is my clay soil ok to cob with?

Hey hey hey folks!

Hope ye are all in good form and progressing along with your projects.

I am about to start my second compost toilet and want to use the clay soil I have on my land. The problem I have is that there is plenty of stones in my soil. Is this still OK to make cob with? The thoughts of removing the stones has me breaking out in a cold sweat!

Thanks

Stuie

It depends on what you are going to build with the cob. For fine finish work or small-scale thin layers, you need to screen out anything bigger than 1/4" or 1/2" more or less. For mass walls, I have found that my clay (which is at least 50% stones, gravel and sand) works fine as is with only the largest stones removed.