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Cobwood Interior Walls

Sherry Willis

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Location: Farmington Missouri

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So my husband and I have been brainstorming about what we'd like to do for our interior walls in our earth bag house. At first, we thought maybe just earth bags, but the house is under 400 square feet so we decided the earth bags would take too much interior space. We also considered a framed wall with light straw/clay. That is certainly an option. However, I was thinking that a post and beam support system with a thin cobwood infill might look really nice and would keep us out of the hardware stores.

We have a friend who is clearing a large lot of cedar and would sell us smallish trees very reasonably. We also have some cedars on our property that we may cut anyway.

Some questions:

How thin can a cobwood wall be?

How long should the cedar dry?

If we used it green, what would happen?

Any other ideas for a natural interior wall?

Thanks so much!

Here's the shape of the house. The squigly green lines are the interior walls:

Spiral.jpeg

Farmington MO - Zone 6b

An Idea without Action is just a Wish.

J Hillman

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Location: Northern Wisconsin Zone 3B

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Is wattle and dob an option?

Sherry Willis

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Location: Farmington Missouri

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J Hillman wrote:Is wattle and dob an option?

Yes!! I never thought about that. It would be a great way to make a really thin wall. Not as pretty as cobwood though...

Farmington MO - Zone 6b

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Cristobal Cristo

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Location: Sierra Nevada foothills, 350 m, USDA 8b, sunset zone 7

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Sherry,

You made fire/insect proof walls outside, so I would continue with the same approach inside.
You could just use regular bricks to build either solid wall or lattice wall that you could fill with cob.

Sherry Willis

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Location: Farmington Missouri

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Cristobal Cristo wrote:Sherry,

You made fire/insect proof walls outside, so I would continue with the same approach inside.
You could just use regular bricks to build either solid wall or lattice wall that you could fill with cob.

Hmmmm.... not sure we have the skills or the foundation for brick.... Our wall foundation will be rubble trench/gravel bags. Don't bricks require a concrete foundation?

Sherry

Farmington MO - Zone 6b

An Idea without Action is just a Wish.

Cristobal Cristo

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Location: Sierra Nevada foothills, 350 m, USDA 8b, sunset zone 7

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People were building for thousands of years without concrete foundations with various masonry so I think concrete is not needed, but it's convenient and quite fool-proof. Rubble trench with 6" concrete on top would also work.
Other option could be post and beam with cob or brick infill.

Roberto pokachinni

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You a best to dry your wood, but it's not as critical for interior walls. The wood will check, but that could be a character feature. You can always fill in the cracks with moss, or clay, or plaster.

If the interior walls are not supporting the roof at all, you can probably go pretty thin, like 6 inches. This would be more likely to be effective if you are really true about your vertical plane being kept plumb, and if you add nice framing and bracing through it it will be much stronger as a unit. Same could be said for the wattle an daub that someone mentioned. You can make W&D really attractive with the right accent pieces purposefully protruding from your plaster-like surface. With either of these, you could have coat hangers, towel racks, and all sorts of shelving come right out as part of the wall. The sky is the limit. Let your artist-self explore the opportunity.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller

Roberto pokachinni

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Location: Fraser River Headwaters, Zone3, Lat: 53N, Altitude 2750', Boreal/Temperate Rainforest-transition

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The wood will shrink in diameter as well, so if your wood is not dried, leave the finishing job until that happens.

Aaron Yarbrough

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Location: Austin, Texas

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We infilled 2x4 stud walls with cob for our cottage build. To provide a mechanical key we fastened 1x2s in the to the center of each stud.

My suburban building and homesteading blog https://offgridburbia.com/

Sherry Willis

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Location: Farmington Missouri

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Thank you so much everyone!

I love the look of cobwood, which is why I was inquiring.

The walls will not be load-bearing at all.

I think if we do anything else, it would be to do conventional framing and use light straw/clay as our infill. We have done a shed with that, so we're familiar with the technique and know we can use our local soil as is for the clay slip.

Farmington MO - Zone 6b

An Idea without Action is just a Wish.

Roberto pokachinni

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Location: Fraser River Headwaters, Zone3, Lat: 53N, Altitude 2750', Boreal/Temperate Rainforest-transition

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Another option would be to do a mix. cobwood on the bottom few feet and maybe creeping up in places for effect; waddle and daub and straw clay in the upper parts.

Sherry Willis

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Location: Farmington Missouri

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Roberto pokachinni wrote:Another option would be to do a mix. cobwood on the bottom few feet and maybe creeping up in places for effect; waddle and daub and straw clay in the upper parts.

That would definitely be cool!

Farmington MO - Zone 6b

An Idea without Action is just a Wish.

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