What is cob house construction.
Cob house roof construction.
Cob is fireproof resistant to seismic activity and uses low cost materials although it is very labour intensive.
A cob home has a lot of benefits the one down side is that it s very labor intensive and takes a good while.
Learn how to build a cob house with my 10 hour cob building video course.
Let s have a look at some of the highlighting advantages of building a cob house.
Since i already wrote about cutting sod for my roof i will describe how the sod was loaded.
Building the living roof.
Cob as a building material is very easy to find which makes it a practical option.
This house is a blend of the ageless cob and a relatively new member of the earth construction family compressed mud block.
Doing the edge was the trickiest part since i had the fold the epdm underneath itself and leave a little bit exposed to protect the edge logs.
You d generally expect cob to be bulky but not in this case.
Just 24 cm thick the sleek cob walls are gracefully adorned by tall windows at intervals just wide enough so that the cob can take in many perforations.
Cob cobb or clom in wales is a natural building material made from subsoil water fibrous organic material typically straw and sometimes lime.
This hobbit house in wales was built in four months and cost about 4 600 in building materials.
Cob structures can be used as homes chicken coops barns and even smaller ones for ovens.
Since the material used for cob house construction is locally sourced it is a dirt cheap method of building a dwelling which will last for years.
Unlike traditional houses which can got up very quickly cob is a slow process so be prepared.
Once the perimeter of the roof was covered with sod we covered the rest of the roof.
The contents of subsoil naturally vary and if it does not contain the right mixture it can be modified with sand or clay.
Learn about the pros and cons of each material in this excerpt taken from roofs.
Set the foundation for your cob house.
Low cost of building.
You would place a bond beam at the top of the cob wall ideally concrete and rebar or alternatively airplane cable connecting all the members of the roof in one big circle they way the roof is designed is to act in compression while exerting force on the bond beam which will act in tension.
For a first time builder a yurt style roof like cyric30 suggested would probably be easiest.
Cob building lends itself to incorporating salvaged and eclectic building materials.
From sod to straw wool to wood there are a variety of roof insulation options for cob houses.