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Cob in Wisconsin

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posted 3 years ago

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Hello!

I am new to permies.com and want to reach out to you all if you know of any cob builders in Wisconsin.

My wife and I plan to build our cob home next summer in Oxford, WI and we are looking for any experience or help. Please let me know if you or someone you know is in the area and could chat.

Thanks,
James

Mike Haasl

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posted 3 years ago

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Welcome James! You might want to post to the Wisconsin Permies thread as well, it might get more eyeballs from fellow Wisconsonites.

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Matt McSpadden

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posted 3 years ago

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Hi James,
Welcome to Permies

Unfortunately I do not know of any cob builders over there, but I did want to express a couple possible concerns. Most traditional cob building is done in warm dry climates, and Wisconsin does not exactly fit that profile.

First, I don't believe that Cob is very good insulation from cold. So you will want to make sure you have another layer either on the inside or the outside to provide that thermal break.

Secondly, if cob gets wet, it can dissolve or if it freezes it could crack. I would suggest making sure your eaves are large to try to mitigate this.

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John C Daley

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posted 3 years ago

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I have tonnes of cob experience and Cob is a widely used material.
Matt, Cob is used in many areas of cold, England, Europe , Siberia. The design used helps.
The thermal mass of cob is different to insulation, but they can be very comfortable.
AS for dissolving the clay, that is not an issue, correct choice of materials and a lime mortar plaster deals with that.
Search on this site, its well catered for.

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James Kolonko

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posted 3 years ago

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Thanks for your comments!

We are planning to have a cob interior wall, then compressed straw bales, and a stone and cob wall exterior wall. We were planning to build the stone wall up a few feet with lime plater covering the outside exposed cob wall. Also, we will have large eaves with trees to the north of the house to block the wind.

Do you think this will be sufficient or do you have more considerations? All comments welcome!

Matt McSpadden

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posted 3 years ago

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@ John,
I did not know cob was used in those areas, so I stand corrected.

In my defense, I was imagining a pure cob wall, as opposed to a stone/wood/straw wall with cob covering. I was not able to find any long lasting or common examples where cob was used by itself in a wall structure in cold/wet climates. This site (https://thecobspecialist.co.uk/restoration/cob-in-cornwall/) had some interesting information, but has some caveats to avoid problems in their climate.

They say

Cob walling was always constructed from a stone plinth….although [I hear] there have been written commentaries suggesting that some cob walls were built straight off of the ground. (Needless to say, that there may not be any surviving examples of this fashion).

and

... Whatever the height of the plinth, its primary purpose is to ensure that the base of the cob wall is suitably distanced from ground-level in order to prevent inevitable saturation and certain collapse.

My theory was that pure cob walls would not be a good fit. Using cob as part of the construction (such as with straw walls, as the OP mentions) could be a good fit.

Matt McSpadden

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Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 3 years ago

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@james
I think your description of the wall sounds like it would have a thermal break in the straw, which is good. And having the base be stone/cob/lime sounds in line with what that site was talking about how they did it in Cornwall.

John C Daley

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posted 3 years ago

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James, change the word 'cob' to adobe, mudbrick, earth block in your research, you will be surprised.

Look up building in earth.
You will see all types of construction.
I will add more details later, I need to go somewhere now.

Babs Rascal

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posted 2 years ago

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Not true.
Oh soooo many cob houses in England, Ireland, etc…. The original ones, hundreds of years old.

Look up Ianto Evans, the Irish guy that brought cob here to the US.

In a wet climate, I’d build this way in all climates, you give the house “boots & hats”, which is a 2’high stem wall and at least a 2’wide eve

Dee Dee Lorbeck

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posted 2 years ago

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I’m late to the post but look up Design Coalition in Madison, WI. Associated with Lou Host-Jablonski. He has experience with cob and straw bale builds!! In Wisconsin!!! It’s totally doable. Cob houses have been built in England for hundreds of years that are still standing and they are way more wet climate than Wisconsin.

John F Dean

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Dee Dee,

Welcome to Permies.

You can only be young once … but you can be immature forever!

John F Dean

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Babs,

Welcome to Permies.

You can only be young once … but you can be immature forever!

Kim Fairchild

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi James. I am looking at starting a straw bale house build in Wisconsin next spring, and was curious how your build went? Do you know of any cobblers in Wisconsin? Thanks, Kim

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