COB to Renovate an Old Log Frame Shed?

Hi,

I'm new to Permies. ~Waving~

I live in the forest on a few acres in an almost 100 yr old log cabin in the foothills of CO, outside of Denver.

I deal with constant projects around here and am so glad I found this resource.

I have multiple outbuildings and barns that are more than half a century old. I want to renovate a bunch of them into rodent resistant spots that I can use as year round workrooms and hang out areas. I'd also like to upgrade the barns to be better insulated for my animals.

I'm trying to do all this on as close to a $0 budget as possible and with my lone 2 hands. I'm a 50 yr old gal who does most of the projects myself.

I was wondering if I can maybe retrofit cob into these buildings. Most are cinder block foundation,log and lumber framed and have plywood exteriors. Some have a layer of plywood interior wall.  

I was thinking maybe keep the buildings' skeletons and the outside plywood walls then inside maybe use pallets stuffed with straw (or use rockwool batting) and then cob mud seal it all in n do an earth floor? Or is that a terrible idea? 😹😁😹

Thank you for any thoughts
Chris

Welcome to Permies, Chris!
Your situations sounds really interesting! Permies is full of people with creative solutions to all kinds of challenges, so I am sure you'll get some great feedback here.

Many photos will help us a lot.

Hi folks
Thanks for the welcome and replies.

Here are some images of the first building I want to do. It's the former goat milking barn. The log look on the outside is very old log slice siding.

I've started to demolish the inside a bit and now can see what was behind the walls of patchwork plywood.

I also took a picture of the "floor". Most of it is dirt and that one spot under the windows and door is wood that's secured to something (I'm thinking the bottom of the wall frame.

I lastly shared a pic of the larger former goat house structure this one is adjacent to. I'd love to do that too eventually.

I figured I could start with that room and then spread into doing that whole building area as it's a nice large space and I don't have goats anymore cuz the forest ate them.

Right now several chickens are in there because the 2 roosters started fighting so I had to quickly split the flock (hence the netting) and get one rooster and a few hens with him outta the main coop and into there temporarily cuz it was easy .

😁 Chris

More pics of inside and around the outside

😊 Chris

Wow, you have an interesting challenge there. Chris!
Rather than lining the buildings with pallets stuffed with straw which are likely to become rodent motels if they get inside, I wonder if using the plywood you're going to remove as formwork for packed strawclay infill walls which you finish with a lime or cob plaster would be more rodent resistant?
There's an excellent thread showing someone building a house on the foundations of an old stone ruin who used strawclay, but I can't find it!

Hi Jane ,

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll start looking into that technique.

Unique challenges for sure.  I've got dozens of them around here 😹

Have a great day!
Chris

I have something similar with the outbuildings on my homestead, which I'm slowly working on as I can. It's a long way away and I can't move there full-time for a few years yet, which complicates things more.

Living right there in the middle of the challenges like you do can be so tough, and it also offers advantages.

The main thing I keep telling myself is that it doesn't all need to be done at once. Get one thing done, then another, then another.