Randy Lee

Do you have any links to the described "hyperadobe" technique? I would really like to read more on it.

So me and my wife are in the process of looking for our little slice of heaven to call our own and to build a Light straw clay and cob house for ourselves. The problem, which seems from reading to be similar to a lot of folks starting out, is those methods take a lot of time. And to properly site everything and plan it out, one needs to spend time on their land living. Also money is always needed, and its really hard to save when half your paycheck goes to rent every month.

So i've seen various ideas for "temporary" living accommodations that people have used such as RVs, yurts and such. We are in climate 4C, so I'm taking our very moist winters into account.

I really want to avoid building a house of traditional materials, before I build my house. It seems wasteful, and against the whole idea we've got going.

What ideas have you guys tried that might work for a family of 3 that needs to live for a year or two on their land, in an unfortunately coded area?

With thanks,
Randy

Was gifted the hand sculpted house as a Xmas gift and do have been thinking more on this... I feel if the code would approve a rubble trench foundation with a poured bond beam this becomes a bit easier to tie everything together.  I mainly plan to use LAX, tho I really want to do a large open window setup out of cob connected on the south side for my office and the wife's crafting business.

I'm very happy to read your responses and thoughts guys. They definitely help with the planning and such. I do wish there were more resources for it though.

In the realm of slab on grade foundations, how could you tie multiple slabs together? It sounds complicated, and thus expensive...

I had similar thoughts as far as the rubble trench was concerned, though I'm not sure if I can get such a foundation approved here in WA state.

I'm trying to plan the main building to have enough space that expansion wouldn't necessarily be required, while keeping the original footprint low to make it an actually feasible build... it's quite the thought process.

I was wondering if anyone could point me towards any good books/resources for planning and building a house in sections.
I.e. I will buiuld this 20X30 section, than add on this section to the left later, than addon to the right... etc?
I've looked and am having no luck. Particularly in the areas of foundation, roofs and windows...

Thanks!

Alrighty, much discussion between me and my wife continues on the house idea. So far I've gotten her to agree to a ~700sqft octagon, with a half loft. Still unsure on roofing and such. Wraparound porch, 2 bed, either 1 or 1.5 baths. Materials are still up for debate. She loves cob now, but given where we live I'm not set on it. I've been leaning more towards light straw clay with a timber frame, but drying time out here would have to be carefully planned as our seasons are wonky. I also looked at possibly doing the exterior walls with faswall for speed/ease and the interior walls with timber/cob and or wattle/cob. Still searching for a nice chunk of land which would dictate a lot.

For y'all that have self built, does a 700sqft octagon, (12 foot wall sections) sound like to large of a build for someone new? Any opinions on Faswall as an exterior wall other than it being costly?
Any plugins y'all favor for housing design in Sketchup?

Thanks!

I've been looking at the reciprocal roof idea. Though I did come across some threads here that painted them in a less than spectacular light.

So still thinking on designs and collecting information and books and running into even more questions...

Can slipform walls be used with cob?

Has anyone attempted to use post and beam framing for the roof of a circular/octagonal shaped cob house?

Anyone have suggestions for a software package thats useful for planning a cob house?

Thanks again!

So kind of staring with something like this:



Scaled down since we definitely don't need 4 bedrooms and such.
And expanding like this:



My wife and I are a big fan of that first design's central living room setup, as it would be a nice place to build a RMH and large bench.
Does this make sense?

Thanks again!