/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.195949]

Hey /diy/,

I'm interested in cob houses. Under what contexts are they feasible? I would imagine there are problems with building permits and zoning laws.

[Anonymous No.195953]

Part of the feasibility is the time vs money question.
Cob building takes a lot longer than stick framing.
Unless you're one of those "institutes" that can convince suckers to pay 100's for the privilege of doing your work, it's going to take you a long time.

[Anonymous No.196087]

>>195953
Cob can be built up 1 foot per day. Two weeks could see you with a finished house, if the weather is favorable and you've got enough people helping you.

also commencing cob house dump.

[Anonymous No.196088]

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[Anonymous No.196095]

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[Anonymous No.196098]

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[Anonymous No.196100]

[Anonymous No.196101]

>>196100
interior

[Anonymous No.196102]

>>196100
interior

[Anonymous No.196103]

[Anonymous No.196104]

[Anonymous No.196105]

last one.

[Anonymous No.196156]

Ive got a question. Ive never seen one of these IRL in my country. As gather its way cheaper to make, but takes more time (relatively).
The question is, however,
what about temperatures? My country gets down to -30 C in winters and up to +35C in summers (max points), is that a problem for these? I know we have to make, say, alphalt differently from those in countries with less difference in temperatures; would it not bother this kind of a building? Would it not start to crack or something?
Also, what about actually living in one in winter? Is it terribly hard to maintain heat from a fireplace if its -20C outside, or does it stay well? Or would it really be a summer house and only?

[Anonymous No.196159]

>>196156
It'd probably be live-able but be prepared to freeze. However, if you dig your house down a bit /into a hill etc, you get better insolation and thus make it warmer inside. Also; why not build a wooden house and then trim the outside with cob? That'd be insulated enough.

[Anonymous No.196163]

>>196156

My grandparents have enclosed summer kitchen made of cob bricks. They actually prefer to live there year round instead of their brick house. It is way warmer in the winter, since the cob hold the temperature quite well. In the summer there is no deference between the brick and the cob house in temperature. The structure is about 50 years and had little to no maintenance. The roof is bad so I can see the thing going out of business within 20 years or so.

It is nice if I have to make a qualification.

Electricity is a bitch to install, plumbing as well.

[Anonymous No.196175]

anyone got any plans to do this?

price range? material assessment?

[Anonymous No.196182]

>>196175

Nothing exact but you will have to pay for wood mainly, provided you have to buy it if not owning a forested land.

The other stuff is soil + straw.

you will have to buy lime to cover the walls

other than that you will have to buy plumbing electricity etc.

The >>196102 >>196100

costed around 3000 pounds in total so the matherials are cheep the down side is, if you have to pay for it

builders charge a lot and the cob house takes a longer time to build, so it's a trade off

[Anonymous No.196186]

>>196182
It also has literally zero resale value in most cases

[Anonymous No.196308]

>>196182
Would it be relatively easier or harder to build on you own than a brick or any other type of a normal detached house?
Would you actually NEED an educated specialist to guide the thing? Say, my great grandfather built the 2 story house that I live in and he did it mostly by himself with the help of neighbours and family.
Could it be done the same way with some basic knowledge of what stands and what will break down, and where you need to build a supporting wall?

Doing this would basically mean that the only thing besides the plumbing and that sort of shit needed to buy (in my case) would be
>lime to cover the walls
because everything else I own. W
hich is also the reason why the zero resale value is of no interest - by no chance will I ever sell my land, and the house would be on it.
Im intrigued by this idea now. Even not for a fully functioning house to live in around the year, but, say, a cheap one-floor summer house. I like this. I like this a lot actually.

>what are the main cons of a cob house then?

[Anonymous No.196309]

>>196186
why?

[Anonymous No.196329]

>>196308
A lot of the people who build these have little to no experience. If you're really unsure, you could take a workshop at a permaculture/eco living center or you could hire someone.

You could try building a few small things first to get the basics
http://transitionculture.org/2008/06/23/the-story-of-a-cob-pizza-oven-told-in-pictures/

The main cons are it can take a (very) long time and drying depends on the weather,its pretty labor intensive and if anything goes wrong, you'll have to fix it yourself, because most tradesmen won't touch it with a 10-ft pole.

[Anonymous No.196337]

>>196329
I dont quite think its all that bad where I live, plenty of crafty (by which I certainly dont mean chicks making earrings) people. Most of what has gone wrong with the current house (plumbing, leaks, roof, chimney, ceiling, changing the floor, whatever) has been fixed with the help of people we know. The only people, indeed, who are an actual service who need to do something about something are the IT. Even the electrician is a friend. God I love the countryside.
The bulding would obviously take the summer (or 2, or whatever) and time is no issue. As for labor, the countryside has the huge bonus of unemployed (yet able to do a physical job for quite a low cost) people.
> Im still trying to find a proper con!

This thing would make a great place for guests to stay, ey? It is often a problem in the house. Im am overly excited and aware of it.

[Anonymous No.196367]

>>196337
With time, available labour force, and a site, there are really zero cons to something like this.I You'll still need to look at planning regulations though, small footprint buildings are exempt in some jurisdictions but not in others.

[Anonymous No.196369]

>>196309
Because the raw materials have low relative value and it involves nonstandard / non-mainstream construction. I wish people weren't stupid enough to care, but they do.

[Anonymous No.196370]

Thanks for the info. I guess Im going to look deeper into this, and will probably do it.

[Anonymous No.196374]

>>196369
I dont believe thats quite true. I mean, you wont sell it like you would sell a massive, fancy log building, but its a house anyway. As long as it doesnt look like a hobits house (and even those, some do dig it..). I saw some examples while googling that would surely sell rather nicely. Maybe you live in a really conservative place, dear driend.

[Anonymous No.196376]

>>196374
I'm not just spouting my opinion, I am telling you objectively that any of these houses compared to a comparable cookie-cutter McMansion from a catalog are going to be relatively worthless.

[Anonymous No.196384]

>>196376
Well Im talking about houses to live in, not the ones to show off with. In fact, im not even talking about anyone who would care to buy the catalog houses. I know these would be considered worthless in comparison. Im just saying, that there are people who actually look for a roof for a reasonable house, and there are plenty of people who would get the effort put into these. Hell, I KNOW enough such people, im not guessing. It would be less expencive than, say, a brick house, surely, but thats because the costs of building are usually in the price for a new house. I mean, if a person makes a box out of gold and you make a same box out of wood... You would sell it cheaper, but not for a sandwich.

[Anonymous No.196387]

>>196384
I don't know why you made this long post in response to mine.
>I know these would be considered worthless in comparison
If that's the case, there's no reason to continue.

[Anonymous No.196391]

>>196387
Because I am procrastinating.
Also, you failed the point. Probably cause Im shit at explaining it. Oh well. Youll live.

[Anonymous No.196393]

>>196391
>you failed the point
What does that even mean? I stated that the property value of these houses is relatively zip, you seemed to protest somehow, but you also mentioned that you understood my point. I don't understand what you're missing.

[Anonymous No.196394]

>>196393
i dont even know anymore.
Have a lovely day.

[Anonymous No.196396]

>>196394
you too

[Anonymous No.196402]

I saw a program a while ago where people stacked hay bales up as walls, anchored them with spikes, then covered the bales with adobe or some other dirt material. They were able to shape the hay with chain saws and get really cool organic shaped buildings. I would imagine this would be much easier than making a shit ton of cob bricks.

[brent No.196406]

I've been interested in this, but I really don't like the nonstandard appearance. I want a traditional brick or wood house appearance on the outside--meaning square geometry and such. Rounded, "organic" shapes don't appeal to me, and probably detract from the value of the house.

[Anonymous No.196410]

>>196406
takes a bit more effort, i reckon. But not impossible, right?

< this exterior is what Id be ok with. It has rounded shapes, but it doesnt look designed by a retard.

[Anonymous No.196416]

>>196410
I need more sleep. The pic.

[Anonymous No.196418]

>>196402
Yes this is certainly possible, and straw-bale with a layer of cob is often used, referred to usually as (imaginatively) bale-cob.

[Anonymous No.196419]

>>196416

that has structural elements other than cob

[Anonymous No.196424]

>>196406
I think something like >>196095 is getting close to a 'normal' house. I think getting it to look like a conventional house is really more of a case of how much more work you put into it. There will still be some limitations inherent in the material.

[Anonymous No.196427]

>>196424
But you could always mix the materials, no? Say, a few bits made of a different material in order to make it look like a proper house (shape-wise) and coat it all with the samelayer and voila. Surely that wouldn't be a sin?

[Anonymous No.196433]

>>196427
Yeah of course, there's nothing to say you cant use bricks or wood structurally or whatever else you want to do. The attraction for a lot of people with using just cob is price and how easy it is, as well as not needing precise tolerances like conventional materials

[Anonymous No.196444]

>>196433
It is still way cheaper anyway though. Plus it looks much better.

[brent No.196447]

>>196433
This one looks quite nice in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.196518]

I don't know where OP is from, but adobe houses are found all throughout the American West and Southwest. I lived in several when I lived in Santa Fe. We didn't have airconditioning in Summer and only forced air heating in Winter and we were plenty comfortable. The buildings have huge thermal mass so they hold the daytime winter heat all through the night and the nighttime summer coolness all through the day. They are particularly suited to climates that have cool summer nights and warm winter days.
Every State west of Texas (including Texas) has w working construction code for mud brick structures, although in seismically active answers the answer is "No." I know they are built in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
They're common and the trades are thoroughly familiar with them because they've been building with them forever (literally.)
There are some very luxurious homes built from Adobe.

[Anonymous No.196533]

>>196518
Sorry, that should read "seismically active areas."

[Anonymous No.196538]

From the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_%28material%29
> Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity
> From 2002 to 2004, sustainability enthusiast Rob Hopkins initiated the building of a cob house for his family ... but destroyed by an unknown arsonist shortly before completion.

Fireproof
Arson

[Anonymous No.196822]

>>196518
I dont know the OP, but someone else monitoring this thread is from a place with no notable - or even noticeable, in fact - seismic activity whatsoever. Feelsgoodman.