holly fairlawn

Hi all!
I posted recently about a small ~200sqft building I'm using to experiment with a few natural building techniques since I'm new to a lot of this.

I've done a lime plaster on the exterior walls and straw + clay insulation in the roof bays. Next, I'd like to cob the interior floor over the cement and round out the corners to give it a more organic feel.

Doing research about cobbing over cement foundations, I've seen some folks recommend incorporating a perlite layer first to make the ground softer.

This is an intriguing idea, because I'm planning to make a little batch stove in the corner and I've seen perlite used as a preliminary layer.

Basically, I want the floor to feel nice, look cool and be prepped for a batch heater when I have the time to stack bricks and make it happen.

Any recommendations or step-by-step guides about this?

As a bonus, any suggestions about what to do to finish the roof? I was thinking cement board + lime/sand mortar then finishing with a pigmented lime putty, but I'm open to any and all ideas. Just trying to have fun with it and learn some techniques!

Pics attached. Thanks (:

Hi everyone!

Long time lurker first time poster.
I recently purchased a property with some building skeletons on it. One of the buildings is ~200sqft and I'm using it to experiment with several techniques before pivoting to the primary abode.

One of the things I'd like to play around with is building a small rocket mass heater in the space using clay bricks, stove pipe and cob - all of which I have readily available.

I read the Ianto Evans book ~ and I have a few followup questions I'd like to pose to the permies community.

The main thing I'd like to address is the barrel. I'd prefer not to use a barrel (or at least have it exposed) for aesthetic reasons. The Ianto Evans source says you can cover the barrel with cob, but the Ernie + Erica book (which I have yet to finish) specifically says you shouldn't cover the barrel with cob completely, but instead leave some exposed. Can I use brick for the heat riser instead of a barrel and cover it completely in cob if the barrel shouldn't be covered?

Another thing is that there are some gorgeous examples of what I believe would be referred to simply as "mass heaters" online where there's a fire viewing port instead of the feed pit typical of the R.M.H and no apparent barrel, but I can't find any instructions on how to go about building them. I've attached some pictures - this would be an ideal direction for me even if it crosses a line away from a conventional R.M.H. Is anyone aware of the technical term for this design or can point me in the right direction to begin building one in this style?

Lastly, I'm attaching a photo of the corner of the space I'm looking to install one in. I'm thinking fire in the center and benches/mass flanked on either side, one along the wall and another halfway underneath the windows. I'm planning a simple sub-floor using clay slip insulation in the bays and cedar scraps for the wood floor, while installing cement board instead of wood over in the area I'm going to install the mass heater, cobbing over anything I don't fill out with stove. Do you think this is a fine idea for safety reasons?

I also have some questions about the cob, pigmentation, carving the cob for those nice wavy accents etc ~ but I suspect that's a whole world in and of itself. First things first!

Thank you everyone for sharing your wisdom. I'm so excited to get started!