Living in DIRT???

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Buildings made of dirt (cob)

This is a very interesting website about building buildings out of dirt, straw, and sand. This *new* technique is what was used in building British and other old European architecture that is still being used and/or lived in.

Here's a pic of a small office being built..

[melvin mccarty]

When my parents came west to Nebraska late 1880's their first house on the homestead was a "soddy" made of strips of prairie sod piled up.

mel

[Amelia]

My fathers uncle and family lived in a combo sod and wood house while building the farmhouse. Cob and strawbale homes are making strides here in Oregon with the green people. The community colleges at one time offered classes in biulding these abodes.

[Amelia]

I am coveting this home

[Neil D]

Where is this building at? Is this in Oregon?

[Amelia]

No, it's in the UK

[nuff sed]

The Mother Earth Journal(of which I have a Vol. 1 #1 issue) used to have all kinds of articles about alternative methods of building buildings. One rather interesting one was building the walls out of bales of straw but giving them a coating of cement. The walls were, of course, very very thick but had an extremely high insulating quality. It seemed to be perfect for "adobe designs" in a state such as New Mexico. They claimed that a/c was not needed.

[Dottie]

I remember seeing a picture of the house that a man was building of soda cans (or maybe it was beer cans). Seemed like he must have had an awful lot of time to go around collecting old cans; either that, or he sure must have been drinking a lot!

[Amelia]

Quote:

The Mother Earth Journal

I love this mag. Use to subscribe to it and dream.

[Neil D]

Quote:

The Mother Earth Journal

I love this mag. Use to subscribe to it and dream.

I learned so much stuff from that mag...

I read once where some guy would take the grey and sewer water from his house, and pumped it into 10 [?] clear acryllic cylinders that held 250 gallons of liquid. They were connected by one 4 inch pipe at the top of each cylinder. I believe each cylinder was divided such that the waste water had to travel down thru the cylinder and up the other half to the next 4 inch pipe. Each cylinder output product was cleaner than the one before it, and the last 3 or 4 cylinders had fish and snails growing in them, and conpleate ecosystems...by the time the waste water came out the 10 cylinder, it was good enough to go into the rivers and was concidered unpolluted by EPA standards.

This guy decided to pump formaldihyde [one of those honeybucket truck loads] and while the first 3 cylinders were serverely damage by the chemical, by the 10 cylinder, the outflow was still good enough for EPA standards.

As I understand it, the city of Eureka California has such a sewer system, and the wild life around the city is flourishing....

[nuff sed]

Mother Earth Journal when first started was an excellent magazine with many many good articles on self sufficiency,"back to the 'old ways' methods, how to grow better crops, easier etc. Then after a few years they went off on some kind of hippie/yuppie tangeability that I didn't especially like nor appreciate so I did not renew my subscription. Two years later they wrote and pleaded for another chance.....so I renewed for another year..........Alas it was still going in the direction I didn't like. Nowadays the only time I look at it is when I am in a bookshop and scan the cover to see if there is anything to interest me. So far.....nothing.........

[Neil D]

Has anyone seen any articles or news items where if you place 6-12 inches of dirt and grow grass and shrubs on the rooftops of houses, you can effectively lower your heating bills and cool your house by 5-7 degrees?

[nuff sed]

That's fine if you have a flat roof. Kind of hard to get the lawnmower up there, however.... Why not put your home into the side of a hill completely covered with earth except for the front? No a/c nor heat system needed. It would be interesting to build your house into a natural cave. I am just sorry that I missed out purchasing an old missle silo from the government. They had a/c and even pools underground.

[Amelia]

http://www.greenroofs.com/

Mother Earth News has several articles on green roofing, this is one about sod roofing.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Home-Building/1972-11-01/The-Return-of-the-Sod-Roof.aspx

[olger]

As a roofing contractor who's been in the biddness for 24-years, those green roofs are a nightmare to repair OR diagnose. They still have some sloped sod roofs in Norway. Not too many around America.

Maybe we should get behind green roofs and buy a weedeater...?? Whaddya think?

olger

[Dr. Shane]

Cob

When Kevin McCabe built a two-storey, four bedroom cob house in England in 1994, it was reputedly the first cob residence built in the country in 70 years. His methods remained very traditional; the only innovations he added were using a tractor to mix the cob itself, and adding sand or shillet (a gravel of crushed shale) to reduce the shrinkage.

In 2006, a modern, four-bedroom cob house in Worcestershire, UK, designed by Associated Architects sold for £745 000. Cobtun House was built in 2001 and won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Sustainable Building of the Year award in 2005. The total construction cost was £300 000, but the metre-thick cob outer wall cost only £20 000.[1]

In the Pacific Northwest of North America there has been a resurgence of cob building both as an alternative building practice and one desired for its form, function and cost effectiveness. There are more than ten cob houses in the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia built by Pat Hennebery and the Cobworks workshops.

[Neil D]

This is interesting, Shane...

How much do you figure to build the shell of a 1500 sq ft home using this Cob mix?

[Dr. Shane]

All I know about it is what I have read here. Personally, I would not recommend it. Earthen houses, where a home is buried or built into the side of a hill, are energy efficient and weather resistant. From what I have read here, I am not sold on the idea of cob.

[LynnDel]

I have long been interested in rammed-earth homes. Recently ran across some papercrete sites because of my interest in making fake rocks for my yard. Imagine - You can SCULPT a house!

[Neil D]

Rammed earth homes have walls that are a minimum 24 inches thick...with itself as good insulation and strength of the home....and cheaper, supposedly....

Shane, why would you not explore it?

[Dr. Shane]

I don't know enough to speak to the issue with any expertise. My concerns are that the cod is not weather-resistant. Thew article I read said the foundation walls need to be built high and the roof needs a large overhang. Both of those are done to protect the walls from the elements. The cod is "baked" in the sun rather than in an oven or kiln. So that too would make one suspect that it is not as weather-resistant as other forms of construction.

Those living in areas subject to hurricanes, like the US Gulf coast, or earthquakes, like the US West coast, should be most concerned about the ability of such buildings to withstand the elements.

[Neil D]

Yeah, but it's also got cement to stablize the walls and keep them together....and a bit of stucco on the outside with a bit of paint, and you might not even know that it's a rammed earth home, untill you walk in....

[Amelia]

Quote:

The cod is "baked" in the sun rather than in an oven or kiln...

Personally I wouldn't eat cod that was baked in the sun.

[LynnDel]

Quote:

Quote:

The cod is "baked" in the sun rather than in an oven or kiln...

Personally I wouldn't eat cod that was baked in the sun.

I'm with you, Amelia!

Because I have read of failures in homes made of straw bales due to inadvertent composting of said bales, I am leery of any kind of building material that is susceptible to rot due to moisture. That's why a rammed earth home is tempting. But from what I have read, it is NOT cheaper to build; just cheaper to heat and cool.

[Dr. Shane]

I prefer a concrete structure enclosed with concrete or clay masonry. I am building my home of reinforced concrete masonry which is similar to what I prefer. I don't go with the concrete structure because I have never built one myself and don't want my own house to be my learning model. These types of structures are common in southern Europe and the Carribean. The are easy to cool and stand up well to earthquakes and hurricanes. I would be very concerned about a cob home in such extreme conditions.