Johnny Cobins

polly jayne smyth wrote:

Johnny Cobins wrote:

polly jayne smyth wrote:So wonderful it makes me want to weep!!

Thank you so very much. That is the nicest thing anyone has said about my home yet.

You (and your wife) deserve it!  

I can see hard work, perseverance, talent; and then on top of that the creativity and thought you've put into planning it.  Plus I salute your extra-long bed and eventual add-ons that your children will have a voice with and hand in. Not only practical and teaches them skills and a work ethic, but also from an emotional standpoint I think your kinds will feel valued and the love so many lack.

From my heart: Bravo!  I wish I'd been able to do such a thing when I was married - it looks fulfilling.

ps. Is that an arrow?!

Yes, that is an arrow. Hahaha. Most people don’t notice it. Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll post pics soon. We just competed our first full year in the house.

Jenna Fickes wrote:Curious about the mortar mixer...

We are building hyperadobe with a pumice/clay/sand fill. We did a smaller house last summer (still finishing up the interior) - 600 sq.ft. We're doing another one starting in a couple months (similar footprint, but 2 stories).

We used a cement mixer for the last one. Considering a mortar mixer. Any sense of how it would work with pumice?

Thanks.

I think the mortar mixer will be even better than cement mixer, especially with the pumice. It it is a problem for you because the machine you use doesn’t have the torque consider removing the fins at end of paddles. I bought my machine off an equipment rental company that had been used to mix some kind of glue. To the company it ruined the mixer, but all it did in reality was grind off the plastic inserts at end of paddles. This left a gap of at least an inch in between the paddle and the barrel of the mixer. So we had, on accident, rocks that were 1,2, or even up to three inches pass thru mixer. Mine is belt driven, so when it catches it doesn’t break mixer. It just burns thru belt which is easy to replace. Plus mine had a physical clutch handle to stop the paddles. That is very helpful. Good luck.

Oops, double posted same stuff, so I edited it to have more pics. My bad. Here is kind of an ugly building, but it’s purpose is beautiful. This is the worlds first underground peyote germination facility. I was hired on by Simon Gonzalez to help on this build for a Native American church as a DEA sanctioned conservation project for the purpose of keeping this medicine available for its adherents and future generations of natives because climate change, habitat loss, and regulation have hurt the peyote ecosystem.  

R. Han, it does not have to be dry. There are cob houses in some of the most wet climates in the world like in the UK. Those houses are 300+ years old too. When you build in a wet climate make sure that the rock wall at bottom of your cob wall is high enough not to get rain splashing up on it from the ground and make sure your roof overhang is at least 18” or half a meter at a minimum. That’s called your hats and boots. Those can be at big as you need them. I built a 50 foot by 50 foot pole barn over my cob house. So my overhangs are 6ft, 9ft, 10ft, and 15.5ft. Adding bio polymers like horse poop, fermented cactus juice, wheat germ paste, and in your most extreme areas adding boiled linseed oil will give durability and water resistant to your exterior plaster. Good luck.

Here are a few recent pics of my cob house. Enjoy.

polly jayne smyth wrote:So wonderful it makes me want to weep!!

Thank you so very much. That is the nicest thing anyone has said about my home yet.

Donald Ray wrote:I want to see a pic of the deepwater pond - hole in the ground - left from all the cob from your project. And how did you mix so much cob; pic of herd of oxen stamping cob would be great too. . .

It really does seem like a lot of Cob Donald. We would not have been able to do so much if not for the mortar mixer. Vs the foot method it's like having a whole volunteer group working for you everyday. Check out this YouTube video of the mixer and the pond. I added some recent pics of the pond and some of the deeper clay deposits we are collecting from it.

Mike Feddersen wrote:Holy smokes!
You sure have created a beautiful project.
My internet is a bit slow, so I only have seen a small fraction of pictures and videos.
I think you have more artsy skill in your pinky, than I have in my whole body.
Especially liked the king bed with kid area at foot of bed, I really hated our previous home as the baby's room was three rooms away. Now that he's almost a teenager, I can appreciate separation.
Definitely will check out your YouTube channel.

Congratulations,
Mike

Thank you. I will say that I probably have plenty of art skill, but so do most people I think. The reason my home is so artistic is because I was not limited by the design of commercial materials. We love the open kitchen design. It really works for a 600-700 sqft home. The transition aids in allowing multiple different spaces to share same transition zone so that there us a synergistic effect on overall space. I have plans to expand from the 1100 sqft we have now to 1500 sqft with that addition of a master bedroom and when our kids are teens I'd like to have them build their own rooms.

Mike Feddersen wrote:You probably already addressed this somewhere, but doesn't the metal roof transfer a ton of hot and cold to your home?

Hey Mike thank you so much for your kind words and enthusiasm. Same to everyone else who has questions. Please allow a little time for reply. I thought I would answer your questions Mike with a video. It will probably show up on the YouTube channel as well. There isn't a lot about this yet, but I was thinking about buying an indoor/outdoor weather stations and post the data logs. Here's a video about how loud it is in rainstorm. I included a pic a few minutes later.

Here is ypur answer;


Here is the rain video

It has now been 3 years and we are mostly finished and living in the structure. I am currently building out the Laundry room and will soon post on this forum a couple dozen pics and 4 or 5 videos of the progress since last post here. Thank you for replying and getting me to remember. Here are a few recent pics

This is a homemade window in my cob house that Simon Gonzalez made a sculpture around. We made homemade shellac pigment paint for it. The inside is actually made from an old rusted out fire pit.