not been threatened in any way. Cob astounds me in that way — it’s simply strong and can take a beating.

I imagine once the walls are complete and the roof is up, this building is going to be standing for a long, long time…

Jun 23
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Another cob house picture update

By Cob Building

int-se00

angle-se01

The house is starting to feel much more like an actual house now that some of the walls are 6+ feet tall. Standing inside, it’s also easier to imagine what the final house will look like, where things will go, and how big the space feels.

Jun 22
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Sculpting with cob

By Cob Shelves, Cob Building

entry-shelf00

If there’s one thing you’ve probably heard/read about cob many times before, it’s probably the fact that cob is immensely sculptural.

Lately, I have been working at a much slower pace since I have been working on sculpting various cob book shelves and other little storage nooks into the walls of my house. The photo above is a small shelf immediately next to the entrance. When I look at it now, I think of the mouth of a snake or the jaw of some other creature.

bookshelf00

This wide bookshelf extends almost a foot from the wall, and is nearly 18″ at its peak height in the center. The shape is pretty strange and not exactly what I intended to sculpt, but I kinda like it now that it is done. (I can always do a little bit of carving with a machete if I decide to alter the appearance.) I will build a similarly-sized shelf right above this one.

mushroom-window-ext01 mushroom-window-int00

This mushroom-shaped window came to me in a something like a vision the morning before I started to work. I acted upon the impulse and stuck a piece of sheet glass in the wall and began to sculpt around the glass to make something roughly mushroom-like. I’m pretty satisfied with the end result. It will look much cleaner once the walls are plastered, I think.

coathooks00

I carved these coat hooks from some mulberry wood and planted them in some fresh cob this afternoon. I mostly just cut the wood to size, whittled it down a bit, and smoothed it out. These are located right near the entrance for jackets and other things for hanging. I hope these hooks give the effect that they growing out of the wall once it’s all said and done.

Jun 15
Love0

Meka’s cob cottage video

By Video

Here’s a little video showing off a gorgeously designed cob cottage interior by Meka in southern Oregon. Beautiful curves, built-in shelves and furniture, and a wild staircase design are the highlights.